waiting!

How I became addicted to his voice
in the wink of an eye!


It was in Nice Opera house on January the 13th 2006.

Nice opera house is the only one in France where the backstage opens to the sea....It's also a cosy Italian house which is intimate and good for voices.. What I really love is to see my hometown through Dufy's eyes...



That evening, I was wondering about that oldfashioned story based on Goethe's letters, which was famous in his days for having been responsible for so many suicides in Europe. Is it as readable as it used to be today in our fast and technical days?

Massenet's music goes well with the story and the text follows Goethe faithfully. I was just thinking that Charlotte in her mother figure would in 2006 give way to her passion and perhaps avoid fragile Werther's fatal end! And boring Albert might well get used to other feelings than duty!

Today I would imagine Werther as a never-satisfied "Green" who would quench his thirst for love in an NGO in a remote country ...
And there I was ready to go once more through his aging XIXth century
famous romantic tale.

Rolando appeared, frail-looking, in a pale greyish green suit, with that
musicality of his, special colours which enable words to match feelings and music. That was it, I forgot all my doubts about whether the work was adequate or not, and I was in his heart, sharing all that passion, feeling "Nature" in those ringing tones, and just crying with a pang in my heart.

As for the well-known 'on lève le rideau; puis on passe de l'autre côté,
Voilà ce qu'on nomme mourir'. (You lift the curtain and you go to the other side. That's what they call dying.).. He was standing by the children's-pond where a toy sailing-boat was floating, and as he was miming 'on passe de l'autre côté' I really could feel he was so much in it, singing and acting.

I would have liked to do something! it was breathtaking! The house was dead silent, in rapture with him and the music! When he cried 'Père, Père que je ne connais pas...' I was in tears. Forget the diction! Emotion and musicality were so true and heartbreaking; that is what really matters in opera.


Well! That was the night I discovered Rolando, the romantic hero, singer, actor, human being, fantastically vivid in his roles.
Since then, I decided I would try to see him in all his roles and I have done as much as I could!

So since then, I have seen his Rodolphe, his Edgardo, his desGrieux, his Lensky, his Hoffmann, his Sesto (Monteverdi) and was ready to see his Vaudémont!
See you soon for another Werther in Bastille.

Viva Mexico! (The last photo is the Mexican consulate in Marseille which is right next to Marseille opera house, where I dream of seeing you one day)


yvette
This is really crazy and I do hope the artist had a good laugh, because I am far from
being a teen-ager fan or something! But what matters in opera is emotion,and that is what it is all about...
Well, to be fair I have gone off Werther, which is a very fine opera but I have moved from the French romantic phase simply because tastes change. I can listen to cds but I
think I have had my shares of the French romantic operas.
Who else could compete with Rolando?
That is another good reason to listen to my cds at home.
After the show, big hug !
Susan Graham and Rolando- Bastille, Werther, March the 3dr. 09