According to Sandy

“The Godfather” films by Francis Ford Coppola based on the books by Mario Puzo lives on. Parts 1, (1972) and 2, (1974), re explode every 6, 12 months on some TV channel.  If you don’t have 8 hours to devote to this great American story, you could plug in whenever – meal times, in between telephone calls or text messages – and remember dialogue and revisit scenes that have soaked into our collective bones without even knowing it:

“It was never personal Michael, it was just business”

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

“I know it was you Fredo, your broke my heart!”

“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

“They shot Sonny on the causeway”

“The Godfather” is #2 with a bullet on the American Film Institute list of 100 best. If not on TV,  there is always DVD and it just came out on Blu-Ray.

“Tosca”, one of Puccini’s most popular operas is scheduled for a PBS station near you this week. (Part of the holiday special programming/fund raising, etc.)

I like Puccini – “La Boheme”, (1896) “Tosca”, (1900), “Madama Butterfly”, (1904), “Turandot”, (1924). Though not really an opera person, I find his work accessible with its universal love themes, high drama and the music is just lovely.

When I was younger, I embraced “La Boheme”: boy meets girl, they sing, girl meets boy’s friends, everybody sings, everybody is cold together, and everybody sings. Girl loses boy, boy loses girl – permanently – everybody sings. Loved it. (If you’ve seen “Rent”, the play or the movie, you‘ll know what I mean. All very moving.)

As I’ve gotten older, I have come to appreciate another popular Puccini work, “Tosca”. This opera is a real “bodice ripper”. Political intrigue, assassination, attacks on female virtue, firing squads and suicide – just too full!
Should the singer, Floria Tosca (our heroine), succumb to the unwanted advances of a powerful man (Scarpia- the evil chief of police) to save her poor artist lover (Mario Cavaradossi), who has been accused of harboring a political dissident? (This was a super serious offense in the time of Napoleon.)

Lots of costumes, passionate thrashing about, great singing and the ending is appropriately tragic.
Tosca, defends herself and then chooses to make the ultimate defiant gesture against authority. (After all, this is opera – pure drama to the very end.)

Catch “Tosca” if you can – very entertaining!

Giacomo Puccini (Dec.1858 – Nov. 1924)