Consider yourself warned. The following post is a mere bagatelle, nothing but opera and fashion and confectionery. If you’re on the prowl for meatier fare, now is the time to prowl on.
Speaking of confectionery, I shared these macarons with my writer’s group, who just finished the penultimate chapter of my current WIP. The macarons were perfection itself, light and effortless and sweet. The novel is still a work in progress, but at last I’m almost done.
Another work in progress is the state of sartorial affairs in Colorado, where people have been known to wear flip flops to chamber music concerts. There’s a reason why I currently own only five dresses, and that reason has everything to do with the dress code here in Boulder.
True story: last fall we attended The Pirates of Penzance, and the program director slipped through the curtain to say a few words before the conductor entered the pit. She thanked the benevolent patron who’d just donated a cool million to the opera program. He was seated right behind me, wearing a brightly colored dress shirt and a tan pair of trousers, no tie. I had to admire his insouciance, not to mention his generous spirit, but it’s because of people like him that I never get to wear anything formal.
Last weekend, it was a freakish 80 degrees, so I wore a casual summer outfit to hear Così fan tutte and once again found myself woefully overdressed. Even at the Sunday matinee, which is usually a sea of gray and silver hair, there were people wearing t-shirts and cargo shorts.
In my operatic dreams, I’d be listening to Mozart’s incomparable melodies in a grand concert hall, draped in my La Scala cape, my handsome husband in black tie. I don’t know why I care so much about this. Probably because I work from home and am thusly clad in my dog-walking clothes, all day, every day.
I just used the word thusly, which means we’re getting to the opera at last. We’re in the foyer.
Have you heard Così fan tutte? It’s a romantic comedy with the kind of cynical edge that can make modern audiences squirm. The music ranges from spunky to soaring, but the plot couldn’t be more basic. Two soldiers are spurred to test the fidelity of their young ladies. In a flash, said soldiers are pretending to be away at war. Meanwhile, disguised as Albanians (or Arab Gulf big shots in this particular production), they’re courting their own girlfriends. Predictably, the desolate women capitulate to their new lovers, perhaps due to the coercive “pick-up artist” tactics being employed against them. (Seriously, you’re pretending to take arsenic because a woman won’t go out with you? Not cool. But this is opera buffa, so maybe I’m missing the point.)
Cosi Fan Tutte – Eklund Opera Program
Anyway, the music is glorious, and Sunday’s show was filled with great performances. For me, Sara Lin Yoder’s playful Despina stole the show. A duplicitous and put-upon housemaid, Despina disguises herself hilariously as a pompous old notary and a reedy-voiced doctor, but always sounds like a soubrette at the very top of her game. I was so happy to hear Yoder sing, I forgot all about the people wearing cargo shorts.
