Palazzo Cattolica Palermo, Sicily

My big sister and I usually spend a week together in January in London while the Englishman goes away skiing. But this year, Big Sis suggested we'd also go away. 'To somewhere where there's a chance of sunshine. Not that I don't like London,' she continued, 'but we've seen it now, haven't we?'  It was at the tip of my tongue to say something about being tired of London meaning that you're tired of life, but I held back. Just as well, because when she suggested Palermo, I jumped at the chance. As a lover of opera and good food, and a great fan of The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa, there could hardly be a better place for us to spend a week eating , drinking and catching up. And laughing.

When we found this apartment in a palazzo in the old part of town, we could not believe our luck.



Our temporary home is in an area called La Kalsa, very near the the centre of town, station and the harbour. It's a very old, but trendy, area, originally Palermo's Arabian district, with small bars, cafes and restaurants littered around the narrow streets.

This is the partial view of Cattedrale di Palermo
from the balcony of Palazzo Cattolica.

The traditional ventilation system in the Palazzo works. 

There are some lovely narrow streets.

Our entrance at the top floor is charming.

We have so far had a tour around Palermo's famous opera house, Teatro Massimo, which is Europe's largest stage, according to the guide. Sadly the season hasn't yet started, but when we found out that my favourite opera, Tosca by Giacomo Puccini is on later in the year, it took all my willpower not to buy a tickets on the spot. (More about the Opera House later).

Last night we ate at a fabulous Palestinian restaurant called Al Quds and indulged our sweet tooth at a coffee house with gelato and pastries to die for at Antico Caffe Spinnato.

We've only been here for three days and I'm already falling in love with this quirky Sicilian Capital. Being here in January, with hardly any tourists around, feels as if we are getting to know Palermo at its best and most honest. Perhaps buying an opera ticket for next November is the best way to guarantee we will indeed be back?

A little bit of Finnish goes a long way: Karita Mattila as Tosca

Karita Mattila, the Finnish soprano
Photo credit: Lauri ErikssonCourtesy Warner Classics International

On Wednesday Daughter, the Englishman and I went to see a Met production of Tosca at The Everyman Cinema here in Hampstead. It was a recording of a new production of Tosca by Luc Bondy with the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila in the title role.

This new production, which replaced Zeffirelli's 20-year-old version of Tosca, was deemed so bad on its first night in 2009 it 'made the evening news' in New York (The New Yorker), mainly due to the uncharacteristically fervent booing by the well-heeled opera crowd. For me, however, seeing any production of Tosca is a bonus. True, it wasn't Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi; true the costumes and set were a little simpler and rather dull. But the tenor, Marcelo Alvarez, as Cavaradossi, sounded very pleasing to my ear at least. As usual I was in tears during the first aria by Alvarez, and when Mattila sang Vissi d'arte in the 2nd act, I was on my 2nd hankie.


In the cinema broadcast we were taken behind the scenes during the two intervals. At first I gasped in horror at the interview with George Gagnidze. I didn't want to see the villain of the opera, Scarpia, smiling and laughing mid-performance - as it were. But when during the last interval Karita Mattila spoke, I was thrilled. Especially when she asked the interviewee if she could say a few words in Finnish.

Karita Mattila and Marcelo Alvarez. Photo The Guardian 

Humble as a young soprano during her first performance (rather than her umpteenth at the Met alone) she thanked her Finnish fans and said that she was singing especially for all of us in her native Finland. (Ignoring the fact that I was in fact in London, I still felt she meant me and Daughter too).


Daughter and I clapped, silly really since we both knew it was a recording made some three years ago...still it was a pleasant surprise.


PS. Something seems to have with the fonts...apologies.

My favourite opera: Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

I cannot even remember the first time I saw Tosca on stage – but I do remember the first time I heard Maria Callas sing Vissi D’arte, my very favourite aria. My mother loves Callas and has several of her records (vinyls!). When my sister and I were younger, we’d often make a show of putting our fingers into our ears, ‘No caterwauling!’. But once when I was about ten or so and she listened to her favourite soprano sing I saw she was crying. I had no idea what Maria Callas was singing about, but suddenly I too felt tears well up inside me.

And now it really doesn’t matter what opera it is, or what the subject matter is - as soon as a soprano, or a tenor, reaches certain notes, tears start to roll down my face. Nothing gets me going as much as when Tosca sings Vissi D'arte. In the aria she's being blackmailed by a powerful and ruthless politician, the brilliantly named Scarpia, and sings about the cruelty of fate.

CALLAS - VISSI D'ARTE by birdy66

I lived for my art, I lived for love,

I never did harm to a living soul!

***

why, why, o Lord,

why do you reward me thus?

Tosca sees herself as just a simple singer in love with a painter, Mario Cavaradossi, who gets into a political entanglement which leads to his arrest, torture and eventual murder. But in truth Tosca is also famous and it's her jealousy together with her beauty which are her downfall. 

Each time I see this opera - or even listen to it - I am full of hope for a better ending where Tosca blissfully walks into the sunset together with her beloved Mario. Instead she makes one of the most spectacular exits in the history of opera: she commits suicide by jumping off the embattlements where she'd just witnessed her beloved getting executed by Scarpia's men. Tosca's scream at the end of any performance of the opera stays with me for days, even weeks afterwards.

What's your favourite opera?