The Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, ca. 1880. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Within the second half of the seventies, once I was in my twenties, I wrote letters dwelling to Eire from Barcelona. Early in 1976, for instance, from my pension on the nook of Carrer de la Portaferrissa and Carrer del Pi, I described my first go to to the Liceu opera home.
Pricey Mom,
The partitions on this small, low cost lodge are skinny. The person within the subsequent room listens to opera on the radio. He seems to be like somebody who has seen little daylight, however as an alternative he has seen many operas, as he tried to elucidate to me in damaged variations of a number of languages. Two days in the past, he was ready for me within the hall. At first, I assumed a hearth had damaged out or the police had, as soon as extra, attacked the folks. He was saying one thing that clearly would require fast motion on my half. Having calmed him down and bought a dictionary, I noticed that he had seen a manufacturing on the Liceu that was particular, and he believed that I, as a matter of urgency, ought to see it too. It was Puccini’s La Boheme, and it starred Montserrat Caballé.
It was onerous to know what to do once I went to the field workplace. A few of the costs for particular person tickets would additionally purchase you a studio residence within the metropolis. I purchased the second least expensive kind of ticket. Once I confirmed it to my opera-crazed neighbor, he peered at it for a while, turned it round to test the again, after which shook his head. However this made no sense. It was the exact opera he had really useful, within the very venue he had instructed. What could possibly be mistaken with this ticket?
On the evening in query, I arrived in good time. Once I confirmed my ticket on the entrance door, I used to be directed to a different door, much less grand and auspicious, on the aspect. From there started a set of stairs that rose endlessly and grew narrower as they bought greater. When, finally, I discovered my seat, I found that I had no view at the entire stage, none. Standing up wouldn’t assist, as a result of there was not sufficient head room to face up. Quickly, others arrived and took up the seats round me. All of us had been males, most of us had been alone, and all of us had been unhappy.
We grew sadder when the music started, within the certain data that the stage have to be bathed in stunning mild and the costumes have to be attractive and the set beautifully crafted. When our descendants, if we needs to be so fortunate, had been ever to ask us how we felt when Caballé first appeared on the stage and when she stated that she was known as Mimi, we must say that we didn’t see her and that listening to her was no compensation, it merely made us bitter, a bitterness that entered our spirits that evening and by no means left.
The issue arose in act 4. I couldn’t bear it any longer as Mimi sang her farewell. I had paid my cash, I wanted to see what was occurring on the stage in order that I may write dwelling about it. I may hear the singing and the orchestra as clearly as a hungry individual can odor meals. I felt a ratlike willpower to see Caballé simply as soon as. Simply as soon as. I noticed that leaning out from the place I used to be wouldn’t work. I waited till a hovering second, Caballé’s voice at its most splendid, and I not solely leaned out however rested my two palms on the shoulders of every of the 2 males in entrance of me and propelled myself ahead like a duck. That allowed me to catch a glimpse of the stage, only one glimpse, only for one second.
The boys whose shoulders had thus been used went loopy. One in every of them known as me a reputation that I can’t repeat, particularly in a letter to my mom, because it impugned my mom’s repute in a method that’s unmistakable. However, by that point, I had retreated into my cage, the place from the place I may hear however not see. The issue was that my leaning had been much less light than I had deliberate. I had clearly ruined the expertise of an awesome excessive observe for 2 members of the viewers who had paid more cash than I had.
And now they knew the place I used to be.
When the opera ended, I didn’t watch for the applause. There may be, as I’ve talked about earlier than, a fearsome set of policemen in Barcelona referred to as els grisos. They typically glower at me suspiciously on the Ramblas. It isn’t merely that they’ve weapons and batons however they’ve hatred of their eyes for individuals who have no idea their place. I have no idea my place. I wanted to get out of that constructing earlier than anybody reported me to close by members of els grisos.
Again within the pension, my neighbor had a protracted face. He pointed at his ears to sign that I will need to have heard the music, after which he lined his eyes to mark the truth that I used to be among the many unlucky who didn’t catch sight of the almighty Caballé. I made alerts like somebody eradicating a blindfold. I let him know that I had actually seen her, I had caught a glimpse of the good soprano in one in all her most beautiful arias. However I didn’t clarify how.
That, Mom, is all of the information for now. The climate is good. The dictator continues to be useless. Els grisos are nonetheless on the road.
Your loving son.
Colm Tóibín’s most up-to-date e book is The Magician. Belinda McKeon interviewed him for difficulty no. 242 of The Paris Overview.
