Pre-Opera Events
I again backed in to the parking space before dinner. Anne has changed my life with this new skill. I even backed in to the grocery store this past weekend, even without Anne walking me through it.
We ate at Madrina, which was terrific. Lovely decor, Frank on the playlist, and a new menu for spring. This meant I couldn’t test the latest gastrotrend: whipped cheese. I had a salad and Manicotti instead. Oh, and I drank a drink with rum, prosecco, juice, and an orchid. Anne drank something that tasted like vegetation.
Before Friday’s opera you recall we saw Senator McCaskill. Before Saturday’s opera we saw someone even more astonishing. You know him, you love him …
“Is that SalmonPants?” I gasped.
“That is definitely SalmonPants,” Anne said. “Only now he’s KhakiPants.”
“And no bow tie at all,” I mourned. “But Mrs. SalmonPants still looks fantastic.”
This House
Saturday was the world premiere of This House, a new opera with a libretto written by a mother-daughter team. I wasn’t completely in the tank for it at first, because it had a more modern, less tuneful score. I still had Strauss waltzes in my head from the night before. And it required some pre-work. You do need to study the program to familiarize yourself with all the characters.
It’s going to be impossible to talk about the libretto without spoilers, so you’ll just have to trust: I was in the tank for this opera by the intermission. And then at the end, I was with the rest of the audience, immediately on my feet.
I really feel that it’s going to be an opera they stage at the Met, that comes back yearly. It was the premiere performance, so I feel like one of the lucky people who were in the sneak preview of Gone With the Wind. We were the first people – ever – to gasp at the parts that made the audience gasp.
It was really special, and unexpected.
No opera next weekend, but then there will be Don Pasquale and finally Midsummer Night’s Dream (conducted by St. Louis favorite Leonard Slatkin).