About Opera Feasts

When I was young opera singers, I would often have opera parties. I would choose an opera and divide up the roles. I would take the bass-baritone ones. All the guests would arrive with their music learned and we would sing through the opera from beginning to end. In preparation for the evening, I would have cooked up a meal that might have been served in the setting of the opera. For example, since Da Ponte set Don Giovanni in “a city in Spain,” the food on that night would be Spanish. As cooking shows became more popular, I had the idea for one I tentatively called The Operatic Chef.

The premise was that somewhere during the performance of an operatic scene that included food, the Operatic Chef—seen in his kitchen—would prepare the food served in the opera. I wrote up a proposal and developed a pilot for the Inn Scene from Rigoletto. Some of the most enjoyable hands-on research came when I travelled to Mantua to taste some of the food that might have been served there in the 16th century timeframe in which the opera was set. My idea was that the music would include the Duke’s aria and the famous quartet and between these two numbers, Sparafucile would be seen preparing food and pouring wine in the inn’s kitchen. I wrote up a proposal that got as far as possible funding but, sadly, no further. The idea languished until I was at a lunch with some other fathers from my sons’ elementary school, where I wound up describing my idea to Dan Wakin, then an arts reporter at the New York Times. Dan proposed an article about opera and food, including some of the ideas we had discussed, to his editors. This inspired me to do much more research and come up with a list of operas and corresponding menus and recipes. I particularly enjoyed finding them in cookbooks from the time of the opera. Dan’s article was published in the Times — “Don’t Sing With Your Mouth Full” https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/dining/opera-singers-who-dine-as-part-of-the-show.html Out of that came the idea for a book and the web site you currently are visiting. I hope you have a good time.