In case you don’t frequent this particular fine dining establishment,  IHOP refers to the International House of Pancakes-  not my favorite place since I’m not a fan of pancakes, but they serve other stuff . . . and they’re open open 24 hours . . .  and they’re located about four blocks from our house. . .  so this was where Trevor Parker and I met last night at about 10:30 for what has become a really fun project for the two of us  –  the Question of the Week.

First of all, the idea was Trevor’s, not mine – and that’s no surprise, because I almost never get good ideas.  It’s true. I’m just a little too complacent by nature to think up new things to do – but if someone else comes up with a great idea (like this one) I’m all over it.   Trevor’s idea was that it would be fun if each and every week we could come up with some sort of operatic question or creative project – each of us would work on it for the next seven days – and then we meet to share our efforts with the other.  I loved this idea from the moment it left his lips – and I also know that I never would have come up with the idea on my own. . . or if by some miracle I had thought of it, I wouldn’t have presumed to impose it on Trevor, especially with his impending wedding and all.  But he thought of it – I loved the idea –  and so away we went, and barring unforeseen circumstances,  we’re going to be going at this for quite some time.

I have already forgotten who came up with our initial question/ project but I’m pretty sure the kernel of the idea was his.  The challenge:  plan an operatic gala concert in honor of yourself, in which you can have eight selections sung by anyone you like.  And we’re not talking the love duet from Faust sung by Trevor and Megan or the Toreador Song sung by me.  We’re talking Renee Fleming singing La Traviata and Joan Sutherland singing Lucia and Kirsten Flagstad singing Brunnhilde. . .  the skies the limit.  The challenge was posed sometime during the weekend of Mother’s Day – and we planned to meet the following weekend to exchange and discuss our responses.  We ended up meeting at the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble Thursday evening, once I was done with senior choir rehearsal, and I nearly dropped my teeth when Trevor pulled out the fruit of his labors:  several typed pages, single-spaced and stapled, – while mine was hand written on semi-crumpled notebook paper.  (Not exactly the shock of the century for anyone who knows the two of us.)  But we had both taken time and great care to put our respective lists together, and it was so much fun to share our efforts with each other.   What I especially enjoyed was the quality of Trevor’s thinking and writing. He was very clear and persuasive in explaining why his gala would include, for instance,  Renee Fleming singing “Casta Diva,” as I tried to be in explaining the inclusion of Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti singing “The Daughter of the Regiment.”  Kathy was there, by the way, although by sixty seconds in I’m sure she regretted it, finding it to be – as probably most of you would as well –  about as interesting as watching paint dry or grass grow.  But we were in seventh heaven, letting our imaginations run wild and enjoying the mental and creative challenge of working on this. . . which is probably why some people enjoy dreaming up All-Time All- Star teams or in planning fantasy college drafts or pondering what would happen if Tiger Woods played Bobby Jones or a young Billie Jean King played  Serena Williams. . .  This is for people who love to DREAM.

We’ve done two more questions since.    The second, which was my baby, was for us to create a new Three Tenors Gala – inspired by the original with Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras.  I thought it was neat that two of our three tenors were the same. . .  Juan Diego Florez and Rollando Villazon. . .  while we differed in the third (he wanted Ramon Vargas and I opted for Jonas Kaufmann.)  We each wrote on why our particular trio would be the three we would want- and then we picked all of the arias they would sing and even what songs would be in the medleys.   That was so much fun that our third question was very much a follow up – creating a Three Sopranos Gala.   And again, in an example of great minds working in the same circles,  we shared two sopranos:  Renee Fleming and Karita Mattila, while splitting on the third.  (He wanted Deborah Voigt, and I wanted Anna Netrebko.)  I suppose one of these days we may get into something that could be potentially contentious but as of now we just enjoy each other’s efforts thoroughly and relish the difference in our visions as much as we do the similarities.   (Operatic discussions are not always so civil. Visit my opera listserv Opera-L for a week and you’ll see just how nasty it can get when someone who adores Domingo squares off against someone who can’t stand him.  Clashing opera fans make Ultimate Fighting look like a senior citizen canasta tournament.)  This week’s challenge will be to create an Ultimate Cast recording of an opera of our choice – in which anyone we like can sing the various arias and duets and so on.  So the first question is what opera will each of us pick?  And then what singers will we use to sing the high points of the score? This question is already giving me a headache, but I’m hoping that it will pass and that once I’m rolling it will be every bit as much fun as the others have been.  And although he doesn’t know it yet, unless he’s read this blog entry already,  I plan to ask best friend Marshall Anderson if he would like to do the same thing via e-mail (and occasionally in person.)  After all, he’s the guy who turned me into an opera fan in the first place, from whom I’ve learned so much, and with whom I have shared such special operatic mountaintops. (And a couple of regrettable ditches as well.)   And I suspect that being chair of the theater department at UW-Whitewater leaves him with hours and hours of free time every week  (Yeah, right.) and this would be a way to keep him out of the taverns at night.

So why is this so much fun?  It’s sort of hard to put into words, but I think I especially love having an excuse to play with and think about something (opera) which I enjoy so much.  And it’s especially a joy to share it with a friend, much the same way it’s a joy to be in a book club with friends with whom you can discuss what you’re reading.  And the mental and creative challenge of this is just what this creaky old noggin of mine needs.   And it is delicious to realize that this is a very tangible extension of the experience which Trevor and I had when he took my opera class as a one-on-one independent study (he was student teaching at the time) and when he truly fell in love with this art form.  It’s not all that often when professor and student get to play on as Trevor and I are, well after graduation- and as fun as it was to be his professor in that classroom and in the voice studio,  this is even better.  And I suspect that it’s exceedingly rare for a professor to experience this, which makes me feel all the more absurdly blessed, far beyond my deserving.

pictured: Trevor at IHOP for our late evening opera session, with our respective efforts on the table.  You can maybe tell that I’ve removed some of the charming rough edges of my initial effort and am typing and stapling to beat the band.  By the way, I told the hostess to seat us away from everyone else if possible because. . . . and then I couldn’t think of what to say, so I finally said “because we’re having a business meeting and don’t want to be disturbed.”  The truth is, I didn’t want to bother other patrons if we got into a knock- down, drag- out fight on who was a better Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal,   Dunje Vejovic or Berserka Cvejic.  You know how ugly it can get when opera is involved!