Posted by on Jan 25, 2015 | 4 comments

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Oh, boy, mama and papa left me here with the radio on and a soprano belting out something pretty wonderful, but mama told me that she and papa went to hear a young Chinese coloratura soprano, Sihui Qiu, hit some notes that mama said she didn’t know existed. She said she was glad they weren’t drinking wine at this concert because all the glasses would break!

Her fiance, Xiaohan Zhai, sang marvelous baritone and brought the house down, mama said. Especiallly the music from The Barber of Seville and another amazing piece in Chinese that mama said made her think of warriors and horses and Toshiro Mifune samurai movies (even if the singer is Chinese!).

They sang Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Massenet and Fauré along with two or three Chinese melodies. Mama loved those best as one does not hear Chinese coloratura singers every day!

In this little town, there are some wonderfully sweet events, which I do NOT attend, of course, but it’s nice to have chorales and pianists and soparanos and baritones and guitar players and Flamenco dancers and more right at your fingertips when needed. And they are a short lovely walk away at the Centre Culturel  and you meet your neighbors and usually there is a little apero (cocktail hour) afterwards and you don’t have to fight traffic or pay huge sums for performances.

Little towns are nice.

If only they would allow kitties at these events. Sihui Qiu sang a song about a kitty and mama said she sang, “Meow, meow” several times in Chinese and mama missed me a lot. My voice isn’t bad, but I need a warm-up if I’m going onstage…

I think I’ll practice tonight when everyone is snoozing so that I can be heard clearly…

How about “La ci darem la mano”….? (From Don Giovanni)

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“Vorrei e non vorrei…”image