I am the real life Magda Sorel

What to do when life imitates art?

So usually I just write about fun stuff like singing, shopping, pugs and travel, but Norman and I have been stuck in the States waiting for a visa to be processed for over five weeks so I'm starting to get a little crazy. (Or crazier.) Menotti's classic opera "The Consul", deals with a more extreme version of what we are living right in this moment! After years of singing, I think this is the role that now resonates with me the most. #WAITING #PAPERS

when opera is real life

Thankfully, our place doesn't have a gas oven...

Menotti's opera In SHORT:

Act 1

Scene 1

John Sorel is on the run from the secret police and tells Magda to apply for a visa to leave the country.

Scene 2: The consul's office

Magda applies, but the secretary cannot promise anything. (Duh.)

Act 2

Scene 1: The police want information from Magda but she refuses. A message arrives from John telling Magda to hurry with the visa.

Scene 2: The consulate

After repeated visits to the consul, Magda does an epic rant at the secretary (which will now be my opening audition aria), who says that she may see the consul once an "important visitor" has finished his business. (It's the police chief, oops.)

Act 3

Scene 1:

Magda's family is dead. At the consul's office, John is planning to risk his life and return for her. A rich woman is immediately given a visa. As the office is about to close, John suddenly arrives, the police capture him, and the secretary gets on the phone to try to contact Magda.

Scene 2:

Magda turns on the gas in the oven to kill herself. Her phone rings, it's the secretary trying to contact her.

UPDATE: Our visa application was neither approved or denied in the end. The powers that be determined that we had applied, (on their advice!), for the wrong visa all along. So we wasted 2 months of our lives thanks to incompetence and complacency. About to do my own epic rant!

P.S. Some people have praised me for my creativity in writing this post. I can't emphasize this enough: this is not my original idea!! This is the plot of a real opera written in 1949 after what was probably a harrowing bureaucratic experience...I wish I were this genius!!

SOULARIA