A Night At The Opera

"Nabucco" at the Arena di Verona.

This is my other half preparing to be sung at very loudly for hours on end. It was very hot, and rather tiring after a 2am start the previous day. We took the correct medical advice and plied ourselves with water, washed down with a beer. Or two.

Being posh, we had a Merc taxi drive us, and only us, from where we were staying on Lake Garda to Verona. It wasn't supposed to be that way but the others had all pulled out. 

We had the taxi and the guide to ourselves. They had to wait seven hours until we were ready to be driven home.

The magnificent 2500 year old amphitheatre. It's the biggest outdoor music venue in the world. Just the walk through Verona was electric, with VIP cars, red carpets, TV crews, the rich and famous.

(We were told to go round the back.)

The British know how to queue. We are very good at it.

Some others- not so much.

The stage.  There was a TV crew, a very thin woman and a handsome man doing pieces to camera, the sound man creeping sideways as the cameraman walked backwards--making sure nobody tripped over anything. Walking backwards is a talent of cameramen,  and soccer referees.

A patient had told me to take a cushion or buy a special cushion. They had suffered a severe attack of haemorrhoids after sitting on the stone seats for 4 hours.

We had proper seats, and had our jackets to sit on. 

Awaiting the VVVIPs.

We had read about Nabucco. There were two songs I could hum.

Here's what Wikipedia says...

 ""Nabucco," composed by Giuseppe Verdi, tells the dramatic story of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and the plight of the Israelites during their captivity. It's an Italian opera in four acts that  premiered in 1842. "

We had read the plot. Got a bit confused.

Dave Magayna and Sue Werber, stalwarts of the MIE firmament, had both said 'get a handle on it'. (I paraphrase)

So I drew pictures, acted it out by interpretive dance and recited it to the dog.

We did our homework.

Israelites, slaves etc.

It started with a spaceship.

This young lady came out 15, 10 and 5 minutes before kick off.

She banged her gong in a very elaborate way.

And got a huge round of applause.

The gates opened at 7. The opera started at 9.30.

It was over thirty degrees, not a breath of air.

Things got going when the spacemen arrived.

                                       

We got this bit.

Lots of people. Not goodies or baddies.

Seriously though,  the electronic stage was marvellous but it was noisy. There was a huge cast, over 200 I think.  

The whole spectacle with neon lights flashing off and on, on the costumes. The spaceship.

The main characters were dressed traditionally. Enkhbatyn Amartüvshin, the Mongolian baritone played the title character at this performance.

What a voice!

The singing was incredible, the emotion and the power of it all.

The main character grappling with the deceit of his step daughter, the fact that love will conquer all.

The spacemen surrounding the slaves.

At the end the two kidney shapes rotated and moved forming a globe, a sign of union and happily, a sign of the peace to come.

The real world news on that day was not so good.

I've seen Don Giovanni (he fell through the bed at the end). Tosca. The one where the woman shouts 'I am revenged' after killing the sons of the man who killed her daughter ( I think... they say that crime writers have got dark minds.). La Boheme - a glove would have warmed her hand up. Plus Madame Butterfly and La Traviata.  I've enjoyed all of them in different ways, but for sheer spectacle, Nabucco, in that setting,  was really something else.

Interestingly, many of the folk in the posh seats, left after the first act.
The guide asked my other half if he enjoyed it. He said that he did, but he wasn't sure who won in the end.