Miscellanea

1. Pair has been chosen; tickets have been sent by mail.

2. This morning, my partner needed some music for his novel class, which is currently reading Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. There's a meaningful scene in the opera house. He wanted to set up today's discussion by playing some of the music from Gounod's Faust, the opera in question, specifically a recording of the duet between Marguerite and Faust, "Laisse-moi, laisse-moi contempler." Out of all the recordings I own, the duet I chose was from the radio broadcast of the Met on tour in Boston on April 6, 1940. Richard Crooks was the Faust and Helen Jepson the Marguerite. They imbued the duet with a kind of elegance rare in today's crop of verismo-styled singers. Crooks in particular poured such a serene sweetness, more breathed than sung-- made me wonder how anyone in the audience could have heard him at all. It's just transcendent.

3. Tonight, the Netrebazon Gala to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Met at Lincoln Center. I'm not there; I'll tune in via Sirius; Sieglinde liveblogging highly unlikely. But there's a livechat at parterre, hosted by Mama Cieca.