Friday, August 16, 2002
Searching for Playfulness (cont'd) - Pavarotti Rehearses
Today's Internet search for "playfulness" led me to this story:
"The boys and I had finished our portion of the practice and we were sitting through the rehearsals of the soprano, baritone and Mr. Pavarotti. We were sitting quietly with the three lined up in front of us and Mr. Muti in front of them. The soprano begins her singing, beautiful, high, lots of vibrato. A few minutes pass by, changes are made, and the singing continues. Boredom begins to set in with us as we had already been there for several hours. Mr. Pavarotti notices this and turns around on his stool to face us. After a minute, he proceeds to mimic the soprano. Subtlety at first, drawing a few giggles from us. Mr. Muti scolds him in English and continues. The soprano continues, and Mr. Pavarotti begins to make more fun of her by standing up and waving his arms around dramatically, mouthing the words as the soprano sings them. Finally in a flurry of Italian that I couldn’t understand, Mr. Muti chides Mr. Pavarotti and throws his baton at him. Mr. Pavarotti ducks it and sits back on his stool. Humbled, but with a HUGE smile on his face. The boy who caught the baton got to keep it."
Though we didn't see how (or if) the soprano joined the fun, and we can only hope that Muti was being playful, it does successfully document how a little well-timed playfulness can keep others in play, way past boredom.
"The boys and I had finished our portion of the practice and we were sitting through the rehearsals of the soprano, baritone and Mr. Pavarotti. We were sitting quietly with the three lined up in front of us and Mr. Muti in front of them. The soprano begins her singing, beautiful, high, lots of vibrato. A few minutes pass by, changes are made, and the singing continues. Boredom begins to set in with us as we had already been there for several hours. Mr. Pavarotti notices this and turns around on his stool to face us. After a minute, he proceeds to mimic the soprano. Subtlety at first, drawing a few giggles from us. Mr. Muti scolds him in English and continues. The soprano continues, and Mr. Pavarotti begins to make more fun of her by standing up and waving his arms around dramatically, mouthing the words as the soprano sings them. Finally in a flurry of Italian that I couldn’t understand, Mr. Muti chides Mr. Pavarotti and throws his baton at him. Mr. Pavarotti ducks it and sits back on his stool. Humbled, but with a HUGE smile on his face. The boy who caught the baton got to keep it."
Though we didn't see how (or if) the soprano joined the fun, and we can only hope that Muti was being playful, it does successfully document how a little well-timed playfulness can keep others in play, way past boredom.
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