Last night we went to the Minnesota Opera's performance of Puccini's final opera Turandot. I've known some of the music from this opera for a long time and recently I downloaded the whole show on I-tunes. I'll admit that I had no idea what it was about until seeing it live last night. It was sung in Italian with English super-titles projected above the stage. I loved the performance and fully recommend it like I do with almost any live performance of theater. We had a package deal that included two tickets on the main floor (row LL on the 50 yard line), two drink coupons, and a parking pass at the nearby Lawson ramp. We had Japanese food for dinner at Sakura. The sashimi was fresh and delicious restoring my confidence in raw fish consumed in the Midwest.
Earlier in the day I found myself in Fedex/Kinko's making copies of my new arrangement of Nessun Dorma from Turandot when a grungy singer-type guy asks me, "what are you doing with Nessun Dorma?" I said I had arranged it for concert band and tenor voice. He said he was singing in Turandot that very night. He's one of the trio of Chinese court jesters called Ping, Pang or Pong. The photo above is either Ping, Pang or Pong. Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) is about the most famous Puccini opera aria around and Turandot is one of the most performed 20th century operas. The other three most frequently performed 20 century operas (for all of you opera buffs out there) are Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, and my man Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. This list demonstrates how international opera is with these works coming from Italy, Germany, England, and Russia. Stravinsky was Russian (actually Soviet) but he lived in the US for so long that I'd consider him an honorary Californian
While I shopped at The Cub Foods today, the lion cub and the cheetah cub rested on Makiko/Johanna/Christoph's bed while Sue worked on her paper.
We're still trying to get these guys to sit still for a good photo shoot.
Milwaukee Pete sent me back to Minnesota with three bottles of Bischoff beer from Winnweiler, Germany where our friend Chris Campbell lived while he was in the air force. Some company in the US is now importing Bischoff so it's only a matter of time before we see it on tap at Applebees. The hefeweizen made Sue and I long for Germany. We are still waiting for airfare to drop so we can book some flights to Bavaria.
Here is my new creation that I've duplicated three times: Spicy Thai Tofu Green Curry. I'm bringing it to a potluck tomorrow night at my pastor intern meeting. I know Ben and Ali appreciate some kick-butt curry.
Here is a sequence of three photos showing an interaction with Mr. Ravel.
#1 The Captured Cat
#2 Captured Cat Gets Cheeky as he uncoils like a high tension spring bearing sharp claws
#3 Uncoiled Spring finds himself sitting alone on the couch
On April 19th (yesterday) we got 6 inches of heavy snow. The night before the Twins game was called off because of the heavy rain that had not yet turned to heavy snow. The Twins were called off on Friday night in Chicago for temperatures in the 20s. I think Duluth got 18 inches of snow.
Sir Nigel likes to climb on top of things like the backs of chairs and counter tops. They both remain committed to every play session to which they are invited.
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