A Night At The Opera: I had something funny and very gratifying happen to me last night.
My wife and I went to see Verdi's 'Nabucco' at Seattle Opera last night. I used the occasion as an opportunity to wear my brand-new white dinner jacket. The rest of my outfit was standard black-tie.
We were enjoying a drink at intermission when Mrs. Aristus went off to the ladies' room. I just stood by our little snack table checking some stuff on my phone. A very attractive woman right around my age (46) or so, came up to me and announced: "You're beautiful!"
When I had finished putting on my evening outfit at home, Mrs. Aristus and I both made a few Casablanca and James Bond jokes. I'm pretty sure it was my dinner jacket that caught this woman's attention. Those of you who have seen pics of me know I'm no James Bond. Or even Humphrey Bogart.
I could barely think of an appropriate response. "Thank you! So are you!"
Just then, a woman older than the first, whom I guessed was her mother, came up behind her.
"What are you two talking about, dear?"
"Um, we're just telling each other 'you're beautiful'."
'Mother' harrumphed and said: "Ah, a mutual admiration society, eh?"
I laughed, pointed at the 'daughter' and said: "Well, she started it!"
All three of us laughed at that.
Then the older lady took my arm, drew me aside and asked: "Are you staying for the rest of the opera?"
"Oh, most definitely!"
She patted my arm: "Good".
The younger woman led her away after that, and smiled a dazzling smile at me until they disappeared in the intermission crowd.
When Mrs. Aristus got back from the restroom, we had a good laugh over that strange but pleasant encounter.
= new reply since forum marked as read
You are one gorgeous man, white dinner jacket notwithstanding...
Concerts are a great place to people watch. All my life I have gone to symphony, opera, chamber music, jazz and rock concerts, so I know it's fun. It's always nice to have somebody tell you you're beautiful! I don't know you, but I'm sure you are beautiful.
Opera is cool these days and understandable because of Surtitles. I wish I could get more people to understand that. The staging and productions are amazing.
My favorite story having to do with opera and being appreciated is as follows: Some years ago I was a soprano in the chorus of an amateur production of The Elixir of Love, by Donizetti. It was a lot of fun. One part of the story concerns a tenor and baritone fighting over the soprano, and the tenor wins. They ride off into the sunset happily ever after.
When we had a dress rehearsal, the director told us to put on lots of makeup. We didn't get any specific directions, and I had not been in any plays before then, so I slathered on the spackle, mascara, rouge and lipstick.
After the dress rehearsal, the good-looking gray haired baritone told me I was lovely. 
After that I glowed for two weeks. 
P.S. We want pictures of you in that dinner jacket, looking as cool as Humphrey Bogart, no doubt!!
I thought about posing for a pic with a toy gun, James Bond-style, while we were getting ready. But we were running late, as usual, so I skipped it. Maybe next time.
That's cool that you got to appear onstage in an opera. I don't know that I've ever even heard of amateur opera performances. Opera is such a huge, expensive undertaking in the best of conditions. I don't know how someone could mount an amateur production.
I keep hoping they'll perform The Elixir Of Love at Seattle Opera someday.
I'm glad you caught the baritone's eye. Baritones are cool. Mysterious and dramatic. Tenors are spotlight-hogs... 
This was an amateur group in Houston that meets in an old church. The church built a new sanctuary next door. The church is small and intimate so it's like doing opera in a nightclub. Very interesting. They had a small live orchestra. Of course we did it in Italian. The drunk peasant chorus scenes were fun!
The conductor was a very sweet old man who had actually worked at the Met with Leonard Bernstein on a Samuel Barber opera in the 1960s that was a flop. He and his wife spoke Italian to each other. He would rehearse us without a score!!! He knew it so well he didn't need a score! Musicians that conduct without a score just amaze me, and I've been a piano player nearly my whole life.
The costumes were 1930s-1940s, so we didn't worry about period costumes.
The baritone in Elixir of Love is a soldier named Belcore. I assume that means "beautiful or good heart". Yes, baritones and basses are cool. The older I get, the more I appreciate them, I guess because I think of them as more manly. There's a reason a certain famous baritone is nicknamed "Thomas Handsome". And then there's Bryn Terfel of Wales and Dmitri What's-His-Face (I can't remember how to spell his name--Hvorostovsky)--the guy with the prematurely white hair.
I saw Norman Treigle back in the day as Boris Gudonov, and Sam Ramey as the devil in Mefistofeles, and in Susanna as the "son of a Blitch" (Reverend Blitch), the guy who lusts after Susanna. When I saw that production, I thought, "Why go to the opera when all the sex, nudity and violence is offstage?" because it was offstage in that production.
My old voice teacher, who was a broken-down tenor, told me there was a book called "Men, Women and Tenors". 
As far as tenors I would vote for Franco Corelli or Alfredo Kraus, both of whom are now dead.
Alfredo Kraus- Estrellita (Little Star)
