11
Josh
We made it to the Kennedy Center with only minutes to spare before the curtain went up. Serge apparently had major clout with the Washington National Opera, because we had the best seats in the house, front row center on the first balcony. We were about to watch Turandot, an opera by Giacomo Puccini, one of the few operas I was familiar with. It involved an icy, Chinese princess who spurns the attentions of her suitors in malevolent ways.
Despite my working in the world of classical music, I knew little about the form. Opera always seemed over the top, difficult to understand. For example, Turandot was an Italian Opera set in China, and the cultures and the languages were totally foreign. I’d heard it several times before and loved the music, but I did not understand what it was
