There's a first time for everything; What is love?

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So, this was my first ever actual opera exposure, and I feel like I have missed so much in life! My response was just..whoa. In the beginning of Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, I was thoroughly confused as to what was going on with the acting, testos, and characters singing down front, but towards the middle I started to catch on. I thought it was performed well, but then again I have no real background knowledge of operas.

La Serva Padrona was my favorite. I never knew operas could be comedic (excluding it being mentioned in class), and I absolutely loved it! It was a bit difficult to keep turning to read along with paying close attention to facial expressions and such though. Nevertheless, it was wonderful. The storyline of this opera made me think back to "love" in those times in comparison to love in modern times. It confuses me to think that on a realistic level, something along the lines of the plot could have really occurred. Is that truly what they thought love entailed? Or did people simply accept that it was the best that could be? I wish I could answer this because it really saddens me to think about this being what people called "love". I have no idea how we evolved from that form of love to the modern. No matter how it came to be, I am thankful that it is nothing like this (for the most part) today.

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