Kim and I went to see a production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro this afternoon, although I probably should just call it The Marriage of Figaro since it was performed in English instead of Italian. It was produced by the local opera company, the Rimrock Opera, which blends locals with hired traveling talents.

All in all, it was a nice show. I thought the best performer was Basilio (who also played the judge). It was sung by a character tenor named Isai Jess Muñoz. He's worth seeing if any of you operaphiles have a chance.

It says a lot about the magic of Mozart that even in a solid, but not spectacular performance, the genius of Mozart was overwhelming. This was my first opportunity to attend a live performance of a Mozart opera, and I was floored by the compositional nuts-and-bolts: pacing, balance of emotional elements, and most of all, how the music managed to be cohesive but never redundant in a 3-hour production.

+++++

I watched the end of the Yankees-Orioles game that was the last game in Yankee Stadium tonight. Left me a little wistful, even though I'm not a Yankees fan at all. I'm glad that I was able to go to two games there over the years (1996 and 1999). If, as said in Bull Durham, there is a Church of Baseball, I've no doubt that Yankee Stadium is its equivalent of the Vatican, but instead of St. Peter there's St. Babe, St. Lou, St. Yogi, St. Joe, St. Mickey, St. Reggie, and others.

Tags: baseball, mozart