Don’t read this unless you’ve listened to part 10 🙂 **spoiler alert**

Suzanne certainly came out of nowhere, right? For me too. Sorta. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a new, (relatively) important character later in the story or not.

Since she’s here, let’s discuss Suzanne for a bit. I really like Suzanne. Why? She’s specialised in singing a role in my favorite opera 😀 The arias she does best are some of the most famous and most beautiful in the whole of opera history.

Suzanna/e & the Countess

I named Suzanne after another character in the same opera: Suzanna. Our Suzanne, however, sings ‘the Countess’, a loving but very lonely character in Le Nozze di Figaro. The Countess is all grace and beauty. But her husband, the Count, is a typical macho male and a serial cheater.

We’ll forgive Mozart for making our wonderful Countess suffer, though, because he’s given her two out-of-this-world-beautiful arias to sing about all that sorrow. These arias are world famous and audiences generally love the soprano singing the Countess.

Timeless text

The Countess also has my favorite (opera) line ever:

He’s like all modern husbands,
compulsively unfaithful,
naturally headstrong
and jealous out of pride.

Remember, this opera premiered in 1768! The text of an opera is the ‘libretto’, by the way. Most of the time it’s written by someone else, and then the composer uses the text as a starting point to write the music.

Suzanne, a rising star

Back to our new character. Suzanne’s a (rising) star in the opera world. Opera artists constantly travel around the world and usually stay in a city for up to 2 months. That’s why they’ll often rent an apartment rather than stay in a hotel.

Rent and other expenses are usually not covered by the opera house that hires you. When you don’t sing, you don’t earn money. That’s why being an opera singer can be a pretty risky business. Successful singers, however, are often booked years in advance. Our Suzanne is slowly getting there.

Suzanne is classy and elegant, just like her favorite opera character. I think she also has a bit of a crush on Milly…What do you think? 😉

Have a great day,

Sigrid

Oh, here’s the aria that brings whole audiences to tears every single time. My wife always makes fun of me when I start watching this opera yet again. I think I’ve seen it at least 20 times. Ladies, meet the Countess. (Not a very contemporary  production, unfortunately, but I needed a video with subtitles 🙂