Random Pamina

Here's something random and fun.

A friend at work convinced me to come out to dinner tonight to a local restaurant I've passed countless times but for whatever reason have never been to before. Husband and Alex came too because I was in one of those moods where I wanted to go out but also wanted to be with my boys.

So during the meal I heard the opening notes of Ave Maria. Before I had a chance to say, "That sounds like Ave Maria," the hostess at the restaurant began to sing. Beautiful, beautiful voice. When she was done the CD began to play the next track - the vocal accompaniment to Ach il fuhl's, Pamina's aria from Die Zauberflote. So the next time she passed our table I stopped her, told her how lovely her voice is and said that I expected to hear her sing Pamina next when the music started. She got so excited - turns out she's a grad student in voice and is singing Pamina this coming spring for a performance in her program. She was working at the restaurant while home on Winter break. We chatted a little bit about studying voice. I told her how Alex loves Magic Flute and used to watch the Met's English version and she cut me off and said, "Oh, with Nathan Gunn. Isn't he the best Papageno?" Ha! Um, yeah. So the conversation went there for a few minutes, got sort of silly, we compared notes of opera singers we've met and operas we like and then she sang Pamina. It was really nice. Alex was fading fast as it was well past his bedtime, but he sat on my lap and went into his Opera Trance, with that smile that he gets on his face.

Totally random. Love it.