Everything I Consume: Il Tabarro (The Cloak)

This was quite a treat. A staging of a Puccini opera on a ship docked in Brooklyn with the New York skyline in the background.

Any date night with The Wife is special but this was a unique experience. How can you resist opera in your neighborhood on a barge? I can't. To get to the opera we strolled over to the entrance of American Stevedore's dock on Van Brunt Street. From there, we had to pass through a corridor of shipping containers to the dock. While waiting for the show to start we enjoyed a Steve's Key Lime Pies, the same pies we had for our Red Hook wedding. It's not an event in Brooklyn without Steve's pies. The Wife got a glass of wine and was stuck behind a woman who insisted on tasting all the wines. Tasting the wine, at an event! Anyway, it was a beautiful sunset and we sat and watched the skyline and the boats in the harbor.

Before the opera started there were lots of people in costume walking around, singing and talking to the crowd. The opera as written is set in 1910 on a barge on the Seine but this production was staged in 1940s Red Hook. Most of the action and the orchestra was on the ship itself and the audience sat on the dock in folding chairs.

I'm not expert enough to judge the opera (this was my second) but I enjoyed it and could follow the story since I read the plot summary in the program before. One thing I like about the two operas I've seen is is it just ends. The last person dies, there's a moment of grief and that's it. I hate stuff that just lingers on and on after the story is over.

It was a great night. We need more opera on barges and more dates with The Wife!

Here's an article about the opera from the Daily News.