As I write this, I’m enjoying a short but welcome break before the start of final rehearsals for the revival of Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. When I was 12 years old, I was obsessed with a filmic curiosity called Yes, Giorgio a fascinating artifact of opera’s attempt to break into mainstream cinema.
It starred Luciano Pavarotti in the title role of Giorgio Fini, an opera superstar, who loses his voice while touring in America. He consults a throat specialist, Pamela Taylor (played by Kathryn Harrold), and they fall into a romantic relationship – even though Giorgio is married. The story follows their affair, his recovery, and his eventual triumphant performance of Puccini’s Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, a snippet of which is in the film’s hilariously awful trailer below! The film was a huge box office bomb, but I remember playing the scene at the Met over and over on the video cassette, entranced by the grandeur of the Met’s staging and the incredible playing and singing. Standing in the Met pit recently, between that incredible auditorium and its towering proscenium, it felt like another massive biographical circle had closed. That’s been happening to me a lot of late, and frankly, it never gets old.