Opera Birthday!!

My mom turns 81 this year. She is an opera lover too. I mean, it didn't just pop up in me overnight. I grew up hearing the Saturday Afternoon Broadcast, well, every Saturday afternoon, and many other operas on the stereo system from those LPs that come in boxes because you need like 6 records for one opera.

So my parents live in South East Florida, where all respectful New Jersey Jews go to when they retire. Everyone has a New York or New Jersey accent.

My mother hasn't been to the opera in like 45 years, even though, before she met my dad, she had a subscription to the (old) Met and went one a week for years. Gee, thanks dad. So for her birthday, I decided I was going to take her to the opera. But how? So I poked around and discovered that Florida Grand Opera holds some of its performances at a theater about 20 minutes from where my parents live. And next Spring they're doing Nozze di Figaro. AND... Liz Caballero has the part of the Countess. !!!! So I got the tickets - air and opera. My mother is THRILLED. AND I told Liz we were coming and she said to remind her to put us on the backstage list. Is that not the coolest?

SOOOOO I'm going to the opera. Again. In April. In Florida. With my mother. And we'll see Liz perform. Dove Sono... Porgi Amor better bring a box of tissues. (Yeah, I know the links aren't of Liz, but it's Renee so stop complaining.)

More Sad

Weird stuff's been happening lately. Most of it is so unrelated to opera that it doesn't appear here in the blog.

But now, something that I suspected might happen has happened, and I'm not surprised, as I would have reacted exactly the same way.

One of my opera friends, a regular reader of this blog, is several months shy of his 18th birthday. His mother found out we were friends and told him no, no, no. Now, this is a perfectly normal friendship, an innocent friendship, nothing smarmy or funky or whatever. The point is, we became friends over opera, before we knew each other's ages, because it just didn't matter. We became friends because of the music.

However, when Alex is 17, I'd be pretty freaked out if he were friends with a 41 year old woman. This friend's mother and I come from a generation of not having had internet as children and young adults. Not knowing how internet-savvy she is, she may not understand the types of innocent friendships that can form between unlikely people, such a teenage guy and an adult woman, over a common interest. All we hear about are the creepy relationships where minors are lured to hotels to be molested by creepy ... well by creeps. So I can totally understand where she's coming from, and although it makes me sad to put a friendship "on hold," I absolutely must respect her wishes. Like, as soon as I found out, I immediately terminated the conversation.

It's possible that this friend and I will continue to communicate publicly about music via comments on blogs, youtube videos and so on, however, I will not allow any direct interaction via chat or email.

So, to the mom of my opera friend, I hear ya, I understand, I respect your wishes. I'm a mom too. Your son is a kid I'm friends with. There's nothing inappropriate. So no worries, ok?