La Calisto,
Cincinnati Opera
Dear George,
Though it’s still hot and
muggy here, summer is gradually winding down. Classes at the university start on Monday, first grade has
already begun for our NOLA grandkids, and the NFL season and the US Open will
be upon us before we know it. The
mid-summer highlights for us involved Cincinnati’s opera season. Katja is an officer in the Opera Guild,
the Cincinnati Opera’s fund-raising arm, and so she was immersed in a batch of
activities and events, some of which she cajoled me into attending as
well. Her favorite opera this year
was La Calisto; I liked Madame Butterfly best. We both also enjoyed Carmen and Silent Night (set in a
combat zone in France during World War I). Katja, of course, is much more of an opera buff than I am,
though, after forty years of accompanying her, I’ve become more and more
appreciative.
The big August event for us
was Cincinnati’s Western & Southern Open tennis tournament. I’ve been going to it since it was a
much smaller pro tournament in the late 1960’s. Now it’s one of the top ten tournaments in the world, and it
draws all of the leading men and women players, e.g., Roger Federer, Novak
Djokovic, Serena and Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova. Thanks to tickets from our friends Paula and Frank, we went
to two evening sessions. We were
thrilled to watch Milos Raonic, seeded fifth and looking like a graphic novel
superhero to me. Federer, however,
beat him in straight sets and went on to win the tournament for the sixth
time. Serena Williams won on the
women’s side, her first Cincinnati title and one of the few majors that she
hadn’t won over the years.
A couple of days later I took
our sheepdog Duffy on a short camping trip to nearby Winton Woods, while his
brother Mike stayed home with Katja.
What a change – from big crowds and high stimulation to peace and
tranquility. The campground is
spread out in a large stand of tall, elegant pines, and our campsite was right
at the edge of the lake. Duffy was
an excellent companion.
We’re looking forward to
Autumn. We’ll watch a lot of the
US Open and cheer for the Bengals, Saints, and Packers. Katja is flying to California for her
nephew Tyler’s wedding. I think I
may have talked her into a camping road trip with the sheepdogs at some point
after that. We’ll get the catalog
for OLLI classes at the university soon. All in all, life is looking good.
Love,
Dave
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