Rigoletto

Opera, now in Chunky. I can only hope that if I ever write an opera they'll put it on a soup can.

In a word: Delicious. In two words: Heart Burn. Although that could just be all the caffeine rushing through my system. We went to the Opera last night for class, and 3 cups of coffee were necessary today to keep me awake. I swear I'm a grandpa. If I'm not in bed by 9, I'm out of commission the next day. Next thing I know, I'm going to be asking if anyone's seen my catheter...

Last night was our first of three operas that we get to see in the following week. We saw Rigoletto last night. Il Trovatore is tomorrow, and La Traviata next Wednesday. I was impressed with the performance, but there were parts that made me glad that I got to go for free, like when the soprano was ridiculously flat during half of one of her arias. Or when the orchestra drowned out all the voices but the chorus. They used a minimalist set which was really nice though. Apparently they couldn't construct huge Zepherelli-esque sets because they have to switch out the Operas every 3 days or so.

The coolest part is that even though we went on an understudy night we got to see James Valenti, a famous American tenor, as the Duke. Our professor told us that Valenti was supposed to be the main actor for the role, but got demoted after completely missing a note in one of his pieces. I think that's a little unforgiving, but I'm not complaining that I got to see him.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Soupy" Yazge