The Opera

Each summer the city of Bergenz hosts an opera on Lake Constance. The outdoor theatre seats 700o. The set, nestled in the water, is gargantuan. [Disclaimer for Opera buffs: the performance is more spectacle than opera.] Although major operas are chosen, they are edited and rearranged to fit into Bergenz standard: 2 hours, no break. Aida, which normally lasts 4 hours, is this year’s opera. Since we were going to ‘the Opera’, I have to say that I was pleased by Bergenz rules.

I prepared myself with an on-line review. I have found that it’s not easy to follow the ‘plot’ because the singers, especially sopranos and (overweight) tenors, take forever to get to the point. There is also a rule against writing an opera in English – a fact that might explain the popularity difference between Harry Potter and Aida.

The weather was threatening during the drive. Nazy assured me that the ticket could be exchanged in the event of rain. (The performance is outside and the theatre has no roof.) Note: Some cynical readers may assume that I was hoping for rain; in fact, I wanted to see the show. I did hope, in vain, that the Wolford Factory Outlet would be shuttered during the Bregenz Opera Festival.

It rained for the (many) hours that we spent at Wolford, but the weather cleared for the evening performance. We had dinner at lakeside with a nice view of the set.

“You told me that this Opera takes place in ancient Egypt,” Nazy said.

“That’s right. It involves an Ethiopian princess/slave (Adia), the Pharaoh, his daughter (Amneris) and the young captain of the guard (Ramades).”

“Why is the set a giant blue and gold Statue of Liberty?”

“Nazy, my dear,” I replied. “It’s trendy, it’s avant gardé, it’s Opera translated to the 21st century..”

“Weren’t the Pharaohs alive in the, eh, ‘minus 3rd’ century?”

“You are missing the point. When people think of Opera, they think ‘stuffy’. This Opera is edgy. It’s chic. It’s fashionable.” I was eloquent. “It’s stupid,” I thought.

The set, constructed in the water, included not only the blue (and dismantled) Statue of Liberty, it also had two giant cranes and a stage the size of Luxembourg.

Before this trip, I thought that the Opera was essentially like a Broadway Musical with the cast singing in Italian. That wasn’t quite right.

In a Broadway Musical, the characters do not need binoculars to see each other. In this performance, the characters, separated by vast distances, needed the Hubble Space Telescope. For example, Aida might be standing on the stage (and in water 4 inches deep) while singing to Radames. He would be on the other side of the lake in a boat held 80 feet aloft by a construction crane. In short: the distance between them was the same as the distance between the Earth and the (dwarf) planet Pluto. It was difficult sometimes to tell who was singing to whom. In fact, it was sometimes difficult to even see who was singing. (I didn’t bring my space telescope.)