I just returned from Cheyenne Wyoming. It was not a business trip, nor a vacation. I was helping a friend take care of some family business and he needed some muscle in case things got dicey up there.
As luck would have it, a presentation of Pagliacci was scheduled at the Cheyenne Arts and Convention Center on our last night of the trip.
A traveling operatic troupe from the Ukraine performed and I must say, they were very faithful to Leoncavallo's original composition. You may think how could they be anything but faithful, but you would be surprised. I have now seen Pagliacci five times and twice, the director allowed for "interpretation" of his work that soured my experience on both occasions.
I saw Pavarotti at the Met in '91 and he was the best, but I would have loved to have seen Caruso.
I must confess something. When I saw Pavarotti, I didn't appreciate him at the time. I went to the performance to curry favor with a woman I had a keen interest in at the time.
Lame.
