Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 31
Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 31
It was exactly 20:05 when the gang arrived; Gosia and the rest of my best friends. All of them had dawned their finest apparel for this evening. Gosia was specially dazzling not that the rest were any less but one could understand why I might take more interest in the way my dear lady, as I had come to call her was dressed; for not only me but all those who would be arriving to my mother's grand party. She was wearing a long red dress in a shade that me not being knowledgeable in colors could not name but it seemed the same tone as red grapes or the kind that I had always heard referred to as such. It was a dark pastel, which to my mind suited this evening's event and time of year more than any other color or shade. Her dress had no decorations; being the sort that made her look like the kind of woman she wanted to be. The kind who have that sort of elegance that goes beyond surface beauty and makes it hard to tell the age of the woman in question. She basically dressing in the way I had expected her to with two exceptions; them being the hat she wore which surprised me by the fact that she wore one at all as I had never seen one on her.
The other exception was the shoes she wore, which in a break from her usual style were neither high heeled nor pointed but had a flat soul and were round at the toes. Them being like the shoes worn by a ballerina and as I saw her I noticed that her walk was more graceful however less sexy than when she wore high heels.
My opera friends and I did not have time to talk about much as not five minutes went by before the guests started flocking to our apartment. For a minute I got the impression that they had all been brought in 2 or 3 busses. I do believe that they all arrived in a time span of perhaps ten minutes. All of New York's opera society was there; everybody from "The 3 Tenors", Yo-Yo Ma (world famous cellist from Japan), Kiri Te Kanawa (from New Zealand), Jessie Norman (perhaps the first black soprano ever to sing Wagner) and many others.
All guests famous or other wise were greeted under the same pomp and circumstance by the welcoming committee which was comprised of my mother and father at the front door; they receiving every single guest with the utmost care. The rest of my opera friends and myself were in charge of talking their coats and hats; my sister Violeta and Gosia were the ones whose task it was to make sure that every one knew where to find food and drinks and to make everybody feel at home.
When ever my mother gave a party, she always tried to keep as busy as possible in making sure that everybody was being well served. She also tried to even out her time by spending it with as many guests as possible. This way not spending more time with certain guests or group of guests. My mother asked my sister and I to do likewise. She feeling that by doing this all the guests would feel equal.
This gathering got under way much in the same way any of the previous ones had; with my father at the bar making Martinis, Pina Coladas, Long Island Ice Teas, Margaritas and many other popular drinks. There is something about mixed drinks that is perfect for parties, as they are a lot of fun to make and what makes them great to drink is that unlike wine; one does not loose the taste after one or two glasses.
My sister, given her ranking on the WTA (which was somewhere in the top 10) had already obtained a celebrity status even among our guests, most of whom played tennis as a hobby and wished to speak to my sister; perhaps in order to get some pointers to improve their game. What ever the reason, my sister had become a real attention getter at this party, drawing many guests over to her; in particular the men. Some of whom were obviously looking to get more than the standard autograph.
Because this was a party and not a dinner. The difference being that at a dinner like the one my mother held for Gosia, everybody sat down at the table at the same time while at a party though people did eat; it was not at the same time or sometimes even place. Some guests even ate in different rooms than did other guests. This particular party was arranged in such a way that guests could walk over to any of the food tables or to the bar whenever they pleased and then sit where ever they wanted to in the company of whomever they chose.
As I was going around the apartment trying to see that all the guests were being kept happy, I noticed that the party had reached that stage when all the guests had formed their own social groups for the evening. These groups were made up of somewhere between 5 to 10 people; some of whom were standing, some of whom were sitting at one of the many tables.
Gosia was sitting in a circle that included Amanda and Barbara. There was too much noise in the living room from all the other people's talking for me to be able to overhear what they were saying but I could tell by the way they were laughing as they talked that it was what is commonly known to men as "girl talk", which more than likely was about the people who were at the party and all those little details about other women that most men never notice. I remember being tempted to go over to find out what was the cause of so much gaiety but I just thought that my presence would more than likely prevent this particular conversation from going on in the same form.
I could see that everyone was having a grand time or so it appeared that way but I guess one is never sure of such matters and as I continued my stroll I noticed a group of people standing in the middle of the music room. This group included Arturo, Brad, Miyamoto (a fellow student at the New York School of Music), as well as Yo-Yo Ma. Upon seeing them I decided that I had walked around enough and that it was time to join a group for a conversation and not just to ask if everything was going ok.
I approached their group unnoticed by any of the five and taped Arturo on the back who turned around with his drink in hand and said as the eyes of the rest turned to me, while the circle enlarged to fit one more link into the chain. "Glad you could join us in a talk about that subject of subjects that we artists and art enthusiast like our Brad here (who simply smiled as Arturo mentioned his name) love to talk about and I don't think I need to tell you what that subject is.". The last part of his sentence being taken by the rest as a punch line which they all laughed at and as they looked at me waiting for me to say what I thought they were talking about. I stood there knowing what was on their minds so I simply said while managing to keep a straight face "What broads are we talking about?". For some reason my comeback caused a laughter among all those present which once it died down, Brad turned to me and told me "In a way you are right but we are not talking about women in the way you might think, that is meaning the way they look or even sex. No, we are talking about how women in different countries are different; for example Arturo was telling us that he was surprised how, well women in America play football meaning soccer.". Arturo then said "I was not only referring to the way the professionals play but even the way the ladies, who play the game in Central Park do. All of which are American; in my country one never sees women playing football with men or even by themselves and what amazes me is that in America women not only play football but they even play it with men.".
Brad then continued the conversation, now that it had been explained to me and said in a tone of voice that continued the point I think he was trying to make before I joined "The reason I think men don't mind women playing football with them is because despite football's recent gain in popularity and the USA reaching the quarterfinals in the last world cup; football is still not being taken as seriously as it is in South American countries or European countries. The way I see it is that in the United States most people take football lightly and don't mind the ladies joining in while in Europe or in South America people, mainly the men take football like a game that is too serious to have the weaker sex, physically speaking take part in; for example you never see women in America playing basketball or football, American football that is with the men do you?".
Yo-Yo Ma seeing that the topic of sports was finished, as Arturo did not reply said "Let me tell you something about Japanese women, they are not as subservient as most people tend to see them. They to a certain extent more so in Japan than in America tend to treat men like children; believing it their sacred duty to mother their husbands.". Miyamoto agreed with him by saying that unlike in America or what he had seen in America, women in Japan decided everything about the way the house was run. Arturo then added that in Colombia it was more or less the same, that for the most part the home was as he put it "the woman's domain" though when it came to certain decisions it was the man who decided.
Then Arturo suddenly as if hit by a question looked at me and said "The other day Amanda and I were talking about you and Gosia, well not really about Gosia but about what you see as the differences between her, meaning Amanda and Gosia. By that I mean what do you think are some of the differences between Gosia and Amanda from a cultural point of view? Amanda being American and Gosia being Polish.". "I'm not really sure of what to say as I have never considered the matter." was my reply to him and the others who awaited my answer "What you are asking me is what is the difference between Polish girls and American
girls from a cultural point of view?". "Yes" was Arturo's answer that caused the other three members of our group to chuckle.
This was one of those typical party topics; a party topic is for the most one that does not exceed five minutes and never goes beyond the territory of light conversation but however does allow its participants to express their points of view. Strangely enough this was a question I had never asked myself and thinking about it for the first time, it occurred to me that I did not know what cultural differences exited between Gosia and Amanda, so I just replied "You know, now that I think about it I have not noticed any real differences but what I will tell you is that I do feel different being with Gosia than I did with Amanda. I would not say better or worse for that matter but different in a way that I don't think I could describe but I will give you an example of Gosia and Amanda and how differently they operate under the same set of circumstances. When Gosia and I first met she told me just about everything there was to tell about herself and her family in an email she sent me but strangely enough now that I think of it; she has not talked about her family or even mentioned it ever since.".
" Maybe, this is because you haven't met her family, yet?" was what Yo-Yo Ma said as a possible reason for her not talking about her family. "That what you say just maybe but on the other hand, Amanda at least when I was with her and even know she often talks about her family even those members in her family whom I have not met. You know like the ones from out of town. I think it is in a way a cultural thing." I continued telling them more trying to convince myself as well as them that I understood why Amanda tended to talk more about her relatives than Gosia about hers with the explanation that maybe Americans in general like talking more about their relatives.
Arturo had that look on his face that most people get when they have something on their mind that they want to express but are waiting for that moment to articulate the thought that has just hit them, so he said in a tone that was typical when he was presenting someone with his point of view "Gosia, perhaps does not tell much about her family back in Poland because she has not seen them in a while and perhaps maybe unaware of what is happening in their lives?".
At that point I decided to let Arturo be the one to lead this dance and asked him to tell us something about the senoritas from his native Colombia, so in order to get Arturo to talk about what I wanted him to I simply said "Why don't you tell us what cultural differences there are between American women and the ladies of your country?". If there is one thing I have noticed about Arturo; it was that he was always willing to talk about his native Colombia and all it took was for someone to ask for him to start. "The first thing I noticed or shall I say the first difference I noticed between American and Colombian women was, well not that I know that many women in America; was that American women, at least Amanda is a woman who is very career minded, not that Colombian women are not or that Colombian women are less career minded but Amanda was so career minded, when I proposed to her and I can't say for sure if all or even if most American women are like this (this last view showing the diplomat in him) but my proposal of marriage almost shocked her, not that I had proposed at all because sooner or later the way our relationship was going it would have happened. What surprised her was that though she had wanted to get married and have children someday she had never actually thought of planning it. I don't know if I am expressing myself correctly, what I trying to say is that though she wanted to get married she never actually stopped to think of how it would happen and that is why I, in a small way shocked her.". As we continued our chat about how women in Japan, Colombia and the USA were different, I decided it was time to move on and see what the rest of our guests were up to or in need of so I excused myself by saying that I would go see if anybody needed anything.
Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 32 Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 33 Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 34 Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 35 Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Chapter 36 Gianni Truvianni's "New York's Opera Society" Conclusion A Good Source of Information on Society Finches Can You Become a Millionaire with Millionaire Society? How to Join the Millionaire Society? Millionaire Society - A Detailed Assessment 3 Ways Of Getting Uni Society Hoodies Printed More Cheaply The Role of an NGO in the Development of the Society Voluntary Work to Improve the Condition of the Society