Day 16, Parma

Just from looking out our hotel room window, you wouldn't think much of Parma. But we traveled the half-mile or so into the center of town today, and we were very impressed! Mostly impressed by food and shopping, however, but that's perfectly alright for us girls. Also, it's impressive how much this town is into Verdi at the moment. This is where he was from, and right now they're having their Verdi festival. I think the Verdi Festival promotions team must be working lots of overtime, because they have the posters everywhere. Every public bus in town looks like Verdi's own tour bus. So yes, if you really like Verdi and his operas, this would be a good place for you to be.

This is also a good place to be if you really like food. (I'm looking at you, Tom.) Our lunch today was the best meal we've had so far on this tour. The restaurant was called Gran Caffe Orientale, and the seating was in this glass atrium thing out in the middle of the Garibaldi plaza. First the breadsticks and the wine. Then came these huge platters of prosciutto (Gramma's favorite) and other plates of parmesan cheese, just the way I like it, in chunks. Then came the pasta dish, which was kind of a giant ravioli in a light oil and cheese dressing-- And this is where they get you, because they bring way too much of this stuff, and it's the best pasta I've ever tasted in my life, so there's no way to eat just enough... I always eat too much, not knowing what's coming after. I basically just eat that pasta course like it's the last food I'll ever have, and then sure enough, out comes the main course, which in this case was even more glorious than the pasta. The meat was veal, and it was served in a brown gravy with whole peppercorns, all on top of this crunchy piece of toasted biscuit. And then, almost as an insult to the capacity of the average human digestive system, the dessert. I took a photo of it, because I wasn't sure I'd wake up out of my food coma and remember what had taken place. In fact, Gramma and I headed straight back to the hotel after lunch and took a nap! So we didn't really see that much of Parma yet, but we still have another day here. We'll be going to the Toscanini museum tomorrow, on the anniversary of his death. I think Gramma's really looking forward to that.

Tonight's opera was "Oberto, Conte di Dan Bonifacio," and we saw it at the Verdi Theatre in Busseto, only a few kilometers away from where Verdi grew up. It was a tiny little theatre, seating less than 400 people (rather uncomfortably--we were sitting in our box seats like pretzels). This theatre was built in honor of Verdi during his lifetime, but he disapproved of it, because it was too small to be of much service to the opera. And I guess it raises the question of how such a small venue can put on such extravagent performances and still make money. So anyway, it was pretty special to be out in this special little theatre seeing Verdi's very first opera, one he wrote when he was 26. When I heard that fact, my ears really perked up, because I suddenly noticed that Verdi and I have something in common--That is, that he was once 26 too. It's like, I'm a total foreigner in the opera culture, and everything we've seen so far has been in this unintelligible language, and even the music itself is difficult to grasp-- but I can relate to the concept of a 26-year-old, so that's something! And that was just the start of how this evening's opera really seemed to reach out to me. With the theatre being so small, and with us up in the boxes, (granted, we were having to contort our bodies in many strange ways because the seats were like bus stop benches covered in red velvet, all pointing in the wrong directions) I was able to see everything. Everything. The orchestra, the singers, the extra singers, the extra extra singers they planted out in the audience for some of the scenes. So the sights and the sounds of it all were very close. No opera glasses needed! And no heads in my way this time. The members of the cast were mostly quite young, including the lead soprano who didn't look a day over 26. And our guide on this tour, who is so knowledgeable about opera, told us that the music of "Oberto" is much simpler than Verdi's later, more complex works. But that simplicity resonated with me much more than anything else I've heard so far. Plus, the sets and the costumes and the staging were awesome tonight, so it was really easy to get into it. But this idea that Verdi was 26 when he wrote this, and that the beautiful woman singing on stage was probably around my age too, well, it just made me feel really good about my place in life. So nice to see the evidence of kids my age working hard and achieving great music. I guess you could say it was inspiring in a way-- but most importantly, I saw how someone my age could possibly "own" opera: Verdi, the young people in the cast, little ol' me in the box way up there. This isn't a well-known opera, and will never be considered one of Verdi's top 10, but something about it was perfectly down-to-earth for me, and that's exactly what I'd hoped might happen on this trip. I'm learning so so much about opera, particularly opera culture... As I explained to Eileen, a retired professional opera singer who's on this tour with us, helping me appreciate opera is like coaching a Mormon in wine tasting. I'm really starting from scratch here! Everyone's buzzing about tomorrow evening-- We'll go back to the big opera house in Parma and see "La Traviata."