MacGougan at Large
Notes from NYC - 8
Fidelio
Recently, my wife Linda and I decided to spend a Saturday afternoon watching a Metropolitan Opera simulcast at a local movie theater. I realize this is a stretch to include as a “Note from NYC” - but I think of it as emblematic of the reality that NYC doesn’t stop at its own borders. Our culture is filled with NYC impact.
The theater we went to, by the way, is not a typical movie house. Cinestudio in Hartford is on the campus of Trinity College. It’s a stately hall with a balcony in a beautiful old building with lots of nice decorative touches. It isn’t Lincoln Center, but it’s as nice a spot to see a simulcast as you are likely to find.
The opera was Fidelio and Linda was excited about the fact that the lead singer was Lise Davidsen from Norway. My wife is a second-generation Norwegian-American. I’m pretty sure that someday we’ll get into trouble with the Patriotism Police due to the fact that, in our home, Norwegian flags outnumber American flags by at least two to one.
The plot of Fidelio calls for a woman named Leonore to pass herself off as a young man named Fidelio in order to get hired by the man in charge of the jail where her husband is being held as a political prisoner. She is so successful at this subterfuge that the jailer’s presumably straight daughter falls in love with Fidelio and wants to marry him.
One advantage that Ms. Davidsen has in making this all seem plausible is that she is very tall. One disadvantage she had at the time of the performance was being pregnant with twins - which was definitely starting to show. It took a bit of an imaginative leap by the audience to see the tall, pregnant soprano with the pixie haircut as the man of the jailer’s daughter’s dreams.
The plot of Fidelio is a straightforward rescue story. There’s some dramatic tension, but it lacks the nuance and ambiguity I associate with the best art. The opera has a perfectly good score, but - unlike most of Beethoven’s other work - the music didn't strike me as transcendent. Fidelio is the only opera that Beethoven ever wrote, and I’m thinking that was probably a good call on his part.
(When asked about my lukewarm review, Beethoven shrugged and suggested that MacGougan at Large lacks the nuance and ambiguity he associates with the best Substacks.)
This probably won’t surprise anyone who knows me, especially you, but I don’t really like opera. I want to like it. In fact, I fancy myself as a music lover who appreciates every type of music. But not opera. Hell, I was mildly annoyed that there’s only a limited amount of dialogue in Phantom of the Opera. It’s a good thing the songs are great.
So you were losing me right up to the point where Beethoven started opining about your Substack. That’s when I remembered that I’m not really here for the cultural content; it’s the goofy stuff I want.
This left me laughing out loud: (When asked about my lukewarm review, Beethoven shrugged and suggested that MacGougan at Large lacks the nuance and ambiguity he associates with the best Substacks.)