Thursday, May 9

A Night at the Opera

David took me to the opera the other day. It was La Bohème by Puccini.


The music and singing are fantastic. One aria after another that most would recognize from the "greatest hits of the opera". And so incredibly emotionally moving!

It's about four "Bohemians" (young starving artists) living in a garret in Paris. Rodolfo is a poet, Schaunard a musician, Colline a philosopher, and Marcello a painter.

In the first act we are introduced to the carefree young men who put a fast one over on their landlord.


It's Christmas eve, and having saved the rent money the boys decide to go out into the Latin Quarter to celebrate. Rodlfo stays behind to quickly finish up some work and will join them. At this point, his new next door neighbour, a girl named Mimi, asks for help as her candle went out. Rodolfo helps her and they fall in love.

This photo was from our production - we had a black Mimi!

In the second act they are at the Cafe Momus on Christmas Eve.


This is where my favourite character, a young charmer named Musetta first enters, elegantly dressed and on the arm of a wealthy older man.


It is clear that she has a past with Marcello the painter, and they give each other the cold shoulder. But Musetta is really in lust with Marcello, and hates being with the boring rich man (she clearly sleeps with him for his money, which drives the jealous Marcello mad). She pretends that her shoe falls apart, makes the old man run to find a cobbler to fix it. Meanwhile she reunites with Marcello lustilly and sticks the rich old guy with the bill.


Musetta is the naughty one in the story. One of her big arias is called Quando M'en Vo, which is Italian for "When I go along". This aria shows how naughty she really is! Here is one of the best (and prettiest!) opera singers in the world, Anna Netrebko, singing it in concert.


The lyrics go like this (the last part is directed at Marcello).
When walking alone on the streets,
People stop and stare
And examine my beauty
From head to toe
And then I savor the cravings
which from their eyes transpires
And from the obvious charms they perceive
The hidden beauties.
So the scent of desire is all around me,
It makes me happy!
And you who know, who remembers and yearns,
You shrink from me?
I know why this is:
You do not want to tell me of your anguish,
But you feel like dying!
Isn't she just a piece of work? Singing about how pretty she is and about how all the men lust after her hopelessly, and how much she enjoys it and it makes her happy. Ha ha. A perfect slutty tease!

The third act is on the outskirts of the city where Marcello and Rodolfo are working. Rodolfo had just broken up with Mimi the day before. Mimi comes to find them, and overhears them talking about the true reason for the breakup.


A rich Viscount has his eye on Mimi and Rodolfo was jealous. He breaks up with Mimi, ostensibly for reasons of jealousy, but really because Mimi is getting more and more ill, and Rodolfo cannot provide for her. The decide to spend a bit more time together and then Mimi goes off with the Viscount.

Also in this act, at the start Musetta and Marcello are together, but she flirts with a very attractive army officer. Marcello gets jealous and threatens to beat her, and Musetta takes off with the handsome young officer, telling Marcello she can make love with whomever she pleases! David thinks she should have gotten a spanking from Marcello. I cannot disagree.


In the final act Mimi, on the verge of death, leaves her Viscount and goes back to the garret to spend her final hours with Rodolfo. Musetta finds her on the street and helps her get there. Musetta demonstrates a kind heart by selling her earrings for medicine and a doctor, and buying Mimi her last wish, a warm fur muff for her very cold hands. She prays to God and the Virgin to save Mimi, acknowledging that she herself is fallen, but that Mimi is an angel.

Mimi dies before the doctor can arrive, with all her friends around her. At the very moment of her death there is a big orchestra chord. A few moments later when Rodolfo realizes she is dead, the music swells in an emotional outpouring that brings the opera to a close.


So amazing! I loved it. There is nothing like a good opera (especially a Puccini opera such as Boheme or Madame Butterfly) to stir all your senses and emotions ridiculously.

Sorry for the distraction, we will now return to our regularly scheduled kinky programming!

45 comments:

  1. La Boheme is what the musical Rent is based off of. Rent is overrated, but La Boheme is the real deal!

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  2. Orchestra ? Grand ring ? Ring ? Evening dress ? Jeans ? Panties ?

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    1. Very good seats and an evening dress. Champagne at intermission. High class!

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  3. Welcome Back, been gone for sometime. Jack

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  4. Nothing wrong with a change of mind, I would say.

    Kind regards,

    Marco (from Lindsay).

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  5. Thank you!!! I would never have considered seeing an opera. Your description drew me in. You are such a talented communicator! peter peter

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  6. I had my lotion and towel ready along with my new cotton full brief panties on. This is cruel Miss Julie!

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  7. a fun night of culture

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  8. Great aria. Same song was used in moonstruck opera scene with Cher

    Amazing how many of those works are still incorporated into modern day cinema

    Regards
    Sgirard

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  9. Nice to read something different on another subject you're so obviously passionate about.
    Is Marcello's threat kinky, like in say, James Bond? Or is it just an old-fashioned threat of domestic violence?

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    1. I guess it could be played various ways. In this case, it was more comic, and more the futile ravings of a man wrapped around her little finger.

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  10. We love you too.

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  11. I am glad you got to see La Bohème. It's one of my favorite operas. I'm a native New Yorker now transplanted West. When I lived in New York I had a subscription to the Metropolitan Opera and treasured every performance.

    Did you ever see the TV series "The Odd Couple"? One of the episodes had Felix Unger move upstate to work with his brother at his bubblegum factory. Instead of including baseball cards with the gum, Felix decided to add "Great Moments in Opera" trading cards. One of those cards was "Mimi dies of consumption." Every time I think about Boehme, I remember those trading cards.

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    1. You can still see opera on your tv you know. Make an evening of it!

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    2. I was a singer in a previous life, and had the great fortune to sing la boheme many times, including at the met. this was in the late '80s-early '90s. perhaps @cagedlion saw one of my performances?

      i sang in toronto as well, but not boheme (don giovanni), and the production was broadcast live on the CBC. somewhere i have a VHS cassette of it.

      really enjoyed this post, as well as your more typical fare. ;)

      cheers,

      Vecchio Colline

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    3. How wonderful! Thank you

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  12. Hey there. Great change of pace! So proud of you! Puccini has some great 'tunes' but his stories are a little too schmalzty for me. My favorite operas are by Mozart. In fact I usually recommend "The Marriage of Figaro" as the best 'starter opera' for novices. It's got everything for nearly everyone. But, if you really want to get your blood flowing and mind working, give the entire Ring Cycle a try sometime. 17 hours of Norse mythology, mixed with Nietzsche-esque philosophy, all rendered in powerful Wagnerian composition.

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    1. No thank you on the Wagner! I do like the Mozart, especially marriage, but it's like a different thing than Puccini or Verdi or Bizet.

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  13. All the above suggestions are worthwhile, but I would add Monteverdi's (and Glück's) "Orfeo"- and Berlioz's "Les Troyens"... (did anyone recommend Bizet's "Carmen"?

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    1. Yay! Carmen... « Your toast, I can return it to you » ...the circus is full of blood! ….a dark eye is watching you...
      That's what I sing to my wife when she gives me a good hiding, (even if, what I have done doesn't deserve such severity) ... and, what I prefer, while shaking my banderillas : love is waiting for you!

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  14. This opera is a metaphor for your blog. Musetta (you) attracts, beguiles, teases and flirts with the lustful Bohemians (us blog boys and girls). Mr D

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  15. Opera is useful for spanking, it can cover the sound of the paddle hitting the ass and the cries and pleas of David or subby Julue

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    1. Hmmmm. I would not mix it. I prefer 80s aerobics music while I ass fuck him (“Maniac” is my fave).

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  16. How nice! It sounds like you had a wonderful evening. Been a fan of all kinds of classical music forever but I've never been to see an opera. I will definitely check this one out, though even just on TV for now.
    vic

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    1. Pick a good one! It’s something you need to ease into.

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  17. Where are you julie?
    Can you sit to blog? Or you are getting daily spankings and not able to sit.

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    1. Do not forget to buy new spanking implements during your travel, my wife always does that, she buys local slippers / sandals from every country she visits, she says every country has its flavour.
      She also looks for leather belts and kitchen ware that can be used for spanking.
      Oh, she has over 50 slippers and many hair brushes, and wooden spoon.

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  18. My husband is devastated because his boss spanked him in the office.
    When he returned, he immediately jumped into my arms and burst into tears.
    He told me, through his tears, that his boss had spanked him in front of all his colleagues.
    I asked him if he dropped his pants and he said no. So I told him it was less serious than if he had completely stripped him in front of everyone but he says that he feels so humiliated that he could not go back to work. Poor baby, sometimes he is so sensitive.

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    1. Tell us more! Males or females in the audience? Why was he spanked? What position? Implements? Don’t be a tease!

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    2. His explanations are not very clear. He said he had had mocking remarks about his boss.
      We live in Norfolk, UK and Marc works as an assistant accountant in a shop/factory of sports equipment and especially dumbbells.
      Marc, who is a rather teasing natural and who likes to make others laugh around him, would have compared his boss to a balloon that can be deflated with a pin. But it turns out that his boss, a former bodybuilding fan came in at that moment and got mad. He took him under his arm (Marc is not a wimp but not either a big guy and I love him for that) and spanked him, in front of his colleagues (girls and boys) who laughed.
      I must add that Marc is a go commando guy (on his father's side, they were a go commando family) so there was nothing between his bare buttocks and his boss's huge beating hand than the thin fabric of his tergal work trousers. Ouch!
      Finally, I convinced him to go back to work and go immediately to apologize to his boss. And not to forget to put two layers of underpants in case a second spanking was in store ;-)

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    3. IMO, he sought, unconsciously, punishment.

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    4. Well... I agree with your wife that you deserved it and got off easy. I mean, imagine you, a subby beta male, poking fun at an alpha? What did you expect? You were VERY LUCKY your pants weren’t taken down! I also agree you should go and apologize again, and tell him your wife approves of the public spanking he gave you. Though I don’t think the extra undies are a good idea as he’s likely to pull your pants down next time and the “cheating” will just make him madder. Best to take your medicine without angering him.

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    5. If I were his wife, I would accompany him to the store to make sure that he apologizes to his boss.

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  19. Do not forget to buy new spanking implements during your travel

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