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Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005
My Family History as Opera
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005 11:02 amLast night I piggybacked on someone else's luck, and went to the final performance of Madama Butterfly at the Royal Opera House. £160 seats in the orchestra stalls: I don't think I've ever seen an ROH or ENO performance from stage level before. If I squinted up at the ceiling, I could almost see the faces of people in our usual seats, up in the gods ...
Maggy (WINOLJ) had entered her name in the Travelex £10 Draw, where 100 top-price tickets for Monday night performances are randomly assigned at a price of £10 each. £10 will also buy you a glass of Perrier-Jouet, or a Fraise Royale, or a Bellini. Yes, we spent more on drinks than on the tickets.
Madama Butterfly is not a particular favourite of mine; the plot (woman deceives self over man, man Does Not Understand) is really quite unpleasant, and I prefer my opera earlier than 1904. The singing, though, was glorious (especially Thomas Allen, greyer than I remember but still stylish, as Sharpless). Marina Mescheriakova sang beautifully, but was a bit too old to play the 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San. Stephanie Novacek as her maid was splendid, as was Gwyn Hughes Jones as a big, smiling, ultra-American Pinkerton. I hadn't realised how often Puccini quotes 'The Star-Spangled Banner', or with what devastating effect.
And I was listening with more interest than before, because Maggy had compared the plot to elements of my own family history (which it turns out she envies: "you're so lucky, all my ancestors were plumbers and shop workers and farmers!")
My maternal grandmother, Phyllis, was raised by nuns in South Africa after losing both parents in an epidemic. Phyliss' father, whose surname was Metcalfe, came from Yorkshire: her mother was Japanese. I've always wondered how those two met, and how they ended up in South Africa. After last night I'm starting to wonder how much of this family story is true, and whether there are Dark Secrets such as Phyllis simply being abandoned by one or both parents; or being illegitimate; or something. There are already plenty of Dark Secrets on that side of the family, though some of them are not Secrets any more.
Maggy's keen to help me research that side of the family. I wonder if there are enough true facts to pin the story down.
Maggy (WINOLJ) had entered her name in the Travelex £10 Draw, where 100 top-price tickets for Monday night performances are randomly assigned at a price of £10 each. £10 will also buy you a glass of Perrier-Jouet, or a Fraise Royale, or a Bellini. Yes, we spent more on drinks than on the tickets.
Madama Butterfly is not a particular favourite of mine; the plot (woman deceives self over man, man Does Not Understand) is really quite unpleasant, and I prefer my opera earlier than 1904. The singing, though, was glorious (especially Thomas Allen, greyer than I remember but still stylish, as Sharpless). Marina Mescheriakova sang beautifully, but was a bit too old to play the 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San. Stephanie Novacek as her maid was splendid, as was Gwyn Hughes Jones as a big, smiling, ultra-American Pinkerton. I hadn't realised how often Puccini quotes 'The Star-Spangled Banner', or with what devastating effect.
And I was listening with more interest than before, because Maggy had compared the plot to elements of my own family history (which it turns out she envies: "you're so lucky, all my ancestors were plumbers and shop workers and farmers!")
My maternal grandmother, Phyllis, was raised by nuns in South Africa after losing both parents in an epidemic. Phyliss' father, whose surname was Metcalfe, came from Yorkshire: her mother was Japanese. I've always wondered how those two met, and how they ended up in South Africa. After last night I'm starting to wonder how much of this family story is true, and whether there are Dark Secrets such as Phyllis simply being abandoned by one or both parents; or being illegitimate; or something. There are already plenty of Dark Secrets on that side of the family, though some of them are not Secrets any more.
Maggy's keen to help me research that side of the family. I wonder if there are enough true facts to pin the story down.
