I WAS the kid in the Candy Store

My English readers MWP  and Dud may well roll their eyes at this.  "Roll on pals!".
 
One of the good things about life in SRQ is the music of the Sarasota Opera. It is an above average regional company. Indeed some of the sophisticated ex- New York City folks who know about these matters have been know to assert that the Sarasota Opera can mount productions which are as good as, if not better than those of the world famous NYC Metropolitan Opera.  (I kid you not).
 
I've been taking myself to our Opera since I arrived here in 2006. There are usually five different operas each season.
 
This year I saw "Die Fledermaus" (Johann Strauss II)  -  so well done and so very funny.  I missed "Il Travatore" (Verdi) because I thought that I would be in Boston on the day for which I had bought a ticket. The Boston trip did not pan-out, but I had already given my Il Travatore ticket away.
 
The other week I heard the "Barber of Seville" (Rossini), and for once I was bored and jaded. Rossini does "go on a bit"!
 
Yesterday afternoon (March 22nd 2014)  I enjoyed Verdi's rarely performed "Jerusalem".  It was filled with those wonderful Verdi full voiced choruses, and the solo voices were magnificent. (I hope that "Jerusalem" will be revived by some of the major American and European Opera Houses).
 
TODAY I was the kid IN the candy store. The Opera was "The Flying Dutchman" by Richard Wagner. It is the very first Wagner Opera I have heard.
 
OMIGOD it was superb. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire three and a half  hours (which included two 20 minute intermissions).  It may be so happy that I could still be thrilled and enthralled just two months before my 70th birthday. OMIGOD it was superb.
 
In Opera the orchestra members are buried in the pit and often ignored, so I sought out some orchestra members during the second intermission (knowing that they would be  clearly identifiable by their dress). I happened upon a young man and a young woman from the orchestra and said "please be thanked for the wonderful pleasure you bring to us, and please pass this word on to other orchestra players".
 
The young woman got teary eyed as she expressed her thanks for my comments. The young man was also visibly moved and said that "The Flying Dutchman" was one of his favourite Operas and that he appreciated my tribute.
 
TODAY I was the kid IN the candy store at the Sarasota Opera's production of the Flying Dutchman.  OMIGOD it was superb.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Location: Sarasota, FL, USA Opera House

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