The World on the Moon, etc.

Last weekend was such a treat. It started Friday night with a fun little opera called “il mondo della luna” or “The World on the Moon.” I don’t know if I have blogged here about our School of the Arts, but it is a school of very talented young people. Someone recently told me that they shot some of the footage for the movie “Fame” here. This opera is by Haydn (I didn’t even know he wrote opera). It is about a young scientist who tricks a man into believing he has been transported to the moon, all to win the hand of the man’s daughter. Act 2 takes place “on the moon” which is really the decorated backyard of the young scientist. He uses a couple of friends, who are themselves interested in the man’s other daughter and chambermaid, in his trickery. Wonderful farce and humor are throughout. If you ever get a chance to see this opera, do. The person who did the translation and made the English supertitles took some modern liberties…one of which cracked a lot of people up…”resistance is futile”…spoken by one if the “moon” people.

Playing the part of one of the daughters was Jodi Burns. No, you haven’t heard of her, but I am making a prediction that you may one day. She is an absolutely lovely young lady with a beautiful voice and great stage appeal. I saw her last month playing the role of Adina in Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’Amore” and she was just wonderful. I spoke with her parents (then and now), who were visiting from Ohio for the performance, and they said she just took third place in a competition at New York’s Met. She will be graduating from the School of the Arts soon, and I believe she will take the opera stage by storm. Last month I met them in the audience by chance, having sat directly in front of them, and we chatted during intermission. This time we actually bumped into each other at a pizza place that is open late…what a coincidence.

Continuing on for the weekend, I spent Saturday in Blowing Rock, NC. What a nice place to visit. The weather was very nice and I walked the main street, stepping in at various stores up and down, and eating lunch at “Kojay’s”. They have a web site. Later on I drove a little way along the Blue Ridge Parkway and took a half hour hike to some rushing water (cascades). That walk reminded me of some trails in the Florida Everglades, in that there were markers placed to assist in identifying various plants and trees. I learned that the Hemlock tree grows in groups and always very close to water. Yup, sure enough, once I knew what one looked like I could see them all along the water.

Sunday I spent HOURS on my first ever trip to IKEA. There is a new one near Charlotte, roughly a 1.5 hour drive from the house. This store is amazing and I thought there were a number of great home ideas and great prices. BUT I am not sold on revamping my house just because I can. Everything has a decidedly European flair and after a little while I was easily overlooking things. I purchased a few things though. A step stool that took me 30 minutes to assemble, a couple of glass vases, some bamboo placemats, a 4 bottle wine rack that mounts on a wall, and a neat little lantern for burning tea candles. I used one of the vases to transfer a “lucky bamboo” plant that was given to me a couple of years ago…it was alive and green, but not growing well in the smaller container. Now it has a lot more room and still looks lovely. Will take a picture sometime soon.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I just wish it didn’t have to end.