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Mar 22 - If It's Godunov For Me, It's Godunov For You

By Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga

Yesterday I was sent by YGTV, along with my good friend Daniel Ghio - of Orange Peel, Karma 13, Dead City Radio and Viewpoint fame - on a social experiment led by the lovely Rebecca Faller, also of Viewpoint fame (among many other things). The idea was to take two uncultured beef-witted boar pigs to something as cultural as the opera.I think I should start by confessing that I have never seen a full opera in my life. My knowledge of opera goes as far as the epic Barcelona performance by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé, Placido Domingo (placid Sunday, like most of mine), and my favourite from my limited knowledge of opera, the pavvster, Luciano Pavarotti (whom I just found out died on my birthday, tragic!). Maybe because I thoroughly enjoy watching videos of him performing Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot and Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci by a certain Leoncavallo, which also appears on a superb episode of Seinfeld. But come to think of it, it might also be because I was pretty much forced to see his name and face everywhere when I lived in his hometown, Modena. The fact of the matter is that I just know a little bit more than nothing at all about opera; but as I'm willing to learn and expand my horizons, something which it seems my buddy Daniel is also willing to do, we both went out to the opera.

Now, it's a funny thing this opera business. I mean, in Gibraltar. Because it's not live, as in the opera isn't happening in Gibraltar, it's streamed from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London to a bunch of different places. So you sit there and it's actually happening in real time, like there are people in the audience watching and it's happening for real but you're in Leisure Cinemas with your aunt a few rows away. So that was the first new experience. So some pretty crazy-looking lady, extremely passionate about opera it seems, comes on the screen and explains the opera we're about to watch, Boris Godunov by a Modest Petrovich Musorgsky (Modest Mouse's Russian cousin);  it's all a little Eurovision up to now, the way she's talking, interviewing another singer... I get the feeling that everybody in the cinema and everybody in the audience in the Royal Opera House is way more passionate about opera than I am about anything in my life (apart from maybe food). They're laughing at the tiniest of things that aren't funny and it's a little weird, but I get it. So after a bit where the main singer, the star of the opera comes out practicing at a piano the actual show starts. The first thing I see, the curtains are beautifully decorated with a huge illustration of a hand and a spinning top, instrumental object in the opera. Very nice touch, I'm liking this a lot.

So it starts and I'm a little confused. It's subtitled, which is good, because I left my Russian dictionary at home and knowing just "yes", "no", "good" and "bastard" (in two different ways) in Russian isn't going to get me through this. But a little anxiety sets in when I realise the people at the actual opera house don't have subtitles. I'm going to have to look that up. The first thing we both notice, Daniel and I, are the similarities in the soundtrack of this and John Williams' soundtrack of Star Wars. Was the Star Wars soundtrack inspired by 16th century Russia? I don't know. In fact, I don't really know anything about 16th century Russia, and I'm going into this thing with a vague, stereotypical idea of what Russia was like. Some time in, maybe the first two scenes and I'm a little lost but hopeful that it'll all tie in together at the end. As I mentioned, I don't understand the language and the fact that the actual dialogue seems to be four or five lines longer than the subtitles is making me feel like we're missing some crucial information. But I try to observe and remember as many details as possible, positive it'll help later on. Of course, I don't understand the way operas work either.

As from the third scene it's starting to make a little more sense and I noticed one cool thing:  the boyars (next in rank after princes in feudal Russia, Russian aristocracy, big bucks folk) have some sweet hair cuts. In fact, most of the men in the opera have sweet haircuts that are like a little longer than a bob but not shoulder length, straight but in some cases a little wavy, but going really well with their beards. En fin a hairstyle I would've probably had at some point in my lifetime if it weren't for this gross, thin, curly thing I've got going. They looked pretty cool. These boyars are pretty cool dudes because they all have this uniform, they stand around in strong but weird poses and a scene where they're all in together near the end gave me extreme déjà vu. Another cool scene was one at a bar of sorts, with two monks who get a little merry; one of them says "Lithuania and Russia are all the same if there's wine to be had", which quite frankly, and if I want to be ignorant, is how I see it. The funny thing was that the "wine" was clear, which made me think it might have been something else, like vodka and "wine" was a mistranslation. Anyway, the label on the bottle said Rasputin, which was interesting, especially because the opera is set in the 16th century and the famous Rasputin wasn't around until the late 1800s. I suppose maybe someone else was called Rasputin, but considering Rasputin was from Siberia and at the time (1500s) it didn't belong to the Russia depicted in the opera... You never know. But it's not the only historical inconsistency I came across. On more than one occasion, in the first few scenes, and extremely prominently in the last couple of scenes, there are actors wearing what I like to call Italian jackets (because Italians love them), those puffer jackets. Now what's the deal? If you're gonna try and make everybody look authentic why would you slip these in? Especially when you can see the modern zips and buttons. Also, how can almost everybody be really wrapped up, up top, including hats and be in sandals? I know the people in sandals were meant to be the peasants, but you can't be that daft in the winter in Russia. Also, Boris, the main character, the Tsar of Russia looks like a steaming pile of poo. Fix up, look sharp mate. Most of the boyars look great and you look like you've been on a week long bender. But the inconsistencies make it interesting, like the time a gas canister fell out of a chariot in Gladiator; it's fun.

The main thing is that I don't want to spoil anything for you because I recommend going to this opera and others one hundred percent. It's a great idea to have the live stream, the quality of the image and sound are great, the voices are superb, the orchestra is out of this world and from what I've heard getting a season ticket is not expensive at all, and if they're all like this one they're worth it, it's a good start to the week.

Word of warning for Boris Godunov, though: if you want to truly enjoy the experience one hundred and ten percent don't forget your glasses at home, because my eyes were on fire for most of it, and don't drink a pint and two thirds of a bottle of water before going, because you'll be bursting for a pee for a lot of it and what makes it worse is that when you think it's almost over you get hit with the longest on-screen death of all time, and you'll feel the pain.

The next two operas streaming at the Leisure Cinemas will be:

Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor - Monday 25th of April

Massenet's Werther - Monday 27th of June

For more, visit: www.stefanoblanca.com 


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