If you’re in Maine (and, this time of year, why wouldn’t you be?), head up to Bangor for a 7 pm La Traviata put on by Opera Acadia. I was there last night and everything about it was great:
- orchestra (sounded liked they’ve played together all year and did not overpower the singers)
- singing (entire cast, but Sarah Joyce Cooper was amazing as Violetta)
- acoustics (hall isn’t cavernous; seats about 500?)
- comfort (lots of legroom, width for, um, today’s Americans, and luxurious padding)
- supertitles (unobtrusive)
I do miss the Franco Zeffirelli sets, as seen in the 1982 movie and also at the Metropolitan Opera until they trashed them (thus beginning the financial/audience decline that was accelerated by coronapanic?). Here’s the program:
If you can’t make it to Maine, stream the movie! (Maybe it has to be pirated? Supposedly, it isn’t available on any of the usual platforms due to the licensing hassles combined with the minimal revenue potential.) Here’s an alternative that might be worthy:
Trigger warning for recent college graduates: It’s sad and somebody dies.
(I’m irrational so am posting this while in transit back to the summer heat and humidity of Jupiter, Florida. Can’t stay away from the kids (back in skool) and the pup for too long!)
Related:
What’s opera doc? That ol’ fat betty sounds like a cat being strangled. Shit’s wack.
I was just in Bangor last month! Did not go to the opera as I haven’t founded any companies yet.
Unrelated to your post, opinions on the recent Harvard layoffs/staff eliminations?
Samue, you bring up a really important issue with the layoffs at Harvard. Allow me to step in for Phil as he is (according to his post here) in transit on his Gulfstream jet from his mansion in Maine to his mansion in Palm Beach (and he may not have Starlink installed on his jet because he’s been an Elon Musk “hater” and short-seller of SpaceX stock).
First, a couple statistics (I’ll keep it short because mathematics and many other subjects aren’t my “specialty”): As of year-end 2025, Harvard had 2,352 faculty and 8,148 “professional staff and administrators.” To put that in perspective, I personally have 6 administrators who work for me, but that is because that level of support befits someone of my Stature and Reputation (as the world’s Singular Global Expert on Black Studies Plagiarism). So, simple math (something I can do): the average Harvard Professor has an administrative staff of 3.5 (using a mathematical technique called rounding that I learned when I wrote my Seminal PhD thesis back in the 1990s).
So, as you can see, the average Harvard Professor is Woefully understaffed with Professional Support Staff! Does that help?
Thanks, Mx. Gay! Could you explain why they are subtracting staff? The professors will go from 3.5 staff to 3.4 staff due to these recent cuts. That means less people, which means understaffing will continue.
Samue, such a great question! I am flummoxed by your reference to “subtracting,” which I assume is some sort of advanced mathematics?
Spent Friday preparing for Monday, all because of very different choices 30 years earlier.
Last opera I went to was A Streetcar Named Desire in 2013 and it was excellent, which surprised me because at the time I did not like modern operas. (Now I do.) Then I got sent to California for several years and then covid and I got out of the habit. Used to love going and would get the cheapest seat, front and center. But now they have wised up and that same seat is very expensive. But the brass was playing back and forth to either side of me and it was a sublime experience.
Mike