As duly noted to your right and below on this page, I’m an average guy. Which should mean that I care about football, but I don’t. So sue me. Which also should mean that I don’t care about highbrow pastimes such as opera. Which is true. Or was, til very recently.
I have been fooled by the cartoon stereotype of some largish blonde topped by a Viking helmet cracking windows with Her vocals; or some largish guy with a huge moustache and an even huger ego – the sort of character that Bugs Bunny used to torment.
But last week, I was treated to a snippet of music that shattered all those myths. It was as lovely, sweet and plaintive as any ballad – and I do love a good ballad, even if that means I must turn over my Manliness Club Membership Card.
No theatrics. No shattered glass.
I did some internet research based on the title and author of the piece – and that is when I discovered that said piece, “Pangione,” is a part of that once-dreaded genre, an opera.
I have been fooled by the cartoon stereotype of some largish blonde topped by a Viking helmet cracking windows with Her vocals; or some largish guy with a huge moustache and an even huger ego – the sort of character that Bugs Bunny used to torment.
But last week, I was treated to a snippet of music that shattered all those myths. It was as lovely, sweet and plaintive as any ballad – and I do love a good ballad, even if that means I must turn over my Manliness Club Membership Card.
No theatrics. No shattered glass.
I did some internet research based on the title and author of the piece – and that is when I discovered that said piece, “Pangione,” is a part of that once-dreaded genre, an opera.
Specifically, Handel’s “Julius Caesar.”
In the venue that I visited, the lovely soprano Sarah M. sung the role in said opera of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, at the moment in history when Cleopatra was told (falsely, of course) that Julius Caesar, Her beloved, had drowned.
I learned much about Handel this morning, much about opera (such as the once fashionable concept of castratos – yeah, it’s exactly what it sounds like, talk about suffering for your art!) and maybe a little about myself.
Can I still be an average guy, though?
In the venue that I visited, the lovely soprano Sarah M. sung the role in said opera of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, at the moment in history when Cleopatra was told (falsely, of course) that Julius Caesar, Her beloved, had drowned.
I learned much about Handel this morning, much about opera (such as the once fashionable concept of castratos – yeah, it’s exactly what it sounds like, talk about suffering for your art!) and maybe a little about myself.
Can I still be an average guy, though?
