An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down.*

My previous post was full of excitement that we were seeing La Boheme in Portland on Sunday. The opera was marvelous! It was so good to be back, and we won't let years pass again before our next opera. What a cast, totally deserving of the standing ovation at the end. The stage sets were wonderful and our box seats gave us a perfect vantage point to fully appreciate the artistic touches that helped to sweep us into another world. It was a full house which both surprised and pleased me, given the economy - which has not improved in Oregon. I had a sense that people are not about to let The Arts take it in the chops if they can in any way prevent it.


Yes, it is an emotional opera.....sad and soaring. But what brought me to tears was someone we passed on our way out of the box seat section when the production was over. Sitting just inside the box section exit, waiting for the crowd to clear some before leaving via elevator and not stairway as most of us were, was the most beautiful little girl in a powder blue dress. She was maybe eight years old, but had the composure of an old soul. Her pretty dark brown hair was slightly curled and I think I remember a light blue headband. I did not look to see the adult(s) with her because there was such a glow about her I didn't want to alter my focus as we moved along at a fair pace with the crowd. She had such poise and child-joy. It was clear to me that she had loved La Boheme, most likely loves opera, quite possibly knows more about it than many adults there that afternoon. She was fully present. Not exchanging glances with any of us walking by her wheelchair, her soft eyes remained fixed on the stage.






painting: Marie-Therese Gaillard by Mary Cassatt, 1894

* "An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house" - Maria Callas



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La Boheme on my mother's birthday

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• photo of "the young and vibrant cast" of Portland Opera's production of La Boheme.
  

• interview with cast members by sponsoring radio station kink.fm - OPERA You Can LOVE!

Portland Opera's la Boheme  

Hold on to your heart!

A wondrous young love blossoms in the bohemian world of 1830s Paris.

It all begins with Mimi's gentle voice at the door. Might she have a light for her candle? And that one small light ignites opera's most touching and poignant love story.

From the moment Rodolfo stares into her eyes and Puccini's violins slowly rise from the quiet, an extraordinary journey begins. For them. And for us. With their first tender kiss, we're swept back to the miraculous time of our own first love.

One of the most romantic operas ever composed! Soaring, lyrical, and intensely emotional.

Sung in Italian with English translations projected above the stage.

- overview from Portland Opera website

I am so excited that we will be at the 2:00 p.m. production of La Boheme in Portland today. Mike and I attended Portland Opera's February 2001 production of this opera, just four months after my mothers death. We had been season ticket-holders for five years and had worked our way down to the center orchestra section by 2001, so close it was almost like being on stage. When, amongst the snowy scenery in Act III, there was a white bust of a woman in the foreground setting that looked so much like my mother that Mike and I gasped together as the curtains parted, it became a wondrous connection with her.

After my mother's death in October 2000 I experienced a random and magical series of occurences that I called ICMs (Ironies and Cosmic Messages) when describing them to Mike, in my journal, in letters to my sister. The bust on stage at La Boheme in 2001 was one of those.

We let our Portland Opera season tickets lapse in 2003. The money needed to go elsewhere and I ceased using charge cards for entertainment. But oh how I have missed the opera. Listening to it on the radio and on CDs is nice, but doesn't come close to being in the audience. Determined to attend at least one opera in the 2009-10 season, I was thrilled to see that the new production of La Boheme was scheduled on my mother's birthday (one of those ICMs as the anniversary of her death also approaches) - and I got us great Box Seat tickets, cash not credit, so all seems right with the world.

Massenet feels it as a Frenchman, with powder and minuets. I shall feel it as an Italian, with desperate passion.

-- Puccini, quoted in M Carner, Puccini (1974)

candle photo via tinypic

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