Music Throughout

It was a musical day.  I drove to the clubhouse a bit after 1:00 to see what I could of Puccini's Tosca, although I knew I couldn't stay the whole time.  The forty minutes or so I saw of it were absorbing.  Set in a spectacular cathedral (I'll have to ask Maryann, who runs "Sunday Musical Arts" where it is), it concerns love, divided love, faithful love, unfaithful love, and love's betrayal.  The usual, in other words.
I wished I could have stayed, but I had to rush off to change, make up, and get to my friend's house by 3:15.  Did so, and with her husband, we went off to see the Capital Singers and Trenton Festival Chamber Orchestra present "Te Deum and other works by Haydn, Hayes, Biebl, and Paulas" at Sacred Heart church.
It was magical.  The parish is the oldest in New Jersey--established in 1814 and the church itself was built in 1889.  It's full of marble and gold, the most elaborate and colorful stained glass, beautifully wrought statues, period light fixtures, all under a soaring vaulted ceiling--wow!
Sacred Heart is what a church ought to be. Don't give me your cold, austere, straight lines and stylized depictions of saints; I say religion belongs in a place where worshipers can imagine the glories of heaven, and at the same time take in the incredibly complex and fascinating history of Catholicism.
That doesn't mean I'm ready to go back to it--I'm happily free of that particular burden--but I can appreciate the beauty of its churches and, of course, its music.    
The program was just wonderful.  It included Haydn's "Representation of Chaos" and "Agnes Dei," plus "Te Deum," written for the Empress Marie Therese.
Fittingly, I think, there's no AC in the church and yes, it was hot as-- well, Jersey in late spring, especially as the place was packed.  But that just seemed the way it should be, a throwback to a more natural--and more innocent, maybe--time.
After, we chatted with Brent, my friend's brother-in-law, who sings with the company, then took off and went back to friend's house for a tasty chicken stir-fry dinner.  Said goodbye, zoomed home, and enjoyed a phone conversation with Ellen when I got in.