Cherry Blossoms in Beckenham Palace Park, south London

Trees in Beckenham Palace Woods

New Leaves in Beckenham Palace Woods

New Leaves and Orange Tip Butterfly Beckenham Palace Woods

New Leaves in Beckenham Palace Woods

The Painted Hall, Greenwich

Three Decembers - Emily Pulley & Matthew Worth - Photo Courtesy: Ron T. Ennis

Once again, the Fort Worth Opera Company presents a world-class chamber opera that could be the highlight of the season. Part of Darren Woods’ mission is to present new chamber opera works of this nature each year, and if Hydrogen Jukebox last year, and this year’s Three Decembers by Jake Heggie are any sort of indicators, I have a hunch that no one is going to be raising objections about presenting these kinds of productions any time soon. After an opening night featuring thirty-five foot tall sets for a Grand Opera with a magnitude of principal voices and over twenty choristers, Fort Worth audiences were introduced to a new work on a small amphitheater-style stage, with an off-stage chamber ensemble and only three singers — and yet there wasn’t a single moment where you felt as if it were “lacking” in any department.

In fact, after those aforementioned thirty-five-feet tall cathedral walls for Tosca, I wasn’t sure there would be any way another set this season could even compare — thankfully, I was wrong. Before even going into what the set design looked like, I have to give a hearty round-of-applause to the stage crew for this production. I’ve never seen such an elaborate set with so many pieces be so seamlessly moved around without breaks or stoppages of the story or music. Whether it was the tri-split screen to begin the work in order to demonstrate the phone call setting, or the incredible rolling fog under the Golden Gate Bridge, or even the ending set with stairs to heaven, the sets were an integral part of making the audience really feel like they were a part of the work unfolding before them, and were a big reason why this chamber work seemed so “Grand.”

The most striking part of this work is not the story, the dialogue, the curse-words, the plot twist, or any of that; what I walked out of Scott Theatre thinking about the most was the music. Composer Jake Heggie shows in this work why he is the “hot ticket” around town these days. Not only was the chamber orchestra an integral part of the opera, it was a joy to listen to on its own merit. And for any with preconceived notions of what a modern English (language) opera sounds like, make sure to leave those biases at the door. This work was full of beautiful and memorable melodies that ran the gamut between hopeful and haunting. And unlike many new operas in English that seem to blur the lines between musical theater and opera (and even though one of the characters was a musical theater star), Heggie never even comes close. The work has little-to-no spoken dialogue, wonderfully melodious recitatives, and glorious, soaring arias.

Three Decembers - Emily Pulley & Janice Hall - Photo Courtesy: Ron T. Ennis

One of the main tasks for the performers in this opera is not only to sing well — but to bring the characters they represent to life in a way that is not only believable to an audience, but is also relatable. What makes a modern opera like this so unique, and so difficult on the acting front for a performer, is that unlike many older standard repertoire operas that represent mythological characters, or characters that require you to read a musicological thesis in order to relate to the time, place, and circumstances that make up who they represent, an opera with this subject matter is immediately relatable to just about every person in the audience, because well, everyone can relate to the universal stories of love, loss, pain, and family drama (especially on Mother’s Day) within a modern setting. The story, which was originally a play, is one that could also easily be a modern movie showing in your everyday cinema. So the performers are under substantial pressure to bring these stories to life so that it isn’t just three folks tritely singing about their emotional issues. And thankfully, these performers pulled it off beautifully.

Soprano Emily Pulley performed the role of Bea absolutely perfectly. Her character has a bit of a shallow complexity — she wants to fix everyone else’s relationships because hers with her husband is falling apart. She’s the over-caring, nosy sister that you’re glad you have because she’s there when you need her. And Pulley not only embraced the challenge of Bea, she embodied it. Her strong soprano sound made for a resounding performance, and her abilities to perfectly execute the extremes were more than impressive. Whether it was pushing the limits of pianississimo to create the illusion of a whisper, or wide sweeping fortissimos to bring about her anguish at her mother’s constant disapproval, Pulley brought out the emotions in a raw way without ever straining her voice or altering Heggie’s beautifully crafted phrases.

Three Decembers - Matthew Worth - Photo Courtesy: Ron T. Ennis

Baritone Matthew Worth in the role of Charlie was perhaps the most moving performer of the three — though much of that can be contributed to the nature of the character Charlie as much as his stellar performance. Worth’s character had to show the most wide-ranging emotional spectrum within the work, and he navigated the waters of indignation, disappointment, anger, and absolute sorrow in a beautiful manner by letting his dark baritone voice sing out whether singing a recit or an aria. His diction seemed to lean towards over-accenting phrases that ended with consonants, which was a little odd, but did seem to help him excel at bringing out the choice curse words within the libretto.

Three Decembers - Janice Hall - Photo Courtesy: Ellen Appel

Soprano Janice Hall wonderfully performed the role of the mother and theatrical star Madeline (Maddy) Mitchell, a self-absorbed, self-pitying, absentee mother who sees the world as one big acting job. Hall has a beautifully full high-range, and does a masterful job of using dynamics within her phrasing to bring out the emotions — both real and acted — of the character. While at times she has difficulty with intonation when navigating some of Heggie’s vocal leaps, she does a wonderful job of staying fully within an opera voice, even when her character is supposed to be performing a solo on Broadway. It was in fact her aria that is supposed to be in the aforementioned Broadway show, that was perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the performance — both due to her acting as much as her singing.

The Fort Worth Opera and Jake Heggie are certainly lucky to have found such a strong trio of singers that can seemingly perform such demanding roles effortlessly, and in such a compelling manner. The cast, staging, music, and a captivating modern story led to another jewel in the crown for the company, and another successful introduction of chamber opera to Cowtown.

Fort Worth Opera - Tosca - Te Deum - Photo courtesy: Ellen Appel

If the Fort Worth Opera wanted to make an immediate impression about how this year’s festival was going to go, they chose the right opera for Opening Night. Immediately at the lift of the curtain the audience was given a delight for the eyes. The striking sets, which were the tallest in the company’s history, immediately created a realistic time and place setting. From the multi-dimensional cathedral in the first act, to the beautiful star-lit sky and larger-than-life statue in the third act, the sets added grandeur to an already “grand” opera.

Once again, bass Rod Nelman (Dr. Dulcamara in Fort Worth’s 2010 Elixir of Love) was an unexpected treat in this performance as the Sacristan. Not only was he the perfect “ham” for creating a little comic relief, his countermelody within the opening Recondita armonia aria was wll-delivered and added the perfect element of melodious grumbling to counter Cavaradossi’s sappy love-aria.

And speaking of the Recondita armonia, it was in this first Cavaradossi aria that tenor Roger Honeywell set the bar. From light fluttering tenor lines to wide sweeping phrasing, Honeywell displayed a nice versatility within the aria. One of the more impressive parts of his performance was his ability to stay perfectly with the orchestra — not just in timing, but in phrasing as well. He also worked well with his counterpart, Tosca, as they seemed completely tuned into one another throughout the production, and were just as good in their playful banter in the beginning as they were in their chilling final duet. While not overly powerful, there were moments throughout the opera where Honeywell’s voice rang out. One in particular was within the Vittoria! Vittoria! in the second act. His cry filled the hall and even left a nice echo that hung for a while and held the audience in suspense, waiting for the next note. His highlight of the evening, however, came during his final E lucevan le stelle aria, as he showed his full vocal repertoire, and a command not only of his voice, but also of the audience.

Fort Worth Opera - Tosca - Carter Scott and Roger Honeywell - Photo courtesy: Ron T. Ennis

The most impressive of the male voices during the evening, was baritone Michael Chioldi in the role of the Baron Scarpia. Even from his first stage entrance, his booming baritone told you that he meant business. What Chioldi excelled at the most the way he brought out the character. He made you love to hate him, which is exactly how you should feel towards Scarpia. Whether he was perfectly reveling in his sinister plot in Va Tosca! by honing in on a darker sound, or bringing down the house in the incredibly powerful and moving Te Deum to close out the first act, he embodied the roll of the sanctimonious political zealot. But even though the Te Deum might have been the best moment of the evening, Chioldi’s best performance came during his Ha più forte sapore aria. He beautifully played off of the orchestra to bring out the feeling of inner rage within his character, but it was within that show of anger that Chioldi’s voice was allowed to boom out like we heard in his opening lines in the first act, all of which underlined the sickening lines of conquest he was singing, and made you more than ready for him to receive that “kiss” from Tosca.

To say soprano Carter Scott has a big voice would be quite the understatement. As extreme of a dynamic range as she showed on Saturday night, one never got the feeling that she was showing you all she had. But within that big voice, Scott also demonstrated great flexibility within her upper register, and was even able to be wonderfully “light and bouncy” within Tosca’s opening Non la sospiri, la nostra casetta aria. In the entire first act, Scott did an incredible job of setting up the idea of Tosca as a jealous-crazed, unstable, but somewhat endearing light-hearted character — an idea that she beautifully smashed in Act Two. And though Scott did a wonderful job of revealing Tosca’s inner-strength throughout the second act, it was within the famous Vissi d’Arte that Scott fully came into the Tosca that would kill Scarpia. At the opening of the aria, Scott was put in a tough spot — literally. Vissi d’Arteis a tough aria to begin with, but when you have to sing those well-known opening lines while upside-down on a table with your head hanging off the edge and someone on top of you, it becomes a herculean task to pull off, but somehow she made it work. While the scene and staging made for a powerful moment, she didn’t fully come into the aria until she was able to roll over and face the audience. Her phrasing within the aria wonderfully out the highs and lows, and she was equally as impressive in her decrescendos as she was within the crescendos — a sign of a good performance and performer.

Overall, Tosca might have been one of the stronger casts through-and-through (even the children’s chorus was impressive) that the Fort Worth Opera has put together, and if this production is a sign of how things will be during this year’s festival, I can’t wait to see the next three.

The lure of the Hawaiian islands is strong with me especially if the lure is only 250 feet from my office in Laguna Beach. The strains of Brian Pi’ikea Vasquez’s ukulele coming from Tommy Bahamas draws me in like Odysseus to the sirens. It doesn’t hurt that the food and drinks at Tommy Bahamas are excellent and their happy hour (Monday – Friday 3-5:30pm) is an especially good deal.

My wife and I met Brian’s wife at Bongo Ben’s restaurant in Kailua Kona about five years ago. Brian and his band played there most every Saturday night so it wasn’t much of a stretch today to wander down the block to get a little reprieve from my “temporary exile”, as I like to call it, in California.

Food first:

I had the ahi tuna tacos and the macadamia nut encrusted goat cheese. The ahi tacos are poke style ahi in a wonton taco shell with Asian slaw and a wasabi-lime avocado dressing. $4.00 for two tacos.

Ahi Tuna Tacos

The goat cheese is served with a sweet soy glaze, mango salsa and flat bread. $5.00.

Macadamia Nut Encrusted Goat Cheese

Drinks:

Tommy Bahamas Millionaire Mai Tai is loosely based on the Trader Vic’s style of Mai Tai. A pineapple and lemon juice base is mixed with orange curaçao and Cruzan light rum then topped with Maui’s Lahaina dark rum and an orchid. $9 ($4.50 during happy hour)

Millionaire Mai Tai

One of the most unusual drinks I’ve had is Tommy Bahamas Sunburn. This cocktail showcases the jalapeño pepper. Muddled jalapeño, passion fruit and hand pressed lemon are the foundation of this drink. Tommy Bahamas Golden Sun Rum and St-Germain Elderflower liqueur provide a great kick to this spicy concoction. $9 ($4.50 during happy hour)

Tommy Bahamas Sunburn

Music:
Brian Pi’ikea Vasquez has been playing the ukulele since he was five. Often called the pupule (Hawaiian for crazy) picker, Brian’s unique style blends influences ranging from Carlos Santana to Bob Marley but infuses an island essence into his ukulele picking style.

Brian Pi'ikea Vasquez

Tommy Bahamas
400 S. Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
(949) 376-6886

Brian Pi’ikea Vasquez
brianandrowena.com

Brian will be on tour on the Aloha Hawaii Live Tour with Willie K, Nohelani Cypriano, and Larry Rivera May 16th through May 27, 2012. Aloha Hawaii Live Tour info.

He’ll return to Tommy Bahamas June 2, 16 and 22, 2012.

Check out Brian performing Santana’s Europa in this video from his website.

Saturday, May 12 marks the Opening Night of the Sixth Fort Worth Opera Festival (technically the 66th Season), and kicks off with the always popular Tosca by the great Puccini. And what a way to begin!The “grand opera” set will feature one of the tallest sets ever in Bass Performance hall as Director Daniel Pelzig presents a traditional period setting of this blockbuster. The cast features soprano Carter Scott as Tosca and baritone Michael Chioldi as Scarpia — both performed the roles in Fort Worth’s 2005 production of the same work and were met with rave reviews.

Sunday, May 13th will feature the opening performance of renowned American composer Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers in the intimate Scott Theater, and will continue the company’s tradition of producing a chamber opera in a non-concert hall setting. Three Decembers chronicles three decades in the lives of a Broadway diva and her adult son and daughter. Called “a modern masterpiece” by Opera Today, Three Decembers is based on the play Some Christmas Letters by Terrance McNally. Soprano Emily Pulley and baritone Matthew Worth will both make their Fort Worth Opera debuts in the production.

Saturday, May 19th opens the second of the “greatest hits” of opera with what is widely considered on of Mozart’s finest operas — The Marriage of Figaro. The production will feature many young rising stars such as bass-baritone Donovan Singletary, soprano Andrea Carroll, baritone Jonathan Beyer, and soprano Jan Cornelius, each in their Fort Worth Opera debut.

Saturday, May 26th is the final “Opening Night” in Bass Performance Hall with the regional premiere of acclaimed American composer Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata. Based on Aristophanes’ work of the same name, the New York Times calls the production a “fantastical riff on the ancient Greek play.” Texas native (and no stranger to the DFW metroplex) soprano Ava Pine will take on the title role, and tenor Scott Scully plays her Athenian warrior lover. Fort Worth Opera Studio artist Meaghan Dieter leads the Athenian women as Kleonike, and her Spartan and mezzo-soprano counterpart is Fort Worth Opera Studio alum Alissa Anderson. Bass-baritone Seth Mease Carico performs the role of Leonidas (Lampito’s husband). The Athenian couple Myrrhine and Kinesias are performed by Fort Worth Opera Studio alum Ashley Kerr and baritone Michael Mayes. Altogether the cast will work to bring out the satirization of humanity’s endless legacy of war — both between nations and the sexes.

Full Schedule by production:

• Tosca: May 12, 20, 25, and June 2nd at Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, TX
• Three Decembers: May 13, 18, 20, 26, 31, and June 2, 2012 at the Scott Theatre in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX
• The Marriage of Figaro: May 19, 27, and June 1 at Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, TX
• Lysistrata: May 16 and June 3 at Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth, TX

For tickets and more information please visit http://fwopera.org

I have now entered the time of life where everyone seems to bring up my age.  People are no longer shy to just ask you right out. I always wonder why it matters to them. From the woman who called me “seasoned” the other day, to my female doctor actually using the line “we’re no spring chickens anymore.” I don’t ever hear anyone ask my husband how old he is or use some colorful phrase that the person thinks is polite like “seasoned”.

Carolee Dalton (L) and Lori Lewis (R)

We live in a world that is becoming more obsessed with youth. As women, we are forced to face our age all the time. Stop asking us. Perhaps concentrate on our good traits and allow us to be the women we are!

And of course, if you are in the Opera World, you now have to sing like a Goddess and look like a Movie Star (or at least try). I’m sure this happens in other fields, but of course it happens more in the entertainment industries. It forces people to lie about their age. What good does that do? Doesn’t it matter if the person looks young enough for the part and sings really wonderfully? Why ask?

OK, enough said.  Many of you can relate and know what I mean. So let’s move on to the good parts.

I LOVE being 50!  People take me more seriously. I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. I’m enjoying applying all the knowledge I’ve gained from making many, many mistakes.

It feels good to have experience to share with others. I live a comfortable life. No more sleeping on people’s couches and scrounging for change to buy a taco.

Dr. Cliff Lewis

Being married to a wonderful, amazing man for 17 years who treats me like a queen has finally convinced me that I am beautiful. I’m not young, and I have more pounds on me than I want … but I feel beautiful!

I am more focused than ever before. I know what I want and how to get it.

I get to stop worrying about being cool and instead concentrate on being compassionate, understanding, and focusing on others. I think teenagers are cute and look so young. I enjoyed when I sang as one of the ensemble in the Musical “Annie” when the little girls from 7-12 found out that I was playing Disney’s Toontown Online. They laughed and said I was a geek. One of them said her baby brother played it.  Well you know what darlings; it’s fun to be a geek!

I spend time trying to encourage people younger than I to enjoy life and pursue their passions.

I smile at and pet every dog and coo at babies that go by. It’s fun being older. It makes you appreciate everyone more.

I feel comfortable to tell others they are beautiful or good-looking without them or me feeling like I’m hitting on them.  I feel I’ve earned this. I think all my friends are beautiful. Beauty really does come from the inside.

So if you are a woman who is worrying about your age, embrace it! In fact, CELEBRATE it! Life is precious. Don’t let anything stop you!

The ancient poets tell us that Venus, the goddess of love, was born in a chill and effortless moment of self-procreation from the foam of the surging sea.  Poets also tell us that she took, as her most illustrious lover, Mars, the god of strife.  Not unlike the poet’s mythical stories, we too register with our lives the complexities and simplicities of relationships, the fruitless and necessary interaction of approach and avoidance, love and strife.

Gustaw Herling

Gustaw Herling, an elderly Polish writer authored, The Noonday Cemetery.  In one unsettling story, “The Eyetooth of Barabbas,” Herling builds upon a heretical theory that God needed evil to make his creation complete.  I contend that no evil blends into the landscape of daily human affairs, nor colors human longings, ambitions, hopes and fears, nor skillfully evades every attempt to comprehend and justify it’s existence than “Sabotage.”

Sabotage is anything we do to keep from connecting with another human being.

Recently I was conducting a seminar on “Seductive Detachment and Other Active and Passive Ways We Sabotage Relationships.”  The newspaper article that promoted the subject of my seminar asked the following questions:

• Do you find yourself going in and out of relationships?
• Has it been a long time since you were deeply involved with someone?
• Are you involved in a relationship that isn’t going anywhere?
• Do you think all the good people are already taken?
• Are you still hurting from a former relationship?

Then the article made the following statement:  “If you have some confusion as to what you want or how badly you want it you may sabotage a relationship before it has a chance to develop.  Needless to say, the seminar, which continues to this day, was “fearfully” well attended.

Photo by Kevin Connors

Vendela, one particular attendee, a strikingly contemporary woman, neither a modern heroine in the Victorian mold nor a woman who loved too much, anxious over her inability to love, requests of me my first available appointment.  Her initial session consisted of some throwaway commentary fretting about her expanding waistline.  Regretfully more out of time than words, she sensed my growing impatience with her verbal warm-up and, heretofore, subject of distraction.  Unable to avoid the truth any longer, she confessed to being an intimacy avoider.  Instead of being tied down at home, or any specific wind-swept desire, Vendela was the stereotypical free agent in a world typified by wanderlust and disconnects.  Born in Spain, she grew up in New York.  On a whim she follows a romantic invitation from a boyfriend to travel in Europe for the summer.  By summer’s end, once again unattached, she chooses to live in Southern California with her best friend, also surviving a pattern of one-night stands and a hilarious variety of relationships that never seem to last.  After our first session, I am left with the growing impression that for Vendela relationships are always provisional, even if the most random human interaction has the power to alter or potentially stabilize her life.

All of us have concerns about loving and getting close to someone.  Some of us have actual hidden fears about being intimately involved in a sustained way with another.  Sabotage is anything that can be done to keep from connecting with another due to a deep-seeded fear of sustained closeness.  Sabotage is protection, a defensive reaction erected to quiet hidden fears of closeness or abandonment.

Having committed to a relationship with me in therapy, Vendela was eventually able to commit to developing an awareness of her own underlying fear of love.  In one of our last sessions together, Vendela confessed, “I would never have known that unresolved conflicts from my past had unconsciously evolved a sabotage style preventing me from finding the relationship I claimed to be seeking.”  Without the awareness she had gained through therapy, she would think of herself as involved in a continuous search for the right relationship.  Truthfully, a person who sabotages any chances at love is on a serial journey of dead-ends.  Caught in a pendulum swing between desire and disillusionment, people who sabotage their relationships oscillate between approach and avoidance, bound at all times to a fixed point – their underlying fear of sustained closeness and the promotion of love and commitment.

I encourage each of you reading this to take a personal inventory of any hidden fears you may have in regards to closeness.  You cannot solve a problem you may have with closeness that you are unable to identify or unwilling to admit.  Remember, there is as much hope in the world as the responsibility you are willing to assume.

“The heart is the thousand-stringed instrument that can only be tuned with Love.”

Hafiz

American culture has retained much less of this idea. We approach life differently. We are in a hurry. We want our food served fast and in and out of a restaurant in an hour. We want the line in the Coffee Shop to move fast … faster and faster. We want our books and our movies to get right to the action.

I have known many people who have either bought or inherited fine china and it stays in a cabinet, supposedly for company, but usually never taken out – even for company. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood and the tradition came from somewhere that in the front living room the good furniture was covered in plastic. It was meant to keep it nice and supposed to be used for company only… guess what? Company must have never come by my house because no one ever got to sit in those chairs!

We are more of an instantaneous society than ever and we have shunned many rituals.  The ritual of an afternoon tea, the ritual of lingering over a classic book (reading levels keep dropping), the ritual of sitting through a concert, holding on to every note, and letting it permeate our souls.  We could stand to bring some rituals back.

So here’s my challenge to you! Take your Art out of the Cabinet. I fully intend to use that fine china every morning, sit at my dining table with fine Irish linens, light candles, play Mozart in the background and chat with my husband. All of this before the computers come out and our minds go to work. I will fight to keep these important rituals in my life. I will take time to sit at the seashore (actually doing it now) and read and write … I’ll even bring my computer so I can do work while I soak in life.

Go ahead, watch the Real Housewives, grab that quick Starbucks … but also make time for the rituals … have High Tea, watch a long Opera, wander for hours in an Art Museum, or read a “boring” classic book.

Take the Art off the Shelf where you’ve been saving it for company or for some special occasion … Make everyday life an occasion!

After all – this is what Living Life Full Voice is all about.

Rebecca Romijn in her Kentucky Derby hat

The History

It’s 1783 on Market Street in downtown Louisville.  The swells are cadging their bets on their favorite horses, and riders.  The ladies are be-gowned and be-hatted, as per the style of the time, post-Revolution.  The Kentucky Derby has begun, on a muddied street, not yet a track, not yet a tradition, but in it’s early stages, heavily influenced by England and French racing form. The foundations are lain in the heart of town, to become an explosion of style, fashion, and horseflesh many years hence.

Churchill Downs April 29, 1901 from the archives of the Library of Congress

Muddying up Main Street became a bit of a traffic problem, and finally, after a hundred years or so, Churchill Downs became the official home of the “Run for the Roses”. A grandstand, a clubhouse, and more, the race meets filled with the fashionable and the best of the Kentucky horsebreeding industry. By 1875, 10,000 decked watchers would gather to be seen, and to see. Skip to modern day, last year,  and the crowds at the Downs estimated 164,858 as Animal Kingdom rode to a 2 ¾ length victory, and tradition continues, deeply entrenched in American fashion. Continental influence reigns now, as it did in the first days of the sport.

The Scene

© Photo courtesy of Kentucky Derby Museum

As the crowd sings a rousing version of Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home”, mint juleps raised, ladies’ and gentlemen’s heads are crowned in a colorful hat array that vie with the silks worn by the jockeys on the field. Those silks came about when the royals (horse breeders were naturally of the duke and baron and beyond classes) couldn’t tell each other’s steeds apart.  In the 18^th Century, they had neither programs, nor commentators to rouse the crowd to a racing frenzy, and so the brilliant idea of different colored clothing for the jockeys and the horses became the solution.  Well known colors of the popular stables are even today sometimes matched by the ladies of the Farms represented, via hat, or ensemble.  When the aptly named Sport of Kings began, colors were undoubtebly basic: red for you, blue for me, yellow for Lord So-and-So. Today, the line up of jockey silks in the tack room is an astounding variation of any color combo possible: tone on tone, to multi colored. Even bright neon shades cover the course as the horses bolt from the starting gate. Pan the crowd and color headlines as the theme of the day.  We have not the same rules as they do at Royal Ascot, in England, but, after all, it is the South, and so Spring is in the air.  Floral dresses , pastels, and bright frocks will be topped off by just as vivid headgear.  Whimsy is the only true rule, whether you are in the infield or the Grandstand.  Practical folk still attend the festivities with no frivolity showing at their hems, or on their heads, but the joy that pervades almost demands an exhuberant wardrobe.

The Style

Hats, a tad more staid than at Ascot, but still lavish in their own way, are de rigeur.  Here, in the States, as in England, this is Hat Nation time. Wear it, flaunt it, fall into a pool with it on your head, but make sure you’re  behatted. In America, lavish means large brim.  Because of the Royal Wedding of Kate and William, fascinators are now ultra fashionable.  Although stricken from the Royal Enclosure Dress Code, fascinators are the new hat for the Kentucky Derby set.  The height of the headpiece depends upon how much drama the wearer can sustain, but dramatic they should be.  Floral trimming, brightly colored ribbons and feather sprays often sit atop a neutral colored straw base, in keeping with the conservative side of style. One observation often said by our clients is that they shop with an eye to wearing the headpiece again. The myth of neutrality seems to be an American syllogism. We milliners hope for those wild clients who dare to cross the line and wear anything but safe hats. And never think it’s all just about a crown, a brim and a flower.  Wild shows up in many ways at Churchill Downs, as it does at Ascot, as it does at the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  Plastic horses abound running amuck on a baseball cap. Oh, to be sure. It’s just not a complete race day without some vestige of a concocted contraption worn jauntily, and proudly on someone’s head. These home-made millinery projects lend a sense of the absurd but it’s humor that is enjoyed by all.  As the panoply of Easter press coverage show the plastic eggs on hats drowning in plastic grass, so go the Derby versions.  It’s a side of “millinery” that everybody enjoys.  Unless it makes you cringe. Hats own the Derby, so it’s a chance to overdo, overdress, overkill and over-bird in any way possible.  Be it ostentatious, or just ridiculous, Churchill Downs welcomes all manner of headgear gleefully. With couture embracing all manner of headdress, and hats themselves coming out of the closet, this is the time of year to wear it.  If you got it, as they say, flaunt it.

Oaks

The newest thing, introduced in 2009 is for the Friday before the big race.  For the Kentucky Oaks, the official color is PINK.  The first “Pink-out” was dedicated to breast cancer survivors, and has become a rousing success.  It just so happens that the official flower of the Oaks is the stargazer lily, a bloom with a dash of hot pink in the center.  While the blanket for the winner of the Kentucky Derby is made of red roses, the crowning cover for the filly that wins Oak Day is made of those ubiquitous lilies.  And so, the crowd must, indubitable, match.  Wear hot pink, pale pink, fuschia, blush, or peach, but pink in some way, shape or form is the way to go.  Just another hat  to some of us, and what could be more fun than dressing in theme?  Or building a wardrobe of hats just for race week? Add Friday to your holiday in the sun, and go pink. Fillies run, cancer survivors parade, and celebrities abound.  Friday at the Oaks is girlpower day, a reason to arrive with friends and family in tow, to honor and celebrate our fight against breast cancer. Tradition has it through the ages that man (and woman, of course) tag at the heels of the Royals who influence their every move. For those of the upper classes, this was an evidently gratifying mimicry, as the King or Queen could be swayed to award a dukedom through mere flattery.  As the American ex-colony struggled to gain even more territory in the West,  she remained ever faithful to the fashions on the continent .  The mere act of donning a hat, as per Queen Anne, the instigator of the entire racing tradition, became an honorable gesture.  When in the presence of the Queen, there are certain rules to be observed.  Far be it from the colonials to naysay those rules, merely because they happened to be thousands of miles away.  Not only fashion, of course, was influenced by European over-indulgence in fabrication and silhouette, but that is what we are addressing herein.

Indulgence then, is the rule.  Hats have no reason to be delegated to those lost regions of the wardrobe, taken out only for a day. No need to deny their existence.  Hats add to the fun of the moment, and at the Derby, they can create a special bond with the event itself.  As in eras long past, the status of the wearer is evidenced by their taste and choice in fashion, style and composition of their ensemble.  No reason the put on a bargain basement hat when your shoes are of the spicy-pricey ilk.  Rather, shop for a top of the line, fashion forward topper to scream to the style mavens of your fashionable inklings. Be daring, be rash, be free.  All this and more is possible just by wearing the perfect hat.  Who would think such psychic power could emerge just from the wearing of a hat?  We do.  And you should, too.

All photos © Ellen Christine except where noted

Outside one of the many entrances

You would think that the idea of how “different” of an opera experience the Cowboys Stadium Simulcast was going to be, would be evident while you’re sitting in parking traffic going to a football stadium — but it wasn’t until the moment I was getting my ticket scanned while looking at a football field as the usher says “Welcome to the Opera,” that it really set in. You just can’t talk about this performance without talking about the overall experience, and what it could mean not just for The Dallas Opera, but also for the Arts in all of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (after all, don’t forget Cowboys Stadium is actually in Arlington and not Dallas). While ticket reservations were over 30,000, it was tough to gauge the actual size of the crowd (initial Dallas Opera estimates say 15,000). But it is safe to say that in the tens of thousands of folks that were there, there were quite a few who probably had their first exposure to opera on Saturday evening — and many in that key “younger” demographic classical music forms so desperately need.

In an echo of the Met HD broadcasts, The Dallas Opera took steps to engage the people not watching from the Winspear Opera House with some “behind-the-scenes” footage and interviews. The “host” of the evening was local news anchor Ron Corning, who was, well, an interesting host, and at least a familiar face to most in attendance. Speaking of familiar, The Dallas Opera presented a couple of twists to make this potential “introduction” to opera feel a little more in-touch with the environment the majority were viewing in. For instance, the evening started with the National Anthem, which is certainly not par for the course for an opera (especially one in German), but one that seemed to go over well with the majority at the stadium. Luckily, whether it was the Winspear audience doing the wave during intermission or the Papageno(a) children wearing Dallas Cowboys jerseys at the end of the opera, the light-hearted attempts at pandering to the Cowboys Stadium crowd seemed to be taken in stride and with a chuckle by most in attendance.

If you aren’t watching opera in a live concert hall setting, I’m not sure there’s a better place than Cowboys Stadium for viewing. Comfy seats, big drinks, high volume audio, and oh yea, a HUGE screen; it’s hard to ask for more when watching a simulcast. If this were to become a semi-regular occurrence, however, it kind of changes the game as far as set design goes. Let’s face it, sets and makeup are all done with an eye towards the fact that people are viewing from a distance. Things change when you’re on a 25,000 square-foot screen, and it made for quite the different experience from an audience perspective. And while there were a couple of hiccups (some cameras were a little fuzzy, there were a couple of sections where we lost the subtitles) this was a great and entertaining event — one that I hope happens again in future seasons. This is one of those moments the many children in attendance will remember for a very long time, and will make a bigger long-term impact than just about any school-visit outreach would be capable of making. So before we even start talking about the opera itself, a firm “Bravi!” to all at The Dallas Opera and the Cowboys organization for making this happen. Now, onto the performance.

Graeme Jenkins conducts The Magic Flute

The opera began with a striking and well-performed overture from the orchestra that helped to get the audience in the Stadium settled in, and set the tone for some fine musicianship throughout.

The Dallas Opera certainly found some able male voices for this production. Shawn Mathey as Tamino was one of the better tenors this Dallas Opera Season — and in his Dallas debut. He had an extremely rich and warm sound for a tenor, which made his lines sound uncharacteristically full for Mozart arias, in a good way. Raymond Aceto as Sarastro was intriguing even before the opera began. In Aceto’s bio, he lists a wide range of roles, but with quite a few appearances as Wagner basses, and other well-known “boomy” roles, so I was very interested to see how he would sound in a role like Sarastro, which has some quick runs requiring a fair amount of vocal agility. Luckily for the Dallas/Arlington audiences, Aceto was more than up to the task. His voice was not necessarily overpowering, but that worked well within a role that is supposed to show both power and compassion, and he definitely had the mobility that the Sarastro lines require. He was especially impressive within his In diesen heil’gen Hallen aria when he forgives Pamina for trying to kill him. He projected with a fair amount of both power and control, while using impeccable phrasing to bring out the kindness and sadness of the aria.

But it was Patrick Carfizzi as Papageno who truly “stole the show” on Saturday evening. Not only was he spot-on in his role as the comic relief, he also showed that he could lead the cast as well as the storyline. Let’s face it, the wild Tamino-Pamina plot is Mozart’s veiled attempts to write about initiations within the Freemason society he had recently joined. The real story is how the unlikely hero/bird-catcher meets his perfect match — the female version of himself. Whether it was his aria about needing a girlfriend (Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja), his duet after rescuing Pamina (Ihr hoher Zweck zeigt deutlich an), or the famous end duet with his Papagena (Pa…pa…pa…), Carfizzi was simply “on.” It was something special to watch him switch nimbly between ridiculous Singspiel and soaring lines where he let his warm, round, baritone voice flow with impressive agility.

The Three Genii

Don’t be confused, however, this wasn’t an opera only about men. There were some strong performances from the women as well, and just as Mozart focused on the magic number “three,” so were some of the female highlights in groups of three. The opening scene with the Three Sisters (or Three Ladies in Attendance) in the Zu Hilfe! quartet with Tamino helped to set the tone that this was an opera where comedy would play a prominent role. Caitlin Lynch, Lauren McNeese, and Maya Lahyani, were solid in all of their appearances, and really brought out the weird combination of humor and ominous-ness that Mozart mixes into their characters. And speaking of highlights of “three,” the Three Genii played by the young ladies Karen Wemhoener, Zoe Moore, and Mollie Meril were another fun high-point of the production. The girls were extremely professional, sang their choruses wonderfully, and prompted a lot of smiles and chuckles each time they made an appearance.

L’ubica Vargicova as “The Queen of the Night” has inarguably the most difficult part in the opera, and for the most part she did an admirable job. Her dark coloratura timbre was a wonderful contrast to the lighter lyric soprano sound of Pamina. She did however, have some…let’s say…”difficulties,” with the wildly famous Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen aria. But to her credit, she powered right through, and didn’t let it stop her from a giving an overall strong performance. Ava Pine was a nice casting as Pamina. She does a great job of using her lyric soprano voice to bring out the role of the “damsel in distress,” and always seems to blend extremely well in her many duets throughout the opera.

And just as the opera began strongly with the opening overture, it ended just as well. The Final chorus was a powerful way to bring about a close to a wild opera in a somewhat “wild” setting. Seeing a standing ovation in the full Winspear Opera House echoed by a standing ovation by the fifteen-thousand-plus in Cowboys Stadium was a “victory” for opera and the arts in Dallas-Fort Worth.