By E. Perryman
8.10.18
Learning a new opera isn’t for the faint hearted. As I worked on a new soprano role, (Amelia in Un Ballo In Maschera) these past few months, it was exhilarating, difficult, exciting, challenging, revealing, and rewarding.
As I get older, it definitely takes a little more time to save data on my vintage brain cloud but it is so worth the unplugging and clear/alt/delete needed.
Below are things that I learned about the opera and subsequently what I continue to learn about myself.
The cliff notes of cliff notes opera story synopsis goes something like this:
-There’s a married couple, Amelia and Renato
-Renato doesn’t know that he is a friend of his wife’s crush, Riccardo
-Riccardo digs Amelia a lot and wants her as his own
-Renato finds out that they are into each other and is out for blood
-Oscar, the page, is a masked ball party planner
-Death will happen even at a fancy party
-Opera ends as night of terror
TROUBLED WATERS
Amelia could benefit from some anxiety meds. How do I know this, you ask? She is constantly leading the musical development of the opera.
1. When Oscar dares to sing in a happy key, she changes it to minor.
2. When the tenor, Riccardo, wants her to admit that she loves him, she changes the time signature. The guy is so sweet with whimsical music but he sure does need a lot of reassurance.
3. When the Opera dudes are getting all chummy and/or homicidal with each other, she randomly changes the tune.
4. Even in her own phrases, she is known to shift tonality, even within a measure, depending on her mood. Ole girl is quite a force.
MACHISMO MUSIC
Un Ballo In Maschera could also be called Un Ballo In Testosterone. There’s a whole lotta machismo going on in this opera. Sometimes it feels like Amelia is the only adult in the room. And there’s a lot bromances going on. Yet they just can’t seem to give peace a chance. Come on guys, can’t we all just get along?
ULRICA IN THE HOUSE:
Ulrica, the resident sorceress, deserves more opera air time. Where does she go? Can’t she like have a scene where sings to her hand stitched Renato voodoo doll? Holy obstinance, Batman. Renato does not have much compassion. No wonder Amelia finally tells the tenor Riccardo that she loves him. He’s not an asshat like her old man.
CATHOLIC GUILT
Amelia has got catholic guilt down pat and she knows how to use it. She skillfully employs it with hot head Renato (before she accepts her impending death,) by begging him to let her say a final goodbye to her son. Even an evil bass baritone isn’t that heartless. You go girl.
GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
Amelia and Riccardo say goodbye a lot. It makes me think or Gilbert and Sullivan’s comical “you don’t go” with the inept police in Pirates of Penzance. Perhaps that is what Gilbert was mocking in his comic operettas. It is pretty goodbye music though. Then Renato gets in on the goodbye action with his great GODFATHER line. Before he stabs the tenor, he says, “here’s MY goodbye!” You know, perhaps Big Daddy R’s line is a little more SCARFACE; closer to the spirit of “say hello to my little friend.”
CONVENT TIME
I just don’t think romantic love is the answer for Amelia. She’s been faithful and not acted on her feelings. She’s tried to push Riccardo away. But still her husband doesn’t believe her. Then Ulrica’s pagan advice doesn’t pan out. Amelia even jeopardizes herself and saves Riccardo from being stabbed in the first half of the opera by showing her masked face. Yet good karma doesn’t come back her way. Riccardo still dies in the end. I think she would have fared better as a nun.
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SLOW DOWN YOU MOVE TOO FAST
Whether I like it or not, singing the Italian which sometimes has 3 or more syllables on short notes makes me slow down. It also highlights when I am not singing smoothly so I have to keep working on my legato. I also realize that I hear less well anymore. I need much illumination so I can read the score. And, I do sometimes zone out and make dumb mistakes like singing “oy vey” instead of “ohime.”
But the good news is that I enjoy the learning process a lot more cuz I know that I am lucky to be doing this as a job. I also have a more reliable vocal technique. And I’m less anxious when I inevitably make a mistake.
So youth may be wasted on the young, but the lessons learned along the way definitely has made the aging process more agreeable.
#akintsucrooner
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