Klarinet Archive - Posting 000687.txt from 2002/10

From: b5w@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Semi-professional throat Bb
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 00:03:35 -0500

Nope! <grin> I know that one because I was on the firing squad who
shot Cavaradossi.

Cavaradossi (and Tosca) believed that the soldiers would be firing
blanks, and therefore Cavaradossi was light-hearted, not needing courage
at all --- at that particular moment.

In fact, when it turned out that the soldiers were firing real bullets
and Cavaradossi fell, Tosca thought that he was just doing a super job
of acting. She complimented him with:

"Eco un artista!"... ("What an artist!")

and then told him to get up so that they could flee in a boat. Of
course, he just lay there. When she understood what happened, she
jumped off a cliff.

It happened that the lady singing Tosca was a bit of a.... cut-up. So
one of my fellow spear-carriers decided to stand behind a piece of
scenery and moon her as she jumped. He asked the rest of us to write
"DON"T JUMP!" on his bare derriere. The stage manager caught wind of
it and (correctly) interceded at the last moment. But it would've
fitted the lady's backstage personality to a tee, because she pulled a
jest or two on us.

....oh, and Tosca was written by Puccini.

I really enjoyed that opera. I was a Swiss guard and the court clerk
who traded a few gestures with Scarpia and a soldier, in all three acts
for six nights. The actors were all opera professionals and listening
to them rehearse was every bit as much pleasure as the performances.

My daughter, who was only 5 or 6 at the time, and who was deeply
impressed by the actor who sang Scarpia and who shook hands with her
backstage in his most masculine and bearded manner..... anyway, my
daughter was sincerely angry at me for shooting Cavaradossi with real
bullets (an air rifle loaded with lots of corn starch).

I had to spend several minutes explaining to her why Dad would do such a
thing, even "for pretend". In the process, I made the mistake of
reminding her that I was following Scarpia's orders, who only moments
before had been her hero because of the attention he paid to her
backstage. This reminder caused her much emotional turmoil, and it
showed her the power of drama --- as well as the necessity to separate
fantasy from reality.

Cheers,
Bill

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