How Natalie Dessay relished the „vanilla crescent cookies“ Helena Salichova, Opera PLUS, 13/03/2014 Translation of the article from the magazine Opera PLUS, here are the photos: operaplus.cz/jak-si-natalie-dessay-pochutnala-na-%E2%80%9Evanilkovych-mesiccich%E2%80%9C/ Dear opera co-fans, let me please tell you a story. It will be about Natalie Dessay and an Opera club for teenagers, and there will be a bit of singing, a bit of studying and even a bit of baking. Chapter one How we haven´t read Walter Scott with class 8A From both the salutation and the title of the first chapter you can see I am an opera fan and also a teacher. I teach Czech language and History at a primary school in Prague 6. It was all started in the spring of 2012. Sir Walter Scott was expecting to meet pupils of class 8A in their reading-books with a sample of his Ivanhoe. Brave knights poking swords at each other with perseverance that lasts only a few pages. Boring. 8A won´t give them „like“... Then I got an idea. What are the attributes of romantic literature? The stories are remarkable and feelings more than exaggerated. And where can we find something similar? In opera! And which opera was written by Scott´s theme? Lucia di Lammermoor. Let´s get to it! Please do not think that I commit irresponsible experiments on my underage pupils, out of love for opera. However, Lucia directly gave us a chance, and moreover, I wondered if I would be able to make the children in 8A get their noses into romanticism through the Italian arias although they are football and taekwondo fans. Yes, I will take their football boots off and Ill take them to the Opera. And as Comenius is my judge, they will like it! Chapter two Ah, that voice here hit my heart! What to choose? Ah! quella voce m’è qui nel cor discesa!.. Beautiful! However, it was clear that even the best Lucia won´t attract these pupils if they only hear it. They must see it, too, and it must not be in a production of park and bark type. The role of Lucia must be sung and played by someone who is going to catch not only their ears but also their bug-eyes. Who could handle that? Natalie Dessay. The next day 8A pupils found their eyes popped on Natalie Dessay in the role of Lucia in a record from the Metropolitan Opera. She attracted their attention so much that it was really surprising for all of us. And they wanted much more. They didnt have to beg. They got the ironing and marching Marie in the Daughter of the Regiment and the dying Ophelia in Hamlet. It was clear that Natalie Dessay caught mainly their hearts. Chapter three How we wrote to Natalie Dessay Throughout her career, Natalie Dessay was repeatedly asked by reporters how to introduce opera to young people. Her answer was always the same: they must „taste it“. Class 8A „tasted“ opera and found it delicious. Therefore I suggested: „You all liked opera thanks to Natalie Dessay. She would be pleased to know it. Lets write to her!“ 8A pupils usually ended their essay matches at the best in a draw. Since then they were much more motivated to pour out their souls on a sheet of paper than during describing a workflow. They agreed. They started writing, of course in the style of „Hey Natalie!“ and „I lyke that!“ Nope! Nice and politely: Madam Dessay... and more specifically: what and why. Step by step, some brief but nice and sincere texts began to appear. We had selected the best ones together, I added some accompanying words and the letter was finished. My colleague translated it into French and then it was checked by a native French. There was the last but a very difficult step left: to deliver the letter to Natalie Dessay. Chapter four The Opera club In the meantime everything started to gather unexpected momentum. If the students bring themselves to attention, it is usually not due to the interest in this art. They had become a living advertisement of the opera for other classmates. Before the school year ended, we spent the first Day with opera, and went to the movies to watch a record from the Met. We also went to see our first Lawrence Brownlee´s concert. It was for free thanks to a gracious offer of Mrs. Nachtigalova and her Nachtigall Artists Agency. After the holidays we started the Opera club in our school. Here I would like to refer to the website operniklub.cz where you can find the text of the letter to Natalie Dessay as well as a chronicle of our two-year activity. The students themselves describe their experiences from Days with opera, discussions, excursions, visits to the opera performances and concerts of world stars. And its not just an ordinary experience! Well, tell me: who of you carried flowers into Anna Netrebko´s dressing room and was even praised? Who of you could hear Juan Diego Flórez practising before the concert? Who of you has a signature of Mariusz Kwiecien in a report book? Just a few reviewers are as clear about Carmen as our M. L.: „In my opinion Carmen deserved a wretched death. She said she is ready to face up the death at least six times during the opera. When she said that for the seventh time, they killed her.“ The Opera club is in its second year. I hesitate to say that I started it, however it is true. The Opera club happened to me with the same logic you dig the hole exactly where - whether aware of it or not - you want to fall in it. Chapter five From Geneva to Jakarta or in other words: I like Facebook! Although there were many efficient opera activities, I didn´t forget the initial goal: to deliver our letter to Natalie Dessay. But how? I really didnt know where her letterbox was. She wasn´t going to sing in Prague. My school wouldn´t send me on a business trip to the Paris Opera. What about trying to speak to the agency representing Natalie Dessay? So I sat down and wrote an e-mail to Ms. Cédelle, and I asked her for delivery of the letter. Mrs. Nachtigalova was coincidentally dealing with the Agency at that time, so she also lobbied for our request. The e-mail was very very polite and very very supplicant, but it didn´t impress Mrs. Cédelle at all. Now what? Is there any other way? Maybe yes – facebook page on the official website of Natalie Dessay. In addition to the website I have also made a facebook page of the Opera club, and in this context even my own one. In order to get anybody notice our letter to Natalie Dessay on her facebook profile, it was necessary to collect a lot of „likes“ for it. Fans´ messages there tend to have a maximum of 10-15 likes. Our message got 203 of them within three days. I explained to the children I taught what we were trying to do. And the result? 150 likes. Friends and colleagues joined it, too. The remaining likes have been supplied by Natalie Dessay´s fans from all over the world: from Geneva, from Jakarta, Holland, Mexico, Congo and from Italy. An unusual activity attracted the attention of Natalie Dessay´s facebook administrators who wrote „Bravo! to our message. However, nothing indicated that the right recipient had also read the letter. Chapter six, a very short one An der schönen blauen Donau It is the new school year 2013/2014. The pupils who wrote a letter to Natalie Dessay in May 2012 sit at the desks of their secondary schools. The Opera club continues with their followers, but our letter still did not get into the hands it was intended for. On December 13 I went to Vienna to a concert of Natalie Dessay and Michel Legrand, and of course I took the letter with me. What if there was signing after the concert? It was not. Cest la vie. Goodbye, beautiful blue Danube! Chapter seven Florence Varetz joins the action If you look at Natalie Dessay´s website, you will see that one of her most enthusiastic admirers is Miss Florence Varetz. She also noticed our message and decided that we are of one blood, you and I, and we have become friends through the facebook. Florence Varetz lives in France, and compared with us, her journey to concerts or performances of Natalie Dessay is just a stones throw. She also cheerfully enjoys that, as it´s demonstrated by the photos on her facebook profile. From the words she´s written to me I could understand that she always comes to Natalie Dessay with great courtesy and respect. Florence will be the one! I asked her for help. She didnt hesitate for a second. She liked the idea of the letter for Natalie Dessay, she was excited about the Opera club for teenagers and promised to do as much as she could. Chapter eight… …in which „les lunes à la vanille“ are baked The soonest performance Florence was going to see was in January this year. Natalie Dessay was going to read Joyce´s „Molly Blooms Monologue“ at the theatre in Elancourt (yes, she also does this). I was wrapping a parcel for Florence, and at the last moment it occurred to me to add something else. Among other songs by Michel Legrand, Natalie Dessay sings the one from a fairy tale The donkey skin, in which, as an eight-year girl, she was amazed by Catherine Deneuve. The song is actually a recipe for „cake damour“ for the prince. When I read the text of the recipe I thought: „It is only an ordinary French cake in comparison to the Czech vanilla rolls!“ Our family recipe for the rolls wandered to Natalie Dessay along with a letter and the logo of the Opera club – actually to make fun. If she doesn´t want to bake them, she may use the recipe to sing. To my surprise it was Florence who baked the vanilla rolls. She made that her own way, of course. She kneaded the dough, cut out crescent shapes and covered the final „les lunes“ with sugar right on the plate. But why not? Apparently she loved them because she made another one batch, this time for Natalie Dessay. Chapter nine Enfin! Finally, the D-day was here and Florence set off with the letter and vanilla crescents. It was so sweet how she perceived the whole thing. She wasn´t making us a favor, she felt to be an emissary to represent the Opera club, and an ambassador of all the seventy children who went through it during the last two years. At this point I have to repeat: I like my facebook! The next day Florence wrote delightedly: „Done!“ Details were being added during the day. After the show, Florence told Natalie Dessay everything about the Opera club, gave her the letter and the cookies, and when she asked her for an autograph, Natalie willingly painted her signature on the logo of the Club, a photo of hers and booklets from the dvd. Finally there? Fortissimo and the curtain comes down? No, not yet. Now it is worth noting what was at the beginning of the whole story. We wanted to make Natalie Dessay happy with the letter about children being impressed by opera thanks to her. Did we do it? Florence described her reaction as follows: „Elle était très touchée et elle a beaucoup aimé.“ (She was very impressed, and she liked it very much.) And that is the right one - I almost want to say „operatic“ - happy ending! Postscript My story might end up here but I´ll write a few more sentences. How to express our gratitude to Florence? What could we do to please her? I get it. We will appoint her an honorary member of the Opera Club! And we did it together. Since February 2014 there is one more member of the Opera club. Florence Varetz is just one of us!
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 20:24:18 +0000
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