Patricia Hurley
Fraser Books
By Peter Stupples
Patricia Hurley is a Wellingtonian and was introduced to opera by Glasgow cousins.
At the age of 17, she had the opportunity to attend a performance of Verdi’s Aida at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. It left an unforgettable impression.
Like others before her, she was possibly suffering from Stendhal Syndrome, ‘‘an overload of sensations, causing dizziness, fainting, confusion’’.
Hurley went on to study French and Italian at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, perfecting her language skills when, later, she lived in Rome for four years.
Returning to New Zealand, she worked as the manager for the Wellington City Opera for 10 years.
In the early 2000s, she founded Patricia’s Opera Tours, through which she was able to support New Zealand singers visiting or studying in Italy.
This very well-produced book takes you on an extended armchair opera ‘‘tour’’ of Italy.
Over 14 chapters, the reader is invited to visit most of the cities with connections to opera, from Venice in the north to Sicily in the south.
There are maps to help the eager tourist, introductions to the composers associated with each city, descriptions of the theatres where operas are performed and the sites of interest associated with composers, singers, producers, conductors. These are often livened with tidbits of gossip, history, triumphs and disasters — both musical and climatic. Every page carries illustrations of places and people.
The reader is left with no doubts that opera has been one of the prime artforms in Italy since its inception in the mid-16th century until the death of Puccini in 1924. Many theatres have had a chequered career but the scale of restoration of key buildings has been accelerated in the 21st Century with the passion of tourists to experience the comedy (opera buffa) and tragedy (opera seria), the colourful spectacle of Italian opera, seeking the buzz of Stendhal Syndrome.
Opera in Italy, as we now know it, seems to have originated in Florence in the late 16th century, in the camerata (club) of noble intellectuals meeting in the Palazzo Bardi. The medium constantly changed its character and style, drawing into its net composers from outside Italy, such as Mozart and Wagner.
The book that has one drawback — there is no index.
Finding what you want to revisit is made a toil rather than a pleasure.
Peter Stupples, now living in Wellington, used to teach at the University of Otago
