Gifts.

A long long time ago, like 35 years, I went to the opera in the San Francisco Opera House to see Tosca, wonderful lyric opera. We sat in a box (it was a matinee or we could never have afforded that). The diva was singing her swan song. And the tenor was new and upcoming. Placido Domingo. It was a while before I realized how lucky we were to see him when he was just beginning his career. And yesterday it happened again. We heard a young soprano in concert, Hope Briggs. This woman has more than a lovely singing voice, she has a presence that is electrifying. She sang Mozart, she sang Verdi, she sang Massenet, then several spirituals. Already she is being compared to Leontyne Price, which I think is unfair. She is better than that, and her expression of the arias says that she can act, as well, a huge dividend for an opera singer. Opera is a big and glorious thing. To be truly wonderful, it needs to be sung with a lot of feeling, from the little tickling arias in Italian comic opera to the ponderous Wagnerian dirges in the Ring trilogy. It was truly an honor to see her performance. And what a treat for this country girl to spend an afternoon in the big city hearing Bach and Brahms. Just so we didn't get swelled heads over our cultural endeavors, we ended our day at In & Out Burger on the way home. That milkshake was a work of art in itself.