Blowout, Butterfly, beer and blogging!

And with the game over, I can turn to NYC Opera's Madama Butterfly. With a Chinese Cio-Cio San, whose name I can't remember, but she is really quite remarkable. Just swooned to the humming chorus, which I've sung in performance ... much harder than it sounds. I remember years ago somebody complaining to our music critic that this is really a sexist opera. I e-mailed back that Cio-Cio San, even though a tragic figure, is clearly the central character, the most three-dimensional character -- and she gets the greatest music. Pinkerton (the cad) doesn't even get a decent aria. Puccini had it figured out.