Tonight, I had the pleasure of attending an open air Italian Opera for the first time. The opera, Il Rigoletto, was dramatic enough but then there were the side shows.
The first happened right before the opera was about to begin. There was some screaming and shouting and then a distinct "no vediamo"- "we can't see". We weren't sure if there was a dispute over assigned seats, they were disappointed that the lighting man was in their area or exactly what the problem was. There were a few police officers who seemed to be just taking up space. The people carried on for awhile screaming and yelling until the crowd started clapping and yelling "fouri" (outside) ironically, we were outside. After that little incident, the opera proceeded until someone decided to yell "sporco" (dirty) for who knows what reason.
At the end of the second act, two of the main characters had a very nice, dramatic scene. The audience demanded an encore of the scene to which, the characters obliged and basically performed the scene again. I have never seen such a thing.
Women and men were dressed to the "9's" even though most of us were sitting on concrete. Women had very nice dresses and high heel shoes. Men had nice slacks, matching sweaters and very nice shoes. No one showed up just looking like they came in from a soccer match. The idea of being properly dressed for an opera, whether it's inside or out, was evident.
The idea of the chapter in this book is about relating the culture to the way business is conducted. For Italians, everything is a production whether it is making a lovely meal or getting a business deal done. Now I can say that I've experienced an opera and have a better understanding of why Italian Opera is a good metaphor for the culture.
I can't wait to get home and reread the chapter on Italy, something tells me that I'm going to find more things that happened that are indicative of the culture. One thing is for sure if I see another opera somewhere else, it is not nearly going to be the same!
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