Sunday was my first time to see the three operas of Il Trittico on stage. To my surprise, the real hit of the afternoon was Suor Angelica. Who could have guessed that I would cry over a Puccini opera and, moreover, one in which a fallen woman (you have to accept all that goes with that to feel sympathy for her) offs herself only to be redeemed by the Virgin Mary, who descends from the rafters like a wooden idol and gestures like Dickens's Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come? Sondra Radvanovsky made the whole thing work with the simplicity and clarity of her singing. The Gianni Schicchi, directed by Woody Allen, was hilarious. The best part was the fake movie credits highlighting the work of people with names like Proscuitto, Melane, and Fellatio. Allen did the set and costumes in shades of grey to make the opera have the look of a black and white film, and the entire effect was perfect for the familial melodrama.
As I was milling about between operas, I enjoyed a little people watching, always a fun sport in Los Angeles. I realized that the audience at a Sunday matinee can be broken down into two groups. In the first, there are people who are appropriately (if less than originally) dressed. I am one of them. We supernumerary types try to look respectful without calling attention to ourselves. The other group consists of the freakishly dressed and the under-dressed. The latter includes the jeans and gym shoe crowd. Are they opera diehards or do they not know better? The former includes the Latin American gentleman behind me at the drink counter wearing a lovely pale blue linen suit but with shorts instead of trousers and saddle oxfords and Harry Potter glasses. The F.D. set also includes the women over 60 in jump-me, 4-inch heels, hot pants, and form-fitting, low cut metallic sweaters. I would love to know what their inner monologues tell them as they are dressing. Mine says something like, "That will do--God, I'm getting older; is this too frump or too young?"
Well, the LA opera season has many gems on the schedule and look forward to them all.
