Opera Date

This project isn't just about me writing about music, it's about my relationship with music as a part of my daily life, and my relationship with my husband

So, Corey is a grad student at the University of Michigan studying composition. His main instrument in undergrad was saxophone and I was a choir kid. He likes mostly new, instrumental music, and I prefer classical/romantic vocal music when I go to concerts, so it's a personal victory when I can get him to take me to the opera. Pair that with dinner out, a bottle of wine, and pumpkin ice cream on a crisp autumn evening, and my life is suddenly a romantic comedy of Meg Ryan proportions.

On Sunday, we went to the final showing of the U of M opera department's production of Verdi's Falstaff. At our alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire we had seen Britton's Albert Herring, and The Magic Flute by Mozart, making up Corey's entire opera experience thus far. I was excited that Corey both went to the show without complaint and left with only good things to say. (However the gem quote of the day was during the first intermission in a slightly pained tone: "Yeah, on a scale of one to opera, this is definitely opera.")

Falstaff is a good show to see for a new music fanatic. It's late in Verdi's career in the realism or verismo period. The "flow" of the music is not the Mozartian structure of recitative-aria-recit-duet-recit-trio or quartet-recit-aria-recit-ensemble AND end Act I. The solos, duets, and ensemble pieces flow together in a constant stream and layer quite seamlessly. It's the beginning of the structure used by modern opera. (And ask Corey who went to see John Adams' Nixon in China at Met at the Movies without me!)