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| Anna Netrebko in Lucia di Lammermoor Photo Credit: Met Website |
I know Moiya is.
And some brave families can sit their children down for an act.
Maybe two.
Rebecca will have watched it unless there is something pressing on her agenda.
So here goes my list of thoughts about the opera. I thought the opera streaming through metopera.org tonight was Eugene Onegin, so I went out to wiki and read up on it.
Imagine my surprise when Lucia di Lammermoor started playing. I couldn’t remember anything about it and I was wondering if I had ever seen it before. Then I remembered that I saw it for my first time via Wyona’s generosity. She knew that seniors could have discounted seats if they would line up at 5 pm the night of an opera performance at London’s Paladium. We got three seats, two together and one apart. I took the single which was about 6 rows from the front of the stage. When I sat down the woman said, “You are sitting in my husband’s seat.” I pulled out my ticket stub to check and then I showed it to her. She said, “Well, he couldn’t come tonight, so we turned the ticket back in and now the opera gets the extra money for it. Still, it is my husband’s seat.” I didn’t disagree with her and I enjoyed the opera as much as if it had been my own seat. So that is how I saw my first Lucia, the opera with the longest mad scene for a woman.
2. I loved today’s screening. When it was done my eyes felt as though they had been crying for a long time. Dry, with no tears left. And now for the totally mundane which will be more typing than the typing that the glorious music got. I just cried over it.
3. First of all, I loved the guy in the chorus who was dressed up, but had his half-reading glasses on. I don’t know if they had half-reading glasses in that period, but he looked dashing in his.
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| Lucia di Lammermoor Act I ... ghostly Spectre walks by to the well ... |
Anyway, to go to the mundane, what did you think about the red jewelry of the heroine – hanging ruby earrings, a red broach and then I could see the sparkling red jewels in the back of her hair. I know they were fake but they were so gorgeous. I don’t think even Wyona’s jewelry case could come up with all of that – matching.
5. The introduction by Natalie Dessay pointed out that we were going to see opera’s longest mad scene for a woman. Having seen this show live in London, and then I had seen this HD production back in 2009, I was prepared to take close note of how a woman (in opera) goes mad. The opera gave us everything. That forewarning when red ink spilled out on her brother’s writing table. Then her blood splattered gloves and white dress. The make-up people have put a gash half way around her throat, and when Lucia took the dagger and the curve ran down the left side of her face, it lined up visually with her throat in a curving “s” shape. Blood, so graceful. I guess this is why I think opera does it larger and better than any other art form.
6. I am sure that Wyona didn’t get to watch the opera. She has been busy sewing for a few days. But for those of us who love sewing and beautiful material, when the camera did a close-up for us of the lace in that wedding dress, I wanted to gasp for its exquisite beauty. Just that material in that moment – I will never have material like that, a dress like that, but I love it that the opera gave it to me visually.
7. I think it is in the mad scene where Lucia has a duet with a flute. First there is a call and response section, and then she sings a two part duet with a flute. That melody just floated on the air.
8. I loved the chorus, all dressed up for the wedding dance after the wedding itself. I looked at the singers – tall women, short women, middle aged women, no young women, old women, some with fragile looking bodies, wrinkly-faced singers, -- their skin looked something like mine and they were outfitted to the nines with jewelry and wigs. Now the opera singers in the chorus are having a good life. Almost as good as if they were retired. That song went too quickly for me. I am sure on another viewing I could write a whole essay on that scene.
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Photo Credit: Met Website
Opera Poster |
10. On the metaphor of the veil – no matter how thin the material, the metaphor remains heavy in this opera. A woman who represents two houses being joined. A woman whose value to her brother is in the value of her marriage contract. We get the Biblical image of the veil being torn asunder. In some cultures a woman's head is to be covered in church (that comes from the New Testament in my culture). How could the visual of that metaphor be wrapped up and carried along in all of that beautiful music?
11. What do opera singers do with their spare time? Answer: Do push -ups. Talking about singing from a number of positions – on their knees, their sides, their backs, planking on one arm, ….
12. When the end of the show was over, or when a good trio or aria finished, there was thunderous clapping and some whistling. Whenever I hear that shrill whistle that comes from putting two fingers under the tongue and blowing on them (something I have never been able to achieve), I think of my sister, Moiya, and wonder if she is at the opera.
13. Well, one last thing. Rebeca? Do you know when you do some pre-event work with your kids and you have them learn ten famous sayings that they might hear during the course of a Shakespeare play? Well, I have never thought to do that with the opera lyrics. But here are two for you. I could ask the question from what opera do you hear the following lines. Of course, the answer is Lucia di Lammermoor. Here are the quotes, anyway and sometime later I will ask you to identify them. Of course the prize will be the same. One dollar per correct answer:
“She will never see the sun set on this day.”
“Love has robbed her of all reason.”
14. Just when I think I have said all I wanted to say one more thing pops into my head. We see the spectre of a woman who has been cast down a well – a ghostly spectre from a story within the opera story. On the stage we watch the spectre walk by and descend again into the well. Later we see Lucia in the same ghostly form while Edgardo is dying – she is in the same form as the other woman– neither of the two women look like heaven is treating them very well. The colour palette of heaven is pretty pale if I can judge by Lucia di Lammermoor. I am not looking forward to the heavenly space they entered.
Still, all hail Donizetti.
And if a person wants to schedule opera for next week and likes Wagner, here is what they will see see:
"The Wagner Society of New York has revealed that the Met Opera’s next schedule of nightly streams will center on the operas of Wagner. A Wagner Festival, if you will. The schedule is set to kick off on March 23 with “Tristan und Isolde,” followed by the Ring Cycle, “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” and “Tannhäuser.” (1)Arta
