Friday, September 14, 2007

Senza di te languisce il cor

I have begun unpacking the boxes of books, thanks to the addition of a shelf set for the living room. I wasn't 100% strict in my labeling, and it is possible that a complete opera score or two still lurks in one of these other boxes that just says "books," but everything I had labeled "scores" has been opened, so I have an idea now what the post office lost, and it's not pretty.

Currently Missing in Action:

La Cenerentola (Ricordi)
Don Giovanni
(Bärenreiter ed.)
Ernani (Ricordi)
Faust (Schirmer hardbound)
Lohengrin (antique...this was like 2nd ed. Schirmer, beautiful)
Lucia di Lammermoor (Schirmer)
Le Nozze di Figaro (Bärenreiter)
Tosca (Ricordi)
La Traviata (Schirmer)
Die Walküre (Schirmer hardbound)

The Figaro really kills me...it was just a very special score to me. Never mind that it cost about $85 in the first place. It had all my notes in it from having coached it extensively with people at school, at the Metropolitan Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, the Zürich Opera and master classes and lessons from folks who sorta kinda knew the opera, like Samuel Ramey, Christa Ludwig and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. The contents of this box were worth hundreds of dollars, but "priceless" is truly the better description. Those were some staples of my repertoire there. What's a baritone to do without his Don Giovanni? And truly, I was the awesomest Dandini.

So, a wag of the finger at the post office. Sigh.

Also yesterday, someone (I'm not naming names...Starbuck) hopped up on the fireplace mantel and knocked down my giant Canaletto print that I brought back from Venice. Aside from a couple of scratches, the print is okay, but the glass shattered into 856,234 pieces. I know this because I spent an hour picking them up.

3 comments:

DJRainDog said...

OMG, did you not insure those things?! I mean, I won't lie, I HATE the Bärenreiter Giovanni (actually, I hate many Bärenreiter editions), but the antique Lohengrin?! HOW can they lose an ENTIRE BOX of books?! (And I, too, am gutted at your loss of all your annotations. Those can never be replaced.) I LOVE the bit about "folks who sorta kinda knew the opera", though. Your ability to maintain good humour (a mere "wag of the finger"? I'd probably be filing a lawsuit), though, continues to impress. *hugs*

Andy said...

Well, call me naive, I just trusted that the post office would get the box to its destination, not just deliver shreds of cardboard with a sticker affixed saying "Received Without Contents". Plus, I have heard the post office's insurance isn't worth anything anyway, it's apparently impossible to actually get any money back from them. Plus, I was poor...I was trying to do this on the cheap. I took a risk. After this incident, I shipped everything I cared about UPS. For the record, UPS ground is more expensive than the post office's book rate, but less expensive than their parcel post.

Yeah...the Lohengrin...I found that at a used bookstore. I probably only paid $10 for it or so, I don't think they knew what they had there. Tucked inside was a program from a Metropolitan Opera performance from like 1904 or something like that with Frieda Hempel and Andreas Dippel. Gone. Yack.

Jess said...

Rotten post office. They've lost stuff of mine in the past. UPS never has, but the post office seems to see it as their duty to lose stuff from time to time. And they damage my mail all the time! Boxes get crushed, magazines get torn up. They really do suck. Amazing what a federal mandate will do to keep a place in business. This is what's wrong with a lack of competition.

And they lost such precious things of yours! I wish there was some way to make it right. :(