Sunday, March 6, 2011

Opera York - Cosi Fan Tutte

  Like most of you, I have stashes of higher quality items that I reserve for special occasions – dishes, wines, lingerie!   My Wedgewood china, for instance, shouts Christmas and celebration and the bounty of an inspired kitchen.  I even have a special box of words that I will use only with the utmost discrimination lest overuse render them banal and diluted.  Last night I saw the Mozart/Da Ponte opera, Cosi Fan Tutte.  The Opera York production in the glittering Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts:
Richmond
sent me on a frantic search for my dusty chest of special occasion words! 
Opera_words

Permit me now to panegyrize!
Opera is a new passion of mine. It is an intoxicating addiction – a sublime fusion of artistic multitudes, the combined genius of which delivers the ultimate soul food.  Eternally enamoured of Mozart, I was a push-over for last night’s performance of Cosi Fan Tutte.  From the time I entered the lovely Richmond Hill Centre with my dashing father, Frank Garel:

Meandad_2

...until the time I left, I felt pampered and welcomed – like a guest of honour really. 
At this early stage of my opera love affair every performance is an exciting first and a pure delight as I sit with a smile and try to contain that irresistible urge to jump up and conduct the orchestra like Richard Gere did as a manic fan in the movie Mr. Jones.  My ignorance of all things musical is not a barrier to my complete immersion in the music, theatrics and sense of grand occasion that I feel when taking my oh-so-comfortable seat in that lovely theatre. 
I am already anxious to schedule my next fix!