The liberation continues. Without internet, I was able to go to bed last night before midnight (a rarity for me in any part of the world). Unfortunately, however, this did not affect my wakeup time as I overslept by 30 minutes. Luckily I was only 5 minutes late for school.
In intermedie 2 we have been covering a lot of more difficult tenses and rules such as the congiuntivo (4 different sub-tenses), combined pronouns, and today we did a more complex form of the imperative tense. I finally decided to enroll in the art history course, led by the same teacher who brings us on all of those wonderful free tours to churches I have been raving about, and I start on Thursday with a tour of the Uffizi (from Leonardo to Caravaggio). I’m excited!
Last night I decided on the spur of the moment to inquire about seats for an opera happening tonight. I reserved a spot and tonight I went to see Verdi’s La Traviata for the first time. This performance and venue were unique in that it took place in a church (St. Mark’s Anglican Church to be exact), the sole accompaniment was a piano, and the acts were condensed to only contain the main arias. There were 4 performers: a soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano, and baritone. The set was plain and the audience sat close to the action. At first my seat to the right with an obstructed view, but since there were some no-shows I got “upgraded” to second row centre.
I bought a program since the only thing I knew about the plot was that it was tragic. It ended up being very similar to the story of Moulin Rouge! In fact, both were based on the story La dame aux camélais by Alexandre Dumas. A young man (Alfredo) falls in love with a courtesan (Violetta) who does not wish to be in love. She cannot resist him and they go to live a blissful few months in the countryside. Alfredo’s father goes to Violetta in secret and begs her to leave his son since she is ruining their family’s reputation. She writes a cold parting note to him and returns to Paris. They see each other at a ball and in a fit of anger, Alfredo throws a bunch of money at Violetta to pay her for their time together. He wounds Violetta’s date, the baron, in a duel and flees France. While he’s away, Violetta’s already fragile health weakens with tuberculosis. Alfredo’s father reveals the truth to Alfredo and he arrives just in time to say one last goodbye.
I knew a few of the arias from listening to recordings of Maria Callas, most of which were sung in the first act. But what can I say about this production? You get what you pay for. I only paid 15 euros because of a student discount (normal price is 30) and it’s full of tourists. The male voices for me were much better than the female. The soprano who played Violetta did not have the crisp delivery I was used to hearing in a theatre and at many times I thought she wasn’t going to hit some of the high notes. The tenor had a smooth and wonderful voice, as did the baritone. The mezzo-soprano had very few lines. And as I mentioned, the opera was condensed and there was no orchestra, so I did not get to experience it in full (a good excuse to see it again somewhere else). At the end there was a standing ovation and, not wanting to cave to peer pressure, I stayed seated since I honestly didn’t feel it was deserving of one. Am I becoming an opera snob? Were my expectations too high? Yes and yes, perhaps, but after witnessing some fantastic Met productions in HD, in addition to operas in theatres (Vancouver, UBC, La Scala, Arena di Verona, Teatro degli Arcimboldi, the Met), I could not feign awe and stand up when I had stood up for some truly impressive performances in the past. Call it a case of cognitive dissonance. But it was a nice cultural experience and a good way to showcase opera to tourists and students. I’ll give it that. It was an intimate performance with singers who could act, a narrator whose humour helped fill up the breaks, and a very skilled pianist (who happened to be quite good looking). Next time though, I’m going to pay a bit more to see a production in a theatre.
Good news: I didn’t fall asleep!
Today’s word of the day is traviata, loosely meaning "the fallen woman".
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