But I will say I'm ashamed. And frustrated. I saw my first opera at 12, at La Scala theater, Milan, my hometown. It was Puccini's Madame Butterfly. Last act, how a butterfly dies: with an immaculate kimono, on an immaculate stage, the katana firmly pushed in her own belly, falling on her knees, bending over, opening a laquer-red fan underneath her body. From where I was sitting, it looked like a pool of blood growing and growing and growing...
"Three major Italian houses could face government takeovers because of growing financial problems, the London Times reports.
Venice's La Fenice has a deficit of 3 million euros; Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice expects a loss of 4.6 million euros; Naples' Teatro San Carlo projects a shortfall of close to 7 million euros. Italian law says that any opera house with a deficit of over 5 million euros will be declared bankrupt and placed under the oversight of a government appointee.
The opera houses blame the government for their financial problems. Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has slashed the country's arts budget, much of which is spent on subsidizing opera, by one third".
The again, the local scene is not turning my frown into a smile. What if I told you a Colorado music teacher tried to pique the curiosity of the first, second, and third graders in one of her classes about opera, chosing a video of Gounod's Faust, to teach the children about bass and tenor voices, the use of props, and "trouser roles" in opera, only to find herself facing the following accusations: being a lesbian (I guess in the Capital State of Evangelicals it's considered a crime), promoting homosexuality and devil worshipping? She was forced to take an administrative leave.
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