Singing and playin -. I mean, it's MET Opera, it's as good as it gets. The singers were all fabulous. Violetta's aria in the first act is tremendous. It was at that point I felt that my 24.50$ spent was worth the price of admission, and I hadn't even scene the 2nd act.

The Opening - You walk into the hall. There's no curtain, the stage is lit. It's a minimalist stage set, the only prop is a large clock that leans against the wall on the left side. There's a bench that runs along the wall encircling the stage. At the end of the bench a man sits, extremely still. I thought it was a mannequin for 20 minutes. Then you find your seat (or standing position) and start fingering through the playbill. When Violetta enters, stumbling, drunk, with that vibrant dress on, you know you're in for an interesting show. The opening party scene is quite the affair as well.

Unnecessary symbolism: I mention at the beginning, (this is probably specific to this production), that there is a man sitting on the stage as you enter the hall. And he stays there till shortly into the beginning of opera. He was used throughout as some sort of symbol. I think they brought him up as an additional 'hey guys, this opera is a tragedy, she's going to die' symbol, a 'cruel fate' if you will. It wasn't necessary at all. In fact, I thought it messed with what was going on on stage sometimes. The clock also played a symbol, but not nearly as obfuscating as the man.

This ends the review, I'll give some additional notes about purchasing tickets and the standing room experience below. Did you enjoy this review?

Subsequently I went with the next option, standing room only in the orhestra. It's 24$. The positives, you get a rail to lean on while you watch, it's not completely exhausting. You also get your own subtitle screen in the rail. Every seat and standing spot has one, just push a button and blamo, subtitles. I think they have them in English, Spanish, French, Chinese probably ...

It's a little annoying to look down from the stage and back up at the stage. But you don't do it constantly (they repeat a lot of things in opera, and the subtitles never came up for repeated verbage).

The other problem with standing room is your in the back. The ushers move around occasionally during the acts, which was distracting at the start of the first act. People who leave early also pass through, and the air tended to blow in every time the door opened. Most of this is easy to ignore though. They lock you in, they actually have a strap that they pull across the aisles so you can't get out, ha ha. They don't want standing room people to nab the abandoned 90$ and up orchestra seats just ahead of them I take it, not that there were any to nab tonight. It was almost entirely sold out.

Oh, most important thing if you intend to attend the opera. DON'T BE LATE. They threatened to arrest one lady who was trying to hold the door open as the 2nd act was getting underway, (she was holding it for someone who was in the bathroom.) They are serious when they say no one gets in after the show/act starts.