The charming story of opera singer Maria Ostrouhova.
Once we went to Slovenia, and from there decided to go to Venice for a day. It would be nothing, but in the first three hours we were stolen. Everything was taken out of the bag: credit cards, cash and passports. I had my passports with VISA, and the worst thing was an English visa, for which I had to fly to London three days later to sing Montevideo’s Coronation of Poppey. One of the main roles. The frightening singer economical English did not dare to get.
I had a nervous breakdown. We immediately called the consulate (nearest was in Milan) – but summer, summer! The consul is on vacation.
We ran into the international police station on Piazza San Marco. This is the international police in Italy. They didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Italian at the time. What to do? My brain boiling from the heat and adrenaline gives an original decision: to try to explain with the carabiners phrases from the opera (good I always literally translated the texts of the parties).
I started with a mixture of the Coronation of Popea and the Glukovsky Orpheus:
I am despised and consoled! Io manco, io moro (I am all denied and reluctant! I am losing consciousness, I am dying.
The police officers would be happy to blow up in my face, but, seeing my scratched body and general hysterical state, they sat on a chair and gave me water.
Then we had to describe the essence of the problem. I decided to continue on “Orpheus and Eurydice” – especially since, in my view, the words “Eurydice” and “passport” were quite interchangeable.
What would I do without my passport? Dove andro without my passport? What will I do without a passport? Where can I go without a passport?
It has worked. The police activated. They began to show me pictures of various thieves and thieves until I saw a lady in a hijab who hit me from all over the bridge.
This is the damned woman. Vorrei smembrarla! This is the damned woman! I want to split it!)
After recovering from the shock, the policemen gave us a certificate, according to which we were to be transported free of charge to our place of departure (Trieste), gave us water and a dry paddle, and promised to keep us informed. All the way to the station, I prayed to the spirit of Monsieur Monteverdi, whose opera was at risk of losing its primacy.
There is a call at the station. The agitated officer asked to return to the area. When we got there, all the policemen stood up at the entrance with happy eyes, shocking with our passports. It turns out that the thief threw them out along with the credit cards in a male toilet in San Marco, where they were found by a boy from Bangladesh who brought them to the police.
dying of the happiness that suddenly fell upon us, I shouted:
Lord the Cavalier! Vi benedico per la vostra bella e gentilezza! (Siner Knight, I bless you for your kindness and kindness!)
The policeman said goodbye to me:
Your language is very elegant! “You have a very elegant Italian!”