from mario kart one night to opera the next

2 comments May 16th, 2008

who says rockford doesn’t have culture? or that you can’t enjoy very different things?

on wednesday night, i played the new wii mario kart racing game with my husband. poorly, of course.

last night, we went to the full dress rehearsal of “tosca” at the coronado. the rockford symphony orchestra and the rockford chamber of commerce allowed young professionals to mingle in the manager’s apartment and meet a few actors beforehand, watch the show from the balcony and see how things work backstage during intermission. it was a very powerful show, with great voices and great music.

we learned a few interesting facts. for one, the singers/actors are brought in specially for this performance, and they’ve performed in such revered places as the met and the lyric opera. secondly, the actress who plays tosca (amy johnson) and the actor who plays scarpia (vernon harman), the villian, are married in real life. if that’s not enough, harman is actually the director filling in because the man originally cast as scarpia has a throat ailment.

the show is saturday: see our video here by bob schaper.