Opera 101: Bel Canto

I never cared about opera before. Growing up in Bukidnon, I played the piano, so naturally I gravitated towards classical piano music. But when I picked up a copy of La Scala’s production under Ricardo Muti of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca in, of all places, a roadside stall in Quiapo, I got hooked. First-rate acting, superb sets (this is Italy, after all), wonderful singing and suspenseful and crackling orchestration- what more can you ask for. I didn’t even mind that it took almost three hours to watch the entire opera.

Since then, I returned for more and I got introduced to the great Italian bel canto masters, the composers of the verismo school and the valiant efforts of the Russians (successful) and the English (not quite) to make their own mark and not get overwhelmed by the Italians, French and Germans. I became keenly aware of the rivalry between Wagner and Verdi, their differences in musical outlook and compositional styles.

I love bel canto (which means “beautiful singing” in Italian). Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini during the early part of the 1800’s, developed florid singing to its highest level and elevated it to an art-form. Strongly melodic with a highly-marked legato line, these composers began to stretch the limits of the voice when they wrote some of the most difficult coloratura passages ever, matched only earlier by Mozart and Handel. The style requires the voice to mimic a musical instrument like a pianoforte via fast vocalization techniques like half-tone scales, trills and mordents. They also required the leading singers to send their final notes to the stratosphere.

Maria Callas, probably the most famous soprano in the 20th century, led the revival of bel canto in the early 50’s. Her most famous role, Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, comes from this period. When Callas made her Metropolitan debut in New York, she was asked to take on the Queen of the Night role in Mozart’s Magic Flute. This opera has the highest notes for the soprano in all opera, hitting two F’s above high C, in a terrific but terrifyingly difficult revenge aria.

Callas wisely chose to open with Norma instead, allowing her to dramatize a whole gamut of emotions amid spectacular singing, reviving this extremely difficult and demanding opera and contributing to its popularity. I recently watched the entire opera of the Parma production featuring June Anderson, and I must say, the long arias filled with scales and trills, as well as the exceedingly beautiful but technically challenging duet with Adaglisa are a must for any opera fanatic.

Rossini

Gioacchino Rossini’s style is loud and partial to military rhythms. After all, this was the period when Napoleon marched into Europe like wildfire. The clashing cymbals sometimes make me want to cover my ears (e.g., Le Comte Ory), and the exceedingly fast vocalization becomes absurd if not performed properly (think of “Largo al factotum...” in the Barber of Seville, his most famous and enduring work). As if this were not enough, he requires his singers, especially the tenors, to hit several high Cs!

Semiramide, a three-hour extravaganza with the most unbelievable and preposterous libretto but exceedingly difficult arias and duets, remains a favorite of mine. The duets in the Barber of Seville are precious, too. Nothing quite like it, even Beethoven liked it.

Rossini has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts recently, thanks to the efforts of Rossini specialists (Callas, Horne, Berganza, Sutherland, Abaddo) who tirelessly promoted the music of the master despite the onslaught of Wagner, Verdi and Puccini.

Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti’s coloratura passages are not as rapid as Rossini’s, but some of his operas remain less frequently performed because of the strenuous vocal demands. Beverly Sills once claimed singing Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda and Anna Bolena took ten years off her career. I’ve watched the first two—it requires full-volume singing in the upper range of the voice, and almost always, the soprano’s arias always end up in the stratosphere. She sounds like she’s always launching comets into space.

The famous Lucia di Lamermoor, with its mad scene IS a gold standard for all aspiring sopranos. Joan Sutherland became famous with this role, and it’s easy to see why. The soprano is not only required to act like she’s gone crazy, she has to convey her state of mind through vocal acrobatics and fireworks, which provided Donizetti a great excuse to write mind-boggling coloratura passages. I saw a DVD feature on the great soprano Joan Sutherland interpreting this role. She had a showdown with a solo flute, note-for-note, scale-for-scale, trill-for-trill. It was amazing. You have to watch it to believe me.

In addition, Pavarotti got well-known, not by L’Elisir d’Amore, with its beautiful Una furtive lagrima aria, but by the nine, yes nine, high C’s in a single aria in Un Fille du Regiment (Daughter of the Regiment). I haven’t found a copy yet, but it is easy to see why. It must have taken him a week to recover his voice.

Bellini

Aaah, Vincenzo Bellini. Unlike Rossini, this composer composed elegant lines. (In fact, Chopin loved his music. The Pole must have gotten his melodic ideas from the Italian). He doesn’t favor Rossini’s crescendos and rapid-fire vocalization. His orchestration is deliberately simpler and doesn’t overwhelm the singer. He likes his arias to be slow and languid, and puts the highly florid ornamentation in between those long drawn-out notes. He likes to slowly send his singers to the upper reaches of the voice, and leaves them there, hanging and twisting in the wind (e.g., Casta Diva in Norma).

Norma is among the most difficult opera for the lead soprano, and I Puritani is clearly without equal as the most terrifying for a tenor, requiring him to hit an F and two D’s above high C. I watched the less-known and less-performed Beatrice di Tenda, and I can’t understand the neglect. The music is ravishing, and the soprano sends out comets into outer space several times.

Bundle of Joy

I visited Che last Saturday on the occasion of her firstborn’s christening. Didn’t make it to the baptismal rites at 8 a.m. because of dragon boat training which turned out to be a complete waste of time.

Che made me a ninong (god-father) in absentia (right, Che?). Che has lost a lot of weight. Obviously, she’s adjusting to her situation. Some women gain weight after giving birth. The opposite is true with Che.

Baby Joaquin, very cuddly at one-and-a-half months, kind of warmed up to the people who came to celebrate his introduction to the Christian world. I like infant baptisms. The love between a man and a woman manifests in a miraculous event such that nine months later, a new life is brought forth into the world. Bringing the baby to be baptized is a wonderful and proper way of thanking God for the “bundle of joy”.

Mango Overload

I’ve been eating mangoes for the past three days now. You see, my neighbor who parks his car in front of my apartment sent me a bagful of mature mangoes ready for ripening. He has a huge mango tree in his yard and with the premature fruiting season, he obviously thinks he’ll win his neighbors’ affections and good will by giving us his surplus fruits. True enough, the green color turned to yellow a few days later, and to prevent the fruits from over-ripening and rotting, I had to eat as many as I can.

I love mangoes. It is the national fruit, right? But by eating it after every single meal I think I am beginning to smell like one. This is very much like eating ripe langka, or jackfruit. You leave a trail of langka smell in the bathroom after using it.

Gross! Oh snap!

Interest Rates

RCBC recently posted the following announcement in its branches:

"Effective 24 January, new rates for the following services will be implemented:

Peso savings: O.75% p.a.
Dollar savings: 0.50% p.a.

From 1.5% per annum, the bank reduced the interest to below 1%, and this does not included taxes yet.

People, the handwriting on the wall is unmistakable: Do not park your money in banks. Invest it somewhere. Maintain just enough for liquidity.

90-day T-bills have been falling to 3-4%, bank lending rates range between 8-9%. In fact, it is the perfect time to borrow from banks (I expect housing and car loans to pick up significantly this year).

Consequently, listed property companies are again benefitting from all these. Araneta already sold out one of its residential towers adjacent to Gateway and construction hasn't even begun yet. FLI will list the additional shares tomorrow. Foreign buyers swamped the market and snapped FLI, I only got a few. I hope the market kicks the share price to high heavens! Sold my remaining PNOC shares at PhP5.30 (bought it at 3.20, I sold it initially at 5.00).

I have no idea yet on Holcim. Cement companies normally correlate positively with the property sector. There were a lot of cement companies before, but only a few listed ones remain active. Let me check.

Sprained Foot

I registered for the Animo Run earlier today but I failed to participate due to an injured foot. I hurt my right foot last Wednesday evening after running a solid hour at the Marikina Oval. Oddly, I was preparing for the Animo 10km race scheduled this morning.

I should have maintained a steady pace and intensified my training gradually (as if I had a program to begin with). As a result, I limp while I walk but the pain is bearable.

By the way, Jun completed the race in 51 minutes! Pretty soon, he’ll be zooming past C-5 and EDSA in preparation for a full 42km marathon in July.

Oh, Panda Bear and Polar Bear leave their favorite sleeping hide-outs in my garage at 5:30 p.m. everyday, and wait patiently next door for Manang Mimi to feed them. All they do is sleep and eat all day. What a life! I always tell the brown one, Panda Bear to get more exercise because he’s getting fatter. When I come home, Polar Bear sometimes sits imperiously in the middle of the garage unperturbed by my presence, eyes me suspiciously but doesn’t even move his nose. He thinks he’s my equal!

Sour Grapes

Frodo and I have never felt so humiliated in all our years of paddling for the same team, like what transpired early this morning. We were not allowed to train because (1) I didn’t wear the official uniform required for the photo shoot and (2) Frodo came late.

But these aren’t accurate charges. (1) I didn’t wear the uniform because nobody informed me about it and (2) Frodo simply went back to his car to get something, and was told upon his return, that being late, he couldn’t be loaded. In fact, Frodo arrived earlier than His Majesty.

But that is not even the worse part. Since we were removed from the line-up, we were simply left to fend for ourselves. No instructions whatsoever. No information whether we’d be picked up mid-way through the training. We didn’t know whether we’d be training using a smaller boat. It would have been better had we been told to simply go home, at least we won’t be wasting our time ambling in the row site. Nada. Nothing. The rest simply left us there. It was so humiliating. We felt like we were no longer part of the team. Our previous team captains never subjected us to this indignity.

And the worst part? His Majesty even had the temerity to apologize to Frodo later (yes, to him alone, maybe because Frodo wore the uniform and I didn’t) and told him to attend the following day’s training, (and seeing that I was there inside the car, added, “and you as well”).

Wow. How condescending.

We didn’t deserve to be treated this way. Frodo couldn’t hide his disappointment: he seethed with anger after His Majesty left.

I reacted calmly. There is just no use getting riled up every time somebody gives you a bad time. It is not worth it. I’ll stow away my paddle for now. I simply cannot submit myself to a leadership that is weak and which has lost my respect. Maybe after the annual changing of the guards in July, I’ll pick up my oar again.

There are so many alternatives: jogging in UP and Marikina, long-distance biking to Antipolo and Tanay, and swimming in ULTRA.

I’m willing to give up rowing in a snap.

Eavesdropping

Earlier today at Starbucks, staffer at the counter goes into Oprah overdrive:

Staffer: "Are you just passing by, you're not working today?"

Me: "Just passing by." I wasn't exactly in the mood for a jolly banter.

Staffer: "So what do you do sir?"

Me: "Oh, I write stuff."

Staffer: "For newspapers?" Her face lit up.

Me: "No. Research". Don't worry, I smiled.

Near my table, a "business transaction" was taking place.

Aspiring sexy starlet answers questions from a giddy male correspondent of a well-known men's magazine. This mag is known for publishing provocative pictures of sexy celebrities. I can't identify the starlet, I don't know her name, but I've seen her somewhere.

The interview is obviously meant to be the accompanying article to the featured sexy photos.

Guy: "So which part of your body do you consider the sexiest?"

Startlet: "(boobs, her manager suggests) my eyes, and oh, my lips as well.

Guy: "So which part of a man's body do you like"?

Starlet: "Chest, yeah definitely the chest."

Guy: "What physical qualities are you looking for in a man?"

Starlet: "Uhm, he should be emotional. And neat. And nice to look at."

At this point, I couldn't help but look at the starlet.

Guy: "How many boyfriends have you had?"

Startlet: "(hesitates) Oh, many."

Unfortunately, a customer at another table yakked incessantly about an impending court case in his mobile phone. I had to leave.