I Tenori

Mary, Faye, and I went for one of our overnights at Fallsview casino and had one of the best times ever.  Mary had gotten us a free room and, between us, we all had free dinner buffet and free breakfast buffet.  Mary had also gotten us tickets for the stage show, "I Tenori", right up front in the second row.  

I got to the show first (we all separate when we gamble and then meet up at designated times) and took notice of how much Italian was being spoken in the audience...it must be true that Italians love opera more than many of us.  I love all kinds of music but opera isn't at the top of the list.  When the tenors came on the stage, I sat in awe of the magnificence of their voices...Luca Vissani, Gianluca Paganelli, and Diongi D'Ostuni had been gifted with the voices of angels.  I know people who have nice singing voices but these were rapturous.  I cried.  I held back sobs as their voices hit unbelievable notes and held them for ages.  True beauty like that is overwhelming for me.

I'm a country music fan but never, ever has a country song brought me to tears.  I wished so much that I understood Italian because most of the songs were in Italian...but it surprised me that I KNEW the music to all the opera songs they sang.  Somehow, throughout the years, I've been exposed to those songs because they were like old friends.

I've seen many stage shows at Fallsview but I've never been so happily affected as I was to "I Tenori".  I could have listened to them all night.  They also had a lady whose voice was good but I would have preferred only to hear the tenors.  Sadly, they didn't have C.D.'s for us to buy but maybe I can find one somewhere.

There was an Italian lady sitting next to me and I could hear her softly singing along with the tenors.  Normally that would have irritated me but she sang so softly and lovely that it only made me jealous that I didn't understand the language.  We have a very large Italian population in Canada and, unlike the French in Quebec, they chose to blend in with the rest of Canadians and it didn't diminish their Italian cultural heritage one bit.  Something to think about!

But then the show ended and we went back to our gambling and I began to win.  I ended up the trip $108 ahead.  What a fantastic mini vacation with two of my favorite people in the world!