Author: Jeff Tabaco

Last night I went to see Washington National Opera’s production of The Maid of Orleans by Tchaikovsky, with Mirella Freni in the lead as Joan of Arc. I knew basically nothing about this opera beforehand, but I decided I didn’t want to pass up a chance to see Mirella Freni, one of the greats of the old school. She turned 70 earlier this year (70!), but man, she still has that gorgeous voice. Though traditional casting might deem her too old for the role (opera casting is anything but traditional), I thought she sang it beautifully.

Three words to describe the set design: fabric, fabric, fabric. Acres of it, I’d say. Many scene transitions used scrims that dropped billowing from the flies, and then rather than being later raised back into place, were instead let loose to the ground and taken offstage by some bit of stage business. The effect of the fabric falling into place and then cut loose was great, but they went through so many of those that it finally felt a bit gimmicky.

Overall it was an enjoyable performance, and I definitely want to listen to more Tchai-“not just Swan Lake and Nutcracker“-kovsky now, like Eugene Onegin. (By the way, for you fans of the movie adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Eugene Onegin is the opera that Tom goes to see with Meredith in Rome.)

» Related: Post and Times reviews of The Maid of Orleans.

Yesterday The Morning News linked to the commencement address given by Fred Rogers (that’s Mister Rogers to most of us) at Dartmouth in 2002. It’s definitely a ray of sunshine to cut through the fog of workaday blahs.

You don’t ever have to do anything sensational for people to love you. When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.

So in all that you do, in all of your life, I wish you the strength and the grace to make those choices which will allow you and your neighbor to become the best of whoever you are.

Check it out.

Thom and I had a lovely weekend, as he has reported on his blog (go take a look). On Saturday we went to the Arlington Cinema ‘N’ Drafthouse and saw Finding Neverland; on Sunday we had Easter brunch at David Greggory and spent the afternoon at the National Gallery. After we got home, we relaxed and watched Touching the Void. His photos from Sunday are online, as are mine.

This photo is of the two of us outside the East Building of the National Gallery. Aww.

It’s that time of year to once again bring out David Sedaris’ hilarious story about Easter–as explained by a beginning-level French class–“Jesus Shaves.” I posted an excerpt last year, but you can also listen to a reading of it that he gave before an audience in San Francisco a few years ago. It was broadcast on public radio as part of an episode of This American Life (Real audio, skip to about 47:15 into the clip). Funny stuff.

This photo is of my copy of Me Talk Pretty One Day. I met David Sedaris for the first time at a reading in 2000, and asked him to sign the opening page of “Jesus Shaves.” He wrote, “To Jeff / What would Jesus do?” Bust a gut laughing, listening to this story, I’d think.

This will probably be of interest only to those of you who use both Firefox and Mac OS X, but here goes. I should preface this by saying that while websurfing, I almost always use keyboard shortcuts rather than the mouse. I’ve been using Firefox for a long while now and loving it, but when I switched from my Windows laptop to my iBook, I noticed that on the Mac, Firefox does not have the same behavior for the Tab key that allows you to move focus from link to link on the page. By default it cycles only through text fields. I searched high and low for a way to change this (Firefox is so customizable, I knew an answer had to be out there), but came up empty… until today, via sidesh0w.com:

1. Type about:config in the URL bar.
2. In the Filter field, type tabfocus.
3. Double-click on the accessibility.tabfocus preference.
4. Change the value to 7.
5. Restart your browser.

The 7 allows tabbing not only to text fields (always enabled), but also to links, and form elements like buttons, checkboxes, and lists. Other values specify various subsets of these options.

Yay!

Some of the photos that Thom took last weekend at the B&B are of me being all poseur-ish at the croquet court. It’s so very Brideshead Revisited:

Have a good weekend, kids. Thom and I are planning to have Easter brunch at David Greggory, a restaurant we’ve been to a few times and have come to love. It’s where we ate Easter brunch last year and had a great time.

As an avowed introvert, every now and then I like to re-read “Caring for Your Introvert,” an excellent article by Jonathan Rauch that ran in The Atlantic Monthly a few years ago.

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

If so, do you tell this person he is “too serious,” or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?

Recently in a social situation someone noted that I was being quiet. And after years of people pointing out my quiet nature, you’d think I’d have formulated a snappy response, but no. They might joke, “Gosh, I can’t get a word in edgewise with you, eh?” But in my head I hear, “What’s wrong with you?” All of a sudden I feel helpless, defensive, abnormal; I feel a pressure to perform, to change myself, which sometimes makes me clam up even further. And here is the breakthrough, the divide between me and the extroverts that maybe I’ve overlooked all this time: they’re just making observations or trying to be nice, not necessarily pointing out faults and making judgments. I can’t let myself fall to pieces every time someone makes a comment about it. After this last incident I thought I had let it roll off my back, but later that night I was a mess. I went straight to “Caring for Your Introvert” and calmed down. It’s a good read. Check it out.

Thom has written a nice report of Sheldon and Gretchyn’s wedding last weekend, for which I can simply provide a link. Check it out. We had a great time.

He’s continuing to add photos to his Flickr set, and mine is online as well.