Strange Days Go On

Never let it be said that god (aka God) does not have a sense of humour.  During the celebrations of his (His) birth on a day on which he almost certainly was not born I came into contact with my Catalan "family".

And as certainly as Catalans do not drink enough alcohol, so I just as certainly contracted an illness from Toni’s family.  It is traditional for at least one of the family to be ill for Christmas Day and this year is was Toni’s brother-in-law’s turn.  I seemed to have escaped the lurgi during the actual festivities but a visit in the New Year, with the illness now having transferred itself to Toni’s brother-in-law’s wife (aka his sister) and obviously having gone up a notch in virulence – the very next day I succumbed.

Although I got up at the crack of dawn to take Toni for his blood test, on my return I adopted my patented approach to all types of illness and took to my bed for a day.  Don’t knock it, it worked.  Apart from a few alarms and excursions (over which I will draw the discreet mist of air freshener) I spent about 15 hours in bed.  And felt better.

I suspect that the illness was lurking biding its time towards victory during my time in the opera – but, thankfully, apart from a certain tightness around the tum I was able to get through the three hours of the music.


The opera was “Linda di Chamounix” by Gaetano Donizetti – what a glorious load of rubbish it all was!

As the last opera I went to in the Liceu was La Grande Macabre the sheer tunefulness was like balm on an abused ear!

To my mind this was the most satisfactory ensemble piece that I have seen in the theatre.  There was not a duff voice among the cast with the possible exception of  Carlo (Juan Diego Flórez) who I felt lacked the power and authority necessary for the role.  I might add that I was obviously in a very small minority as was made obvious by the storm of appreciation that greeted his star arias.  Decent tenors are as rare as a musical opera by Ligetti and perhaps I was just annoyed that Flórez was no Domingo (which I readily admit is unfair) and I was able to enjoy his voice as well!

Melodramatic rubbish Linda di Chamounix might be but the director (Emilio Sagi) has made the most of the scenic opportunities that the story offers.  The set (Daniel Blanco) is basically a box with curved sides with three entrances on each side with a di Chirico perspective effect. 

Up-stage is raked to provide a hill/slope which provides a startling background to the action and provides the basis for some breath-taking backlit, silhouette set pieces.  I particularly like the use of the chorus to “plant” the slope with flowers and also the use of cyclists to give a certain dynamism to the space.

The set ends downstage at the proscenium in a black glittering and reflective thrust.  I spent most of the opera wondering if this shining surface was there intentionally and if so what function it was supposed to have.  My ideas became so involved and pretentious that they imploded and I simply gave myself to the music.

Although simple the set was an excellent backdrop and Act II saw the introduction of a grand staircase which was stunning.

Act III used the simple expedient of linked tables lit like a great white way for the dramatic entrance of Linda for her finale.

The cast are clad mostly in khaki, light browns and deep creams and look terminally tasteful with the comic villain, the Marqués de Boisfleury, in black.  His snail-like entrance in the slowest electrically driven black limousine that I have seen in opera was almost a coup de theatre, but not quite.

But the music.  The music was wonderful, sometimes with the comforting predictability which keeps you warm and cosy and sometimes with shock as the orchestra attempted (very successfully) to mimic the sound of a hurdy-gurdy.

But enough already, the title of the opera has the character Linda in it and on her performance makes or breaks this piece and this Linda (Diana Damrau) was a triumph.  She made the sometimes-absurd coloratura (is that a tautology?) seem dramatically convincing.  Her mad scene was not as flamboyant as that in Lucia, but she made the most of it and received the extended applause that she deserved.

The orchestra under Marco Armillato was excellent though there were places where the singers were drowned out and there were the usual problems with wayward horns!  But a fantastic sound ably augmented with the chorus directed by José Luis Basso.

I liked the modern implications of migrant workers; patronising hypocrisy on the part of the rich; knowing acceptance on the part of the poor.  Perhaps if you worked hard you could update this rickety narrative and make it politically appropriate.

The story of the opera is weak, very weak – but I did take note of certain aspects of the opera which were though provoking.  The chorus are going to Paris to get money to send back to families at home, while the lord of the manor goes to the same city for frolics – and all the workers know exactly what he is up to.  

The end of the opera was also interesting.  The inevitable and totally unconvincing re-establishment of sanity and the uniting of the lovers was not as facile as I expected it to be.  Linda’s response to Carlo’s fervid assertion that he loved her was, “If you loved me you would not have made me unhappy.”  Fair point!  The eventual breakthrough in Linda’s journey from melodramatic madness to loving sanity was actually made to seem reasonable!  Quite an achievement!

Overall a wonderful evening’s entertainment – enlivened by the two ladies who spoke to me in the interval as we swapped stories of opera visits!

And time to get on and start preparations for the next opera whose title and composer I had never heard of before the start of my opera subscription.  Such is education!

About which, of course my mind is increasingly brooding about as the date gets nearer to the dreaded 9^th of January.

It would be absurd to allow dwelling on the awful future to infect the pleasant present – so just tell me how you do that without using Grade A drugs!

This afternoon we went to Sitges and, because our tried and tested restaurant was closed we tried a new place.  This was a little further away but gave the sort of poncey food that I like.  Pasta with Rochefort cheese sauce and woodland fruit topped with Parmesan; rice with prawns, cod and egg; biscotti with chocolate sauce and washed down with sangria.  Excellent value at €12·50.  A place to go back to.

I took the usual pictures with my newish camera in Sitges and I will have to see if I have produced anything which is in any way a little different from the many pictures of the church in Sitges, the solitary palm tree or the sculpture on the roundabout that have been my traditional subjects.  I live in hope!