Or Vivacissimo Con Violenza
We have a friend who sings at the opera.
Whenever we can, we go to see him sing, so a few weeks ago we were in snowbound Besançon, to see Puccini’s Tosca.
You know the end of the story. Tosca, after stabbing Scarpia, and wrenching Cavaradossi’s safe-conduct from his dead fist, rejoins her lover on the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo. Begging a moment’s intimacy from the firing squad, she outlines her plan. The execution will be a sham she explains, the executioners will have blanks, but he must fall convincingly, so all think he is dead, and they can flee together when the executioners have gone. Yes, he says dutifully, I will fall like a man shot dead. But convincingly, says Tosca, I know how, with my singing and theatre, I know drama, I could fall very well, but you’re a painter, so you must apply yourself. Yes, he says, I promise you I will apply myself, I will do my best.
But of course Scarpia has his vengeance, the bullets are real, Cavaradossi is dead when Tosca runs to him whispering you fell perfectly, everyone was fooled, get up now, we must be across he border by nightfall, of course he does not get up. The clamour of the approaching guards, who have found Scarpia’s body, mounts from the streets below. Tosca throws herself from the ramparts.
The end is terrifying, and happens so quick as to nearly suffocate you. Though you’ve seen it coming for ages, it’s no less a shock when it happens.
Going to the opera is even worse for me than the movies, I can hardly remember my name afterwards (needless to say, the late drive home through a snowstorm only enhanced the irreality of the experience.)
I know nothing about music, but happily, working where I do, with a soprano on the ground floor and a budding traditional Irish musician on the floor above, in a house is full of instruments and sheet music, I have picked up a bit here and there.
Our friend is baritone, so he played the monstrous and machiavelic Baron Scarpia, not without a certain obvious pleasure. (He also posseses a unique gift for summing up his character in the first three seconds on the stage. I still have the image of the perfect Sancho Panza from Don Quixote, years ago. Trundled onto the stage astride a donkey on wheels, without any lines, ridiculous, loyal, brave, foolish and wise all in the instant he appeared.)
In many ways, we are total physical opposites – it’s hard to imagine two people more different. His voice is amazing (well, of course) and mine is barely audible. – I am embarassingly introverted, he has a personality that projects all around him. He is the immediate centre of any gathering, I blend well with any wallpaper. His recognition comes in thunderous applause when the curtain falls, by the time my work is published, anything up to a year has gone by since I cleaned the brushes and moved on to the next commission.
But in other ways… he tells stories, so do I. He doesn’t intellectualize how he plays, I don’t think when I paint and draw. Sometimes he portrays monsters, and I’ve been known to draw a few…
Not that dissimilar after all. Just a different set of tools for a similar craft.
We have a friend who sings at the opera.
UFO
Late-night sightings…
I like working late at night – the world around you winds down, the phone stops ringing (even the most desperate of editors rarely call at midnight) and you can concentrate on the image at hand. It’s not unlike driving at night, looking for the landmarks and road signs that tell you you’re nearing your destination.
Next newsletter, I’ll put up a week’s worth of last-snapshot-before-toddling-off-to-bed pictures.
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OUT WEST
If you live in B.C., you get a sneak preview of the Canadian documentary.
On March 11th at 9:30 pm (Pacific Standard Time) CBC (BC only) is broadcasting a show called “Water Muse”. As way of promotion they are using a 2 minute clip from the documentary film shot while we were out at Tofino.
According the the producers, who are deep into finishing up the French version (this IS Canada, remember, bilingual in spirit and on paper if not in actual fact), I have inherited a lovely bass voice, which will be a great change from the real one.
BACK EAST
If all goes well. I’ll be signing books in Toronto in late April, and will drop by the Elf Fantasy Fair in Holland on the way home. I will be profoundly jet-lagged, no doubt, so be prepared for anything during the “lecture” at 2:15 Sunday April 24th. More on that as I get news.
WELL NORTH
I shall also be signing books at the Paris Book Fair (profoundly train-lagged, if that exists) on March 22nd. Six p.m., stand F38.
JUST SOUTH
A month later, it’s the Book Fair in Geneva. Hopefully, the originals from the The Abandoned City will be on show. I’ll be signing books on April 29th at 7:00 p.m. I believe it will be at the Librairie Payot stand. I think there will be some kind of Q & A session before that. More later as that sorts itself out.
Well, chronologically, it may be non-linear, but I did a cardinal job of covering it all, didn’t I?
