No, it can't be December already

1. Martin Bernheimer was at Carnegie Hall for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson too. He's more explicit about the elephant; he's right, however, to suggest that it cast a (severe) shadow on the event.
2. Time for another Romeo? You betcha. JSU is more generous about Bertrand de Billy's mechanical washing/drying of Gounod's sensual score. Let's see if Sieglinde"softens" on this one too.
3. Did I miss registering my extreme delight for Mama & Papa operablogging at Wellsung? I took my own dear mother to a grand total of one opera: a bouncy La Cenerentola at the Met a few years ago, with I-forget-who as Angelina and Juan Diego Florez as a dashing Don Ramiro. Mother didn't know what to think of it all; to be fair, she's from an entirely different tradition; but I don't think she'd be rushing back to the Met even if she lived in the same time zone (and country); she thinks I'm nuts; I love her. Meanwhile, a friend's mother demanded they go back to the Met to see Giuseppe Filianoti's Edgardo again. Truly, opera queen mothers (and fathers too) are my kind of stocking stuffer.
4. Campdiva Aprile Millo scratches her way up into a sane critic's top ten list! Though I wouldn't put her Tosca above LHL's Neruda Songs, I agree that it was a landmark event.
5. Passed by Lincoln Center today to get a ticket for the sizzling Netrebko/Villazon Rigoletto. Whew! The season premiere on the 10th (Saturday) is sold out, and it's looking like the second performance the following Tuesday (the 13th) will be the first weekday sold-out evening of the Met season.
6. "Nathan or William?" I'm getting asked that a lot this week. I guess whoever takes his shirt off first ... Teammate Patricia can't choose between the two ...

So let's ask Dolora ...

[Photos taken from the official An American Tragedy website, © The Metropolitan Opera.]

7. Today is World AIDS Day. Vilaine Fille, Chair of the Department of Juan Diego Florez and Keeper of the Jewish and the Liberal Calendars, provides relevant links.
8. No, I didn't see last night's Fleming exposition on the Sacred and the Profane (on PBS), but I have it on DVR. I plan to run it on loop at my yule party when the eggnog runs out.
9. And in case you're wondering who the Chair of the Department of Placido is, it's Gert. Go to her for any (I mean any) news/gossip on that Faustdude.
10. OK, nuf of this ... time to pack up for tonight's Romeo ... *reloads Met website in case there's another last-hour substitution*
11. P.S. From apartheid to this. How thrilling!