By class time on Wednesday, I had only read a portion of Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead. After reading this much of the novel, I was very interested to see how the story would transfer onto stage. It was very difficult to imagine how Janacek could possibly transform this story into an opera. The performance was not at all what I had anticipated based on my prior knowledge of the opera. In class, Professor Bergman mentioned that we might find ourselves waiting for the song to start, and I caught myself doing this just a few minutes into the performance. It was a totally new experience, which made me realize that an opera and a musical are so completely different. Overall, I enjoyed the performance, but I would have to say my favorite portion of the performance was the monologue of Akulka's Husband. The main character really caught my attention and I was really moved by how emotionally powerful the performance was. I could see the music as more than just "background noise" supporting the vocals in this performance most clearly. The softness and serenity of the music, when paired with such a violent and emotionally intense words, displayed Akulka's place in the story. I think it really displayed her innocence and how loving she must have been. It was difficult to recognize the music as independent from the lyrics at times. I tried to seperate the two, but at times I really just felt as though the music was intended to accompany the lyrics of the actors. Considering the story has been called "plotless," I thought that Janacek did an excellent job of selecting small portions of the novel in order to fit a more conventional story layout. I felt like the ending was a bit abrupt, though, and I would have liked to have seen more individual stories portrayed, but I suppose that could also make the performance too lengthy and some viewers may be lost. I have continued reading the novel because I have become truly fascinated by the lives of these prisoners. I think the novel, and the performance are so truly human, and I really enjoy that. Although the reading is a bit difficult at times because of the repetition and sometimes drawn-out nature of story telling, I still am motivated to keep reading in order to learn more about the characters and their struggles.