That's the San Francisco Opera site . . . I saw some of those links, but I didn't click on any of them because they take so long on my home computer and my work computer is muted. But now I'm wondering how many ways there are to pronounce "Tosca" -- it just seems sort of intuitively obvious to me.
One of my favorite "Tosca" stories is from a guy who'd been part of the firing squad in a production in New Orleans a few decades ago. Management was cheap and/or foolish and decided not to use blanks for the rifles until the opening performance, having the supers mime their business in rehearsal until that time. However, the noise and recoil from the blanks was so frightening that a pair of soldiers screamed and dropped their rifles. Supposedly, the audience didn't stop howling with laughter until Tosca threw herself over the parapet.
I believe that in the great tradition of firing squads, several men will be pulling triggers so that no one knows who actually kills Cavaradossi -- but I understand that the blogosphere's own sfmike will in fact be one of those pulling the potentially fatal trigger.
6 comments:
Funny! And you know what else is funny? The site you linked to has a sound bite to help us pronounce "Tosca."
Ha ha!
That's the San Francisco Opera site . . . I saw some of those links, but I didn't click on any of them because they take so long on my home computer and my work computer is muted. But now I'm wondering how many ways there are to pronounce "Tosca" -- it just seems sort of intuitively obvious to me.
One of my favorite "Tosca" stories is from a guy who'd been part of the firing squad in a production in New Orleans a few decades ago. Management was cheap and/or foolish and decided not to use blanks for the rifles until the opening performance, having the supers mime their business in rehearsal until that time. However, the noise and recoil from the blanks was so frightening that a pair of soldiers screamed and dropped their rifles. Supposedly, the audience didn't stop howling with laughter until Tosca threw herself over the parapet.
Mike, That is one of the funniest opera stories I've ever heard.
I second Patrick's comment. And is Mike really going to be the one pulling the trigger?
I believe that in the great tradition of firing squads, several men will be pulling triggers so that no one knows who actually kills Cavaradossi -- but I understand that the blogosphere's own sfmike will in fact be one of those pulling the potentially fatal trigger.
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