Reflection week 8

This week’s UC common event of Salome was really interesting to me. I had never been to an opera before, so it was a new experience. I suppose that was the point of making it the UC event, because the majority of students had never seen an opera before either. The plot of the opera, while disturbing in nature, was exciting to follow. Although the opera was sung in German, the sur-titles made it easy to understand what was going on. The problem was dividing my attention between the action on the stage and the sur-titles above it. Many times, I found myself just listening and watching the action unfold and ignoring the sur-titles entirely. Even though this meant that I couldn’t have an exact translation, the music and actions of the characters meant that I understood the general plot nonetheless. The music and expressions on the stage served as a bridge between languages, facilitating understanding without using words.