Through the reading of the Parable of the Sower and then having the opportunity to attend the opera on Friday night, I was anxious as to how Toshi would portray such a complex plot into a simple opera. I was impressed with the performance and was even more so thrown off by the sense of comedic relief that was portrayed at times throughout the opera. Stemming from the initial reading, I was most intrigued by the presence of climate change and the look into a future with a breakdown in society, largely in part to climate change induced natural disasters. Lauren takes such an awareness to climate change and how it affects people, to the point she creates her own religion called Earthseed which is open to adapting to changes in order to find ways to survive in the changing world. Seeing Lauren and younger individuals deal with the affects of climate change reminded me of Greta Thunberg and her School Strike for Climate Change movement that began in 2018 in Sweden. Heatwaves and fires ...
Going into the Opera, I did not know what to expect since I have never been to an opera before. I was also curious to see how the book would be translated into this type of performance. I was immediately impressed with the strong vocals from the cast. I got chills the minute they started singing because of how good they all were. I also thought it was interesting how the stage was set up. The semi-circle set up of the benches made it so the audience felt part of their world. Besides that, there was also the white fabric hanging from the ceiling and some colorful art on the projector in the background. Since the main focus was the songs and the message of the songs, I thought for the most part the songs were really well done. They kept me engaged and made me experience the story in a unique way. I especially loved when the songs were a little bit more rock. I felt a stronger emotional connection with the text since I was hearing it be sung out loud with s...