Joshua Van Tassel

I was very lucky last night and got to go to an open rehearsal of the opera Tosca (thank you Ashlie!). I’ve never really been to an opera before, and I really had a great time. What saved my life was surtitles, which are apparently a COC creation from back in 1983. Without them, I probably would have gotten the general idea, but I don’t know if I would have understood it completely. Here’s my summary sans surtitles of act 1 - -

- homeless looking dude stumbles in the church and hides
- a painter comes in to paint a picture on the wall ( they used to pay graffiti artists back in the day)
- his kind of crazy girlfriend comes in and in the course of 7 or so minutes gets really mad at him, then happy, then mad, then wants to make out
- she leaves, homeless looking man comes out and talks to painter. They know each other and they’re really excited about something.
- evil looking guy comes looking for the 2 of them once they leave, and they’re gone. Girlfriend comes back and evil guy talks some shit to her and she gets really mad again ( this girls ups and downs are pretty intense.) He also has a fan that he gives to her, and that really makes her crazy.

That’s the gist of it. I’m not trying to trivialize the art form by any means, I was totally impressed by it and definitely enjoyed myself. I’m just saying thanks for the big white words on a screen to the COC, they make a difference.

Here’s a clip of what they tell you before the curtain rises, and then one of the end of Act 1. And also, I really love my H4 for this stuff.