So I’m singing chorus in a small production of Pagliacci (with an amazing conductor!).

I rented it from Netflix. I was watching it with English subtitles while folding clothes the other day while the kids were playing with the Coadys. Erin comes in to pick up the kids so I put it on pause. Erin reads the subtitle and exclaims, ” ‘You cheap slut!!!’ … What are you watching!?!”

A little while later, at the end of the opera, the main character and his wife are acting in a play about a man and his unfaithful wife. The main character plays the cuckolded husband in the commedia - he has found out in the first act that he is indeed a cuckold in real life (see subtitle above) and he freaks out and kills his wife and her lover in the audience. Ethan and Jared were so captivated by this last scene - I mean, he kills them with a knife, it’s intense.

But I was surprised. I mean, it’s opera. It’s in italian with subtitles. They only saw the last scene. But they totally understood that it was a play within a play, even coming in at the last minute. And they were very excited and interested in that: “Did he kill her in real life or in the play? Was the guy he killed in the play or in the audience?”

Anyway, maybe it’s a good opera to introduce to OLDER children. We liked the Placido Domingo/Teresa Strata version performed with the La Scala Theatre Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of conductor Georges Prêtre. Released 2004. Recorded 1983 (I think).

Another time recently Ethan and I were watching a TV series in which the entire episode played on Alice in Wonderland symbolism. Ethan totally got it. He made the leap from the obvious visual symbols to the literary work and then started taking it further and seeing connections in the actions and words that I hadn’t picked up on. They are really paying attention around here! Glen and I have to be careful what we say!!!