Saturday opera blogging
I came home from a midday expedition downtown expressly to listen to the last Met radio broadcast of the season; this weekend it’s La Clemenza di Tito, and we’re now at the intermission. How fabulously dark the end of Act 1 is. The audience digs Anne-Sofie von Otter, and so do I. There are other mezzos whose voices I like as well or better, but I have a soft spot for Anne-Sofie because she was one of the reasons why I got into Mozart’s operas in the first place. Around a decade ago, my college roommate splurged on the James Levine Nozze di Figaro (with A-S. von O. as Cherubino) and put it on first thing most mornings as the two of us brewed the day’s first pot of coffee and staggered through our morning routines. After a while I noticed that I’d taken to warbling "Voi che sapete" and "Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio" in the shower, and then I saw my first Don Giovanni at the Lyric, and the rest was history.
You know, even though the so-called "Mozart effect" has been shown to be hogwash, there’s nothing like an afternoon listening to La Clemenza to make one feel much more capable of dealing with life, the universe, and impending job interviews. (Now if only I didn’t have to spend part of tomorrow tweaking PowerPoint slides…)
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