Murder... Mayhem... Juicy chunks of great opera!

Finally got to see a run-through of the July 9 NSO concert. Great stuff - Carmen, Rigoletto, Lucia... Because young voices aren't a good fit with full-length grand opera roles, we don't often get to indulge in Verdi and Puccini. But in these concerts we include choice chunks of the meaty stuff.

Conductor Emil de Cou came up with the "Murder & Mayhem" title, and it allowed us to put together an evening of greatest hits from operas with extreme plots. (As I'm fond of saying; Is there any other kind?) It remains to be seen if the title (which was designed, of course, to catch attention) did its job. I read last week that the NY Philharmonic just did a concert called "A Little Nighmare Music", and the conductor allowed that he was worried about the kind of patron who would attend a concert with that name :)

Hard to represent these events in a brief soundbyte or inch of ad space. But the audience members who've taken them in for the last 7 years are overwhelmingly enthusiastic. We have 10 of our artists on this one concert, and that in itself is an embarrassment of riches. Put it together with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Chorus, and you have one of the highlights of the summer.

Just about time for a few fireworks (on the television....) - more than a little tired - now I know why they call this a long weekend...