It’s been a nightmare getting around New York this week. A measles scare, because anti-vaccine fundamentalists refused to be needled amidst a 285 case outbreak, caused a medical shutdown in gentrified Williamsburg, Brooklyn; then there was an outbreak of TubercuVerdi at the Met. This was the La Traviata strain – not to be confused with the similar TubercuPuccini – La Bohème strain. Both break out in the Metropolitan Opera’s season annually. Vaccinations are ineffectual.
Diagnostic dilemma: sometimes it’s difficult to tell the strains apart. Both are characterised by “late recovery syndrome,” when apparently stricken victims recoup, sing coloratura arias from a prone position – then snuff it. I risked the Verdi version, Michael Meyer’s production of La Traviata.
