Le Monde de l'Opera

Yesterday, rather unexpectedly,turned into a bit of an opera day. Not only did I get a fantastic CD of Carmen for 4 euros (Le Monde is celebrating the birth of opera with a weekly series of great opera CDs. Hurrah! Happy Birthday Opera!) but had just been for a walk to Place Bellecour, sauntered around the shops for a while, bought a pair of shoes or two in the sales (oops) and was about to head home whenI was tempted in to a cinema by the words "L'étrangère" (the title), "an American in Paris" and "opera". Turned out to be a lovely film based on Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with LOTS of glorious, soaring soprano singing and extracts from the opera. Was worth seeing the film just to hear the music really! Basically, the opera (Le Chevalier a la Rose in French) begins with the married Marschallin (she's a woman, just to clarify) is having an affair with a young man, Octavian (which is actually written for a female mezzo), who promptly falls in love with another girl Sophie (when he has to present a silver rose to her). Various operatic twists and turns later, and the Marschallin renounces Octavian, and he lives happily ever after with Sophie. As you might have guessed, the plot of "L'étragère"is based on Hofmannsthal and Strauss's story, even stealing the name "Sophie" for the film's heroine. Sophie (Sarah Pratt, the American in Paris) splits her life between working as a dresser at the opera house, theatre lessons (where she's rehearsing a play of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady) and staring at pictures in the art gallery. Octavian of the opera beomes the mysterious handsome stranger Valentin (Clément Sibony) in the "real" part of the story, the singer of the real film playing Octavian in the opera becomes the Marschallin of the real story, and then just for good measure they've thrown in another love interest, Sophie's drama teacher David. And on top of all that, it's in French...