3:26 p.m. - 2005-11-09
Talkin' Tosca
I don't think there are any snakes in Tosca after all. But there are a lot of tri-corner-hatted musketmen, nuns and popes. There's also a good deal of offstage percussion, which is nice because it allows me to spend more time with the surly union tech guys who occasionally move and hammer stuff but mostly walk around looking put out. But the tech guys have to have a big chip on their burly shoulders, and the conductor has to yell a lot and the opera singers have to be stuck-up and demanding. Why? Because otherwise it wouldn't be OPERA! It would just be some kind of cooperative artistic enterprise, and it wouldn't make everyone involved absolutely miserable, and then what's the point?
No, Opera is SUFFERING. Just as Tosca is probably about someone suffering, so must there BE suffering in every aspect of the production. That, THAT...is the essence...of OPERA!
Another perq of playing this particular opera: I get to further hone my lazy keyboard chops. There's lots of church bells that are too low for the chimes we have so a lot of them are done on synthesizer, which I get to play sitting down...and with only one hand. Granted, it's not playing laying down, but I can certainly slouch!
NEXT: More.
