First, we shared two dishes at The Clover and the Bee, reviewed here by my friend Michelle.
One dish had a fancy French name that translated to White Bread and Fig Jam with Mozzarella. There were no affectations for the name of the other dish: Meat and Cheese. Our plate had spicy salami, cured ham, goat cheese, gouda, and apple pear butter, plus nuts and plain round crackers.
It was a tasting palette: first all the distinct elements, then all the combinations. Pear preserves on goat cheese. Fig rolled up in ham. White bread with preserves and mozzarella. Just really exciting and delicious.
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Once inside the opera building, I asked the ticket taker about the La Bohème cicada. She said that usually in the summer it’s the lightning bugs that make it in to the theater, and it’s kind of magical. Sadly, there was another cicada aria at the beginning of Barber of Seville, but it ended … abruptly.
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Our reschedule to Thursday meant we couldn’t sit in our usual seats, but the seats we opted for were almost perfect. Above the orchestra, third row, dead center, no one in front of us in rows one and two. Eye contact with the conductor when he took a bow.
Sadly, these seats were so small my hips and rear flowed into the next seat over. I didn’t mind the physical contact with my friend Anne to my right, but there was a man I did not know to my left. “Oh well,” I thought, “I’m sure he’ll switch with his wife at intermission.” And indeed, I heard her suggest it when they came back for the second half. He said, “No, I’m fine,” and moved around her.
At the end of it all we parted like cicadas, without having even looked at each other.
