Saturday, June 9, 2007

A Flower Has Fallen From the Garden of My Heart...

Indeed it has! This is one of the central metaphors for love repeated in the opera Luisa Fernanda and I declare it again acknowledging that I have fallen in love with opera. Or maybe it's just Placido Domingo. Along with his voice, the boots and belt did it for me. There was something so manly and conquistador-like about them. He's also got a pretty good head of hair and man can the man charm women. At one point he sang in his powerful, flowing tone that Luisa was the queen of his land and his home and that the shepherd boys would play the bagpipes for her. Does it get any better than that? Where do I sign up?
Apparently the woman in front of me thought the same thing as she kept interrupting the dreamy, romantic haze that had settled over the balcony area with her incessant clapping - in all the wrong places too. She'd raise her hands high above her head and shout "bravo" in her twangy, guttural hollers. The guy sitting across the next row from her looked like he could have been her date. He had on this white-frayed jacket with elbow patches (cowboy boots stenciled across them) and a maroon shirt unbuttoned enough for his thick chest hair to creep over the side. Nice. Come on people! We're at the opera. Even a beatnik like me knows better. I wore heels.
Despite the misfits on Row D, the illusion of surreal love persisted from stage to audience and all I can say is opera's pretty cool. Even though it's extremely romanticized and melodramatic to a fault, it seems to be okay with everyone. I don't know if it's because they're singing in a different language or because they're singing as if their life depended on it (and it usually tragically does) but it just works. We buy it, we believe it, we love it!
Atleast I do.

4 comments:

cheyney webb said...

How fun! So many cool things to do in Los Angeles. Way to venture out of the ghetto and get some culture!

xoxo
cheyn

Linz said...

this is linda. :) glad to hear you're having a good time, despite ill-timed clappers. hope all is well!!!

Ruth said...

I've had it! Tony Bennett, Placido Domingo, Julie Andrews, and who knows how many other celebs you have come into contact with! Worse yet, this myriad of celebs you meet are actually cool people, not lame Hollywood figures. Soon you will be back in Utah... where we have... ? Thurl Bailey? I once saw him at Home Depot... Usually I just make up lies about who I see, but no one believes me.

But actually, come to think of it, yesterday at Sams Club Jude Law came up to me and asked for my phone number. Matt was with me, so I couldn't give the number to him...

K M Breidenthal said...

It's the foreign language—sooo much more romantic! (And, oh yeah, Placido doesn't exactly get in the way, does he? He's even more impressive up close...) ;) Thanks for the cookies!! L, K:))