Hard to believe, it’s already a week since I/we left home in order to lead a Verdi opera tour in Italy. We arrived on Wednesday, October 16 and are staying in a renovated thirteenth-century castle in an ancient village called Tabiano Castello in Emilia-Romagna, about 30 minutes south-west of Parma. This is Verdi territory; he grew up and lived in and around the city of Busseto, about 15 miles north of where I presently sit. We are not suffering. While it goes without saying (although I’ll say it anyway), the food and vino are absurdly, insanely good. I fear I will need two adjacent seats on my return flight in order to accommodate my bloated body back. This is the home of REAL Parmesan cheese, “prosciutto di Parma”, Parma ham, Lambrusco (bubbly red wine), balsamic vinegar (yesterday, in Modena, we tasted 25+ year-old vinegar over vanilla gelato; unbelievably good), Bolognese sauce, and a thousand other delicacies. But you are not reading this blog in order to follow my gluttony but rather, to hear about the performance of Verdi’s operas here in the heart of Verdi country. So here goes. We have attended two operas thus far, “Don Carlo” on Saturday […]