Fouad, Nadia and Fritz Enjoy A Night Out at the Opera - La Bohème

Are you sick and tired of hearing, reading or seeing the Trump administration and its antics, the genocides in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, the increasingly dangerous natural disasters, the demise of humanitarianism, the conundrum of the UN and its Agencies etc?? Well, in order to change our minds Nadia and I together with Fritz Lherisson went to the movies!

Not any cinema, but the on-screen Metropolitan Opera in HD series featuring "La Boheme". For a number of years now the Met has been streaming a few of its annual programme of operas live, direct from New York via satellite to cinema houses around the world. This is one example of the positive side of technology that we appreciate, as do now more than a million spectators who attend the Saturday matinee show of some of the world's most beautiful operas. A real treat, especially for seniors who have difficulty attending live opera in Montreal at our Place des Arts because of traffic, parking,high prices and other complications.

La Boheme,Giacomo Puccini's masterpiece is quite likely the most popular and well known opera (perhaps rivalled by Bizet's Carmen) and epitomises the bel canto version of Italian opera music.It has a simple story line, which goes: Mimi meets Rudolfo, they fall in love; they have a fall-out; Mimi is sick and dies ! The multitude of arias in this work are each more melodious and captivating than the other. 

The version we saw this time was a truly international one; the outstanding production and set designs by Franco Zeffirelli are still being used by the Met; the conductor was Keri-Lynn Wilson, one of the rare women among Met maestros; Mimi was sung by a young Armenian; Rudolfo was a Britisher; Colline was a Korean, and Marcello and Heidi were local talents. The mix of these talented singers, and actors, was a tribute to multilateralism, but the delight of sitting back and enjoying all the drama and vicissitudes in the plot was what we enjoyed most. One is transposed into a world of make-believe by the melodies, the voices and the decor and comes out of the cinema after about three hours smiling, humming tunes and exchanging views with each other about the performance. For a while we forgot all the other negative news around us and went home relaxed and happy.

Now we are looking forward to the next opera !

Fouad