by Alexis Fisher

Earlier this month, a group of students and Arts Ambassadors went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) to see the opera The Diary of the One Who Disappeared. It first premiered in the Czech city of Brno in 1921. It has since been reimagined by Belgian director Ivo van Hove who adds a modern twist to this classic song cycle.

I particularly loved the way that light was used throughout the production. The walls and ceiling of the set are porous and perforated with oval-shaped holes. This allows for light to shine through and illuminate the stage in different ways. It was an extremely creative way to shift from different times of the day as well as to emphasize certain parts of the song cycle. Further, all of the singers were intensely passionate. While I don’t speak Czech, their passion was easily translated, even if their words were not.

Before the show started, we spent some time with some other college students and BAM friends at the “Pre-Game.” This is a new program that BAM has rolled out to engage college students before the events and to create community. We hung out in the gallery before the opera, talking about events coming up at BAM, the history of the theatre, as well as about our expectations about what we would be seeing.

Photos by Teresa Sadowska

Up next at BAM Pregame: Pepperland, Mark Morris Dance Company’s exuberant homage to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. May 8-11 (Pregame event on Thu. May 9). Click here for more info.