Verona

 

CARMEN - A BAD LOT

The tour companies have the opera stitched up. The performance starts at 21-00 and the public transport stops at 20-00. No matter how hard we try we cannot find a do it yourself method so we take the organised trip at the rip off price. We are instructed which lamppost to meet at after the performance, to use the toilets before we go in, to sit at the top where there is more air and to use entrance 23 because the queue is shorter. He was right, it is. The performance is in the Roman amphitheater and the unnumbered stone blocks to which our #27 entitles us are hard and hot. We purchase cushions and climb to the penultimate row. There is welcome slight breeze. We find stones that have an uninterrupted view of the massive stage. My particular stone is a piece of shoddy stonemasonship and I'd like to give the guy whose job it was to smooth it a piece of my mind, but he has been dead 2000 years. I look for the loudspeakers, there aren't any?? The stage is a good 100 meters away!
The atmosphere is gay and vibrant as we tuck into our packed lunches supplemented by Valpollicella in Pepsi bottles. We have been searched on entry for any glass or metal. Others are fed and watered by the endless stream of vendors who sell:- filled rolls, cushions, beer, programmes, c.d.'s. Their method of progress is original, they simply trample over anything on their route to a potential customer. They can walk over stones, cushions, sandwiches, limbs. One of them when out of cushions conducts a third of the arena in the more singable bits of Carmen. An ancient man carries a gong to centre stage and sounds a crescendo then one gong. The process is repeated at five minute intervals with two and finally three gongs. He accepts the rapturous applause of the peasants on the stones while the #100 seats fill up with 5* people. They have just missed our final rendition of Toreador. The lights dim and the plebs light candles. The stage bursts into life. Carmen enters and her rich contralto carries to our distant stones unaided by electronics. Dashed clever the Romans. The performance is inspiring though how much is due to the arena itself is difficult to determine. A woman in front of us faints, a girl sitting quite near is sick, clearly the atmosphere affects different people differently. Between acts the stage crew completely reconstruct the stage while the vendors work their way through the menu. They are now selling:-crisps, beers, cokes, fruit. The top people are gonged back to place and Carmen continues to wreck the lives of everyone she comes into contact with. They use the vast stage brilliantly, so while the main action takes place centre stage, the cast of thousands fill every crevice. There is a group dancing over there, children playing here, a juggler wandering about, women gossiping, men arguing, horses, donkeys its very colourful and the music magnificent. Carmen gets her thoroughly deserved come-uppance around 01-00AM but takes even more deserved curtain calls for another quarter of an hour. We wonder at what time our courier considers the performance over. The posh seats have been empty a long time when we leave. There is quite a crowd at lamppost 8 when we arrive. We are marched half way across Verona to where Marco has inconveniently left our coach. This significantly reduces his tip as does the awful music he plays when we have our heads full of Bizet. We are deposited at the Fiordiliso at 02-30 but are still singing Carmen two days later. We have already decided to go again, but cannot agree on the opera. Meg fancies Aida because its grandeur will particularly suit the arena. I lean towards Rigoletto because of a line in "Some like it Hot"
"We was at Rigoletto's with you Spats"

Verona Revisied

 

The heavy rain continues unabated. The tour company will not cancel the trip to the opera.
"You have to take the bus to Verona and if the performance does not start you will get less than half your money back. The prospects seem so slim that I suggest its worth £28 not to waste the evening, but somehow we cannot bring ourselves to make this decision. Once on the coach the weather starts to brighten but our guide dampens us with the reminder that the strings cannot play with only a few drops of water. They will not cancel the performance less than 2 hours after the start. We must take our stones 2 hours before the scheduled start time. We jostle towards entrance 59. Someone says we will not be allowed to take umbrellas inside so Meg tells me to conceal the 4'long 6'diameter brightly coloured umbrella we bought this afternoon. I am wearing shorts and a tee shirt.
We settle on our stones and enjoy our picnic and the hubbub and the Mexican waves. The sky is clear. At 9-00 the lights go down and 20,000 candles are lit by the rock dwellers. The gong banger bangs her gong for the third time . The conductor takes his baton and the rain starts. 20,000 umbrellas are unfurled. 2 ¾ hours later with 4 or 5 interruptions we have been thrilled by the first act of Carmen. During the interruptions Flamenco dancers stayed on stage to entertain us. The second act starts with "rhythm of the dance" the whole stage is a mass of rhythmically swirling colour but as the number ends the rain starts again and as they have now past the money returning point the performance is terminated. Ironically before we are out of the arena the skies clear and the rest of the evening is starlit. We both agree we had rather seen 1.3 acts than got our money back.