Winter Recollections

 While I spent the last few weeks blogging about the wonderful Disney Cruise--click here to read those posts--that we took to warmer Mexico at the end of January into early February, our part of Colorado looked like the photos I took above of snow-covered hills and frosty temperatures.  

We had a few "arctic blasts" during that time where our temperatures went well below freezing and a few days below zero.  It has been an unusually cold winter this year, but one good result was that the snowpack in Colorado was above 100% in most areas.

A mother doe and her fawn visited my backyard a few times to eat the tips from a pine tree. It is one of their favorite food sources in winter when the ground is covered with snow.  The little fawn would eventually fall asleep under the tree and the doe would stay outside as a guard.  It was a very endearing scene to witness.

Snow-covered deer!

Now that March arrived the snow is quickly melting as our Colorado Front Range temperatures are rising and Spring is on the horizon.

As the snow recedes the wildlife has more sources of food. I saw this Disney-style "Bambi and Thumper" moment through my window when a rabbit and fawn were searching for food together.

In fact, I've been seeing many bunnies lately! Sometimes they are chasing each other, which makes me realize that soon there will be baby bunnies hiding in the grass. Spring certainly is a season of sweet renewal.  I wonder if we will see fawns being born in our yard in a few months like we did last year? Click here-- to see that post.

My husband and I attended the Eric Korngold Opera "Die Tote Stadt" at Opera Colorado in Denver, Colorado in February.  It is a beautiful, mysterious opera, yet rarely performed as the arias are demanding. Composed in Vienna in 1920 and based on a novel written by Belgian author Georges Rodenbachin 1892, Die Tote Stadt tells the story of a man who, still grieving the death of his wife several years earlier, compulsively becomes infatuated with a woman who resembles, in his mind, his dead wife—with predictably disastrous results.  

What made the opera stand out in this series of scheduled performances, however, was the fact that the soprano playing both roles of Marie and Marietta, Sara Gartland, unfortunately, became afflicted with Laryngeal (vocal cord) paralysis from a prior Covid -19 infection, just two weeks before the opening night!  

Fortunately, Opera Colorado was able to find a last-minute opera soprano who knew the role, Kara Shay Thomson. Since costumes were already made and staging had been practiced with Gartland, it was decided that Thomson would sing offstage while Gartland played a silent role in costume. Gartland couldn’t even mouth the words while Thomson sang; her voice therapist said it would further strain her condition. 

Hopefully, Sara Gartland will recover with rest and her career will go on. You can read more about this unusual story here and here.

We felt the opera was outstanding, made even more so by the brave sopranos--one who acted while the other sang from a pedestal in the orchestra pit. Bravi Tutti to both!  It was another very memorable opera moment for my husband and me.

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