Holiday week: Maria Stuarda in Genova 2017-05-17

The bus trip from Bonn to Genova lasted 15 hours, from May 15th at 19 to May 16th at 10. It was OK. I could sleep and/or listen to music from my iTunes library. It was not bad in the beginning but then the smell from the toilet became harder to ignore. I had to put kleenex in my nose just to breathe without gagging. But that was just the last hours. Kleenex saved me! No foods to buy on the bus. Luckily I had some Cola with me but not enough food. I had been foolish enough to believe FlixBus promise of cheap food and drinking on the bus. One hour before Genova the bus stopped and we could go to a beautiful toilet and buy food and drink. Not a moment too soon but at this point we were only 4 or 5 passengers left.

The Australian woman complained that Europe was so cold, but Italy was nice. I, as Norwegian, was almost having heat stroke. And it was only 10 in the morning! Different perspectives... The hotel was too far away and I had too much luggage so I took a taxi. Hotel Columbus Sea sounds and looks impressive from a far. But far away from the center it was no matter what the nice receptionist said. Cheap it was. Yellow walls, carpets and worn it looked. The bed was hard and it was a noisy room with a view not to the sea but to traffic. And the room had a smell that was making me crazy. Opened the window and tried to get the smell out but it was more noise in than smell out. The hotel room made me slightly depressed. I was allowed to pay only for the one night and not for the booked 2 nights. Nice! 

The breakfast on the National day of Norway, May 17th, was a meager affaire. But things were looking up. Taxi to my new hotel, Grand Hotel Savoia. The day before I had been looking to see which hotel would be perfect for me. After the disappointment I deserved something really great like a 5 stars hotel for 3 times the price of my previous night. And voila! 

Google maps is a wonderful app but in Genova there are many small streets called vico that Google maps insists is the best route. They are small, shabby and smelly. Via is more like our normal streets. Genova with piazzas is beautiful. In the night it will be safer to avoid vico. The heat was hard for me and the walking tough for my feet. Finally it was time for opera.

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda. Teatro Carlo Fenice, Genova 2017-05-17 at 20:30-23:20.

Maria Stuarda Elena Mosuc
Elisabetta Silvia Tro Santafé
Roberto, Conte di Leicester Celso Albelo
Giorgio Talbot Andrea Concetti
Lord Guglielmo Cecil Stefano Antonucci
Anna Kennedy Alessandra Palomba

A great cast, especially Elena Mosuc, Silvia Tro Santafe and Celso Albelo. The production was good enough, the costumes beautiful for singers. The chorus was dressed in black always, a way to get the cost down but... The sets was moved around as the music starts so the stage hands also got their own applause. This was the premiere. The singers was acting as themselves on stage and then when see through curtain was raised they became their roles. It was a waste to do it like that and it did nothing for the opera. Then it was the costumes. They were beautiful but to see men in dresses made me wonder if that was historically correct. It had to be that. Elena Mosuc was a wonderful Maria Stuarda, Silvia Tro Santafe was a splendid Elisabetta and Celso Albelo was a powerful Leicester. 

Naturally Elisabeth in the opera of Donizetti is just a really jealous women instead of a queen which reign is threatened by the Scottish queen Mary Stuart. Leicester is a toddler of a man. He does not understand powerful women, he just wants what he wants. Disaster is assured. Like most Stuarts, Mary Stuart knew how to die splendidly. And we saw that in Elena Mosuc singing the end of Maria Stuarda. Brava, Elena! Brava, Silvia! Bravo, Celso!