This week we finish up Pera, the elegant European quarter of Constantinople. Then we climb higher up the hill into the Greek neighborhood of Tatavla.
Petite
Champs De Mort
Two lovely open
parks border Pera’s Westside, the Petite Champs in the north, and the Petite
Champs De Mort in the south. Petite Champs is a pleasant public garden, with well
maintained orderly lawns and bushes. Brass bands play concerts in the open air
during the summer.
Further south, near
the shore of the Golden Horn, Pera’s residents gather in the evening’s cool to
the lush cemetery, the Petitie Champs De Mort. The entire cemetery sits on a
hillside slanting down towards the waterside.
Gravestones lie
fallen to the erosion of time, and tall, straight cypress trees grow thickly
among the graves and foot-beaten paths.
Houses surround much of the cemeteries’ two miles circumference. Their
tenants live as close to their ancestor’s graves as possible. Vines and clinging plants grow from the
graveyard up their walls. Enterprising coffee sellers opened shops in the
cemeteries’ east side. Their patrons contentedly sip their drinks whilst seated
at tables surrounded by headstones. Lemonade, sweets, and fruit peddlers sell
their goods to young people strolling among the dead. Some young boys play
marbles on top of the flattest fallen monuments. Shocking behavior to those who
respectfully venerate their dead.
The
Naum Theater
Across the Grand
Rue De Pera from the college of Galata Serai, Europeans, Levantines, Greeks,
Armenians, and Turks gather at the Naum Theater for an evening’s entertainment.
In Constantinople’s past, many ambitious impresarios opened theaters in
Pera-Galata culture only to close from bankruptcy or the outcry of offended Ottoman
decency. Tanzimat reforms, Sultan Mahmud II’s ear for European music, and a
growing population of Europeans starved for entertainment opened the door for
an opera house to thrive in Constantinople.
The famous Italian
stage illusionist, Bartolomeo Bosco, built the original theater in the early 1800s. After
his sudden departure from Constantinople in 1841 (preceded by a request from
Sultan Abdulmejid to magically cause the heads of two slaves to switch bodies
after the illusionist performed such a trick with colored pigeons), two
Armenian brothers, Michael and
Joseph Naum inherited Bosco’s theater. Michael became the theater manager with
great reluctance but he soon blossomed as an impresario.
Every year he
scours the stages of Italy for famous performers and entices them to appear on
his stage. For the 1855 opera season, the famous soprano Fanny
Salvini-Donatelli stars in La Taviata as Violetta, a role which she originated.
Among the other operas in the company’s repertoire are Crispino e la comare , La straniera, Il crociato in Egitto, L'Italiana in Algeri, and the
Barber of Seville, however certain scandalous plot elements have been
bowdlerized to suit Turkish sensibilities. The theater also hosts performances
of ballet, stage magic shows, reception dinners, and even concerts of
traditional Turkish music.
A city fire in
1847 damaged the theater, ending all performances.. Fortunately, the Naum
brothers planned to demolish the building at the end of the theatrical season
to rebuild and this disaster gave them the chance to petition the Sultan for
more funds to make a grander and more modern opera house. With the Sultan’s
backing, the brothers built an excellent theater with seating for 1,000
patrons. Three stories of boxes loom high over the pit and gallery. Portraits
of opera composers decorate the theater ceiling. The Sultan also has a private box furnished
with crimson and gold. Because of the funds from the Sultan, it’s also known as
the Imperial Theater.
Recently, the
opera witnessed scenes of violence among its patrons. Fistfights seem to break
out during every performance and a French officer was stabbed in the street
outside.
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