Recurring theme: Alone to the Opera!

You know, you only live once and who knows what could happen tomorrow. We all know people who wake up feeling fine and suffer a tragic accident or are diagnosed with a fatal illness... so not to be morbid... ok it's too late for that... but anyway... keeping that in mind...

I'm still kicking myself for not seeing Juan Diego Florez in Miami when I went to Florida last month. I came home the morning of his performance. I knew he was going to be there but forgot all about it when I booked the flight. So... Yeah I know I'm going to see him in Chicago in March... but he's also going to be in La Fille du Regiment at the Met in April and May. Almost all the shows are sold out. Just for fun I was poking around on the Met's website and found a few tickets availalbe for some of the shows. I almost got a ticket for May 12 and realized in time that he won't be in that particular performance! Whew! So I found a single ticket in the second to last row of the orchestra for Friday, May 2nd, and I thought, what the heck. I asked a couple of people if they wanted to go and of course they didn't, so once again I'm on my own. I'm going to the Met on a Friday night! In May! By myself! I look at it like, I probably got a better seat (2nd to last row???) than if I tried to find two seats together. The great thing about going alone is, I can do what I want when I want. I can wait at the stage door afterwards (with who knows how many others...) or not. I know I'll probably do that in Chicago, unless the weather is horrible. Three winters in Minnesota has prepared me for just about anything though... So once again the question is... what to wear? I guess I have time to decide... and two operas to attend before then!

On a totally different note, so to speak, I've had a nasty throat virus the past three weeks. Today I woke up with laryngitis. It hurts to talk... forget about singing. I sing all the time... it was hard today not to ... then I'd grab my throat and croak to a halt. My next voice lesson isn't until Saturday, Dec 1st so hopefully my throat will have healed by then.

Here are some fun videos I've been singing along to with Alex. I can't decide if I love the bananas in this first one, or if they frighten me...



and



and an earlier version:



Which version do you like better? I can't decide, though I'm leaning towards Madelyn Kahn and Grover...