PDX

First time I’ve flown since January, 2024. Portland’s airport is more beautiful than I remembered, with large trees under massive skylights and beautiful woodwork on the ceiling. 

We’re on our way to California, to Sue’s family and (on Sunday) to what could be the most beautiful music Handel ever wrote. I want to hear more of his operas, I’m still learning, but hearing this one is an opportunity of a lifetime. It’s not a fully-staged opera, but I’m expecting great things of this “English Concert” group and the singers. 

If you have seven minutes, here’s Joyce DiDonato singing Cleopatra’s grieving aria from the third act, when she is in prison and thinks Caesar is dead and all her hopes have come to nothing. Wait till the Piangero line for a melody that knocks me to my knees. Spoiler: Caesar is still alive and they’re going to be reunited, but this is the moment before she knows that.