Recent Acquisitions

Ahhh, Verdi's La Traviata, starring Renée and Rolando. I think this is my favorite opera. I own two Callas recordings of it (Lisbon and Covent Garden. Maybe La Scala too? Don't remember...), I've seen it once (maybe twice?) at Lyric, once in Rome (at St. Peter in Chains church. Steamy June evening, and no supertitles. Just all of us and the music. Very intense. But fun. Also, I remember that was the night Italy was playing some sort of soccer match, and at one point, cars were driving around outside, honking their horns and people were cheering. Even the orchestra members sat up and sort of craned their necks to try and hear any kind of news of the results of the match.)

And I have twice traveled to see Renée sing the role of Violetta - once in Houston, where she performed the role for the first time, and then at the Met. She'll be back in Chicago in January doing this role, and I am already counting down the days.

PS I Love You - will be a movie coming out next month featuring Mr. MacDreamy, Gerry Butler. I saw the book that the film is based on (above) in the store yesterday and drooled so much over the picture that I bought the book so I could continue to drool. (I know! Pathetic, right? It's not like he's going to come bursting forth from the pages! If only!) On the plus side, it sounds like a good story, so you know, that's good. I am curious about the movie though because apparently he's dead, and if it's going to be a lot of Hilary Swank wallowing in sadness (which, you know, I would be too, if I'd been married to him!) then it's going to be a long several hours...