definition of "mad skillz"

Opera singers are amazingly talented people. I have decided this because I am a distinguished opera connoisseur.

OK, I tell a lie. I'm neither distinguished nor a connoisseur.

However, it is in fact true that opera singers are amazing.

For the longest time (did anyone else start singing the Billy Joel song in their head just now?), I held the assumption that I didn't like opera. Screaming people, foreign language, crazy makeup... None of it added up to a fun time, in my humble-yet-ignorant opinion. (This despite an elementary-age field trip to a special educational opera thing in Detroit of which I have only vague recollections - clearly I was too busy doing mad libs on the bus to absorb the cultural experience of the day. Sigh...)

However, I must say that in recent years I've become a bit of a convert. Studying and learning about opera as an undergrad student (which I guess is not so recent anymore - yikes, I'm old) increased my understanding for and appreciation of it. And somewhere along the line I started to really dig it. (Groovy, man.)

Last year I went to a simulcast of the Met at a local movie theater.

It.

Was.

Amazing.

Absolutely, positively, un-be-freaking-lievable.

Certainly not all operas are created equal. A story that resonates with one person may fall flat with another, and a composer whose work speaks to me may not at all speak to you. However, the sheer talent of these performers cannot be denied! Not only do they sing some amazing stuff, they do it completely in character while dancing or crawling across a table or being lifted off the ground or any number of other things. I couldn't even pretend to sing any of that stuff while standing still, let alone while in motion. Opera has everything - vocal music, instrumental music, visual art, dance, drama.... There is something particularly powerful about the synthesis of all the fine arts. Their combined effect supersedes any language barrier. (Although I'm not gonna lie - subtitles are my friend!)

Now, I definitely can't claim to be an opera fanatic. To this point in my life, I have seen very few full-length operas, and with the exception of that old-school field trip, I think they've all been televised (yay for The Met on PBS!) or, in the one instance, simulcasted on a HUGE screen. Not exactly the resume of a hard-core opera buff! But at least I actually watch and enjoy them now, instead of thinking about my next mad lib...