A Night at the Opera

April 20, 2004 by
Filed under: Fancy Shmancy, Music 

As some of you know, I have season tickets to the Trenton Titans minor league hockey team. My wife often accompanies me to the 30+ games per season. As compensation, I am expected to take her to an opera at least once a year.

This Friday, I will be going with her to the Trenton War Memorial to see the Boheme Opera Company‘s production of The Barber of Seville.

Now to be totally honest, this isn’t that much of a burden to me. Back in my youth, I was a somewhat accomplished musician. As a percussionist, I auditioned for and made the New Jersey All-State Band three years and the All-State Orchestra once. I love all sorts of music, including Classical. I also have some experience with the theatre, having been my high school’s Lighting Director for 2 years and therefore doing stage crew work all 4 years.

Besides, opera music is Cartoon music! (see also Rabbit of Seville)

This trip is not my first experience with opera. We went to see a production last year of Tosca at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ on January 23rd, 2003. This was more like a cartoon than opera. Click to continue reading.

First, it was really cold outside. I mean REALLY cold. It was 9 degrees F at the time we left home – it was 2F when we left the theater at the end of the show.

The show was presented by the Russian State Opera. I believe that the New Brunswick show was their first appearance after coming to the US for this tour.

I noticed the first mistake early on – two identical-looking doors stage right and left were switched. That allowed the audience to see the jack holding up the flat through the open door. A minor technical mistake – not the end of the world.

The supertitles were comical. These are English words projected above the stage proscenium so that we Philistines who don’t speak Italian (or Russian for that matter) can follow the dialogue. Unfortunately, they got rather out of sync with the production. At one point, they were 2 to 3 minutes AHEAD of the action on stage. They also fell a few minutes behind at a few points.

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With most opera productions, you have experienced soloists. This was true of the Russian Opera Company’s production as well. However, that makes the soloists a little, shall we say “long in the tooth” for their parts. That was clearly the case in this production. The part of Marco Cavaradossi as the artist (tenor) was played by a man who had to be well into his 40’s if not older. The part of the young beauty Floria Tosca (soprano) was played by a woman of … let’s say …. immense proportions.

In the 2nd act, at one point Marco is brought onto the stage by soldiers to face the evil Baron Scarpia (baritone), chief of the secret police. He is brought to center downstage and forced to kneel. He bends his head down towards the audience. In this production, the tenor’s wardrobe failed, and the back half of his toupee flopped down and hung there, folded over. Feeling the wind (I suppose), he immediately arched his back and straightened up, fixing the problem.

Realize that most of the audience is made up of people who are willing to pay money to see an opera in the freezing cold in January on a Thursday night. In other words, older people (or if not older, highly cultured). The audience tried really hard to hold back the laughter, and managed just a snicker.

A few minutes later, Scarpia crosses to a large window upstage center. This window was a box window, enclosed in a huge flat that had to be 10 feet wide by at least 20 feet tall. The window had shutters and had been opened and closed a few times prior to this point. When Scarpia opened it so that Tosca could hear the sounds of the street, the flat started to go. Scarpia exited.

Tosca (the soprano) was stage left. The window flat ever so slowly tipped forward towards the audience, and landed with a crash. The window box splintered and debris spread over a several-foot circle. The flat also broke a chair that it hit on the way down. Tosca was well clear of the destruction and started her aria right on cue. As this happened, the audience gasped audibly.

The mayhem wasn’t quite over yet. A soldier later runs onto the stage summoned by Scarpia. In this case, the soldier ran in and slipped on some debris from the window, falling on his backside.

Nobody was hurt. However, this has got to be the opera performance most like a hockey game that I’ve ever heard of!

This article in the Lawrence, Kansas website is the only Internet reference that I can find to this debacle.

Barber of Seville, eh? Bring ’em on, Bugs!

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Comments

2 Comments on A Night at the Opera

  1. whfropera on Sat, 22nd Oct 2005 9:04 pm

    2. I was prepping my show and saw your site – rock on with your operatic self!!

    ~wod~

  2. Il Barbiere di Seviglia : Mark Time on Mon, 19th Jan 2009 3:30 pm

    3. […] who have read my story of a previous trip to the opera (A Night at the Opera) are probably wondering if any unplanned hilarity occured. I have to disappoint you on that score – […]

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