A beautiful evening at La Boheme. It's one of my two ...

A beautiful evening at La Boheme. It's one of my two or three favorite operas: love, laughter, friendship, poverty, street theater, parties at the cafe Momus, dying of tuberculosis in a garret... what's not to like? It's like "Friends" with gorgeous music and fatal disease. The woman who sang Musetta (Janai Brugger) was phenomenal. Aunt Mary (who was part of our party) was an opera virgin; she'd never been to one before, and Boheme is a good place to start. Hazel - whose birthday we were celebrating - said that the boys at the wrecking-yard where she works had offered her tickets that same night for a Monster Truck Show and were appalled when she turned them down. ("Hmmn... Opening night of La Boheme... Monster Truck Show... What to do? What to do?")