Opera Therapy

It’s been a rough week.

· Monday, finances hit a bottleneck
· Tuesday, sick kid & a deadline to meet
· Wednesday, three-hour board meeting
· Thursday, fallout from the Wednesday board meeting
· All on top of a full work-week and personal projects that need constant tending

Friday morning arrives and defeat from a failed project and overwhelm about future projects weigh in on me. Doubt and regret brew in my early-morning coffee and I grumble to my kind-hearted husband who pointedly stands clear as I grab an eight inch knife to cut the breakfast Cantaloupe. Life would be so much better if I didn’t have to deal with other people’s mishegas! (Who hasn’t had that thought at least once?!)

I have got to get a grip so I opt for walking to work (not appreciating the fact that I actually have that option) I wonder and ruminate asking the universe why people act the way they do. The answer comes at once: Opera.

Humanity is a messy ball of wax. We cheat, we lie, we triumph, we lament, we love, we sulk, we fall and we get back up again. Opera embodies all this, it takes our feelings and literally gives them voice. As I schlep I plug in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. From the first terrifyingly thrilling chord I am pulled out of my mind-chatter and suddenly notice that I’m enjoying the walk. I listen to Leporello complain about his job;

Notte e giorno faticar
Rest I’ve none by night or day
Scanty fare and doubtful pay
Ev’ry whim I must fulfil
Take my place whoever will
I myself will go accounting
I the gentleman will play
But with him no more I’ll stay
No,no! But with him no more I’ll stay

Hey, at least my days are not filled with babysitting a sexual psychopath on his journey to destruction. Immediately I feel better about my own situation. The behavior of people that annoyed me an hour ago now seems almost cute. Donna Elvira makes a ferocious entrance seething about the recent ill treatment she has received:

Ah che mi deceemai
Where shall I find a token
To guide my steps to thee?
My heart is nearly broken
The world is dark to me
Ah! If he stood before me
Fiercely his vows I’d spurn
The love that once he bore me
Can never more return!

Donna, darling, we have GOT to talk!

The grip on my negative attitude is released and the self I know and love emerges as Mozart takes my hand and graciously accompanies me up Sixth Avenue.

Grazie Maestro, grazie.

MMN

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Thanks to Mr Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Blogspot for the libretto translations

And Now for Something Completely Different

I have a new obsession – Opera! Ha. go figure. Wagnerian opera to be specific. If I have to start somewhere I may as well as go for the hard core stuff. So for the next 8 months and probably into the next year and a half this web log is going to relay my journey into the four operas of Wagner’s epic story known as The Ring Cycle. Straighten your girdle and get out your binoculars cause we’re going to the opera ladies and gentlemen.