Chautauqua part 2

      Mr. Danieu's love of opera extended into wanting to share it with the Des Soye family. My very first opera was one that he took Mom and me to somewhere in Buffalo. Madama Butterfly! Beautiful music, but such a tragic plot! I know I don't appreciate it the way that he did. 

      Maybe heaven is filled with opera music and that will be the time to soak up its nuances and history, and ultimately bask in its beauty, but when I'm doing housework, here on earth, and I want some background music, it has to be something to sing along to like Rocky Mountain High by John Denver, or Cover of the Rolling Stone by Dr. Hook, or Baby Beluga by Raffi. And sing along I do, just ask Mike, who puts up with it because, hey! I'm doing housework!

      It was through Mr. Danieu that my family first heard about Chautauqua, and he was the one who got me the job that I had there for two high school summers at the Cary Hotel at the Chautauqua Institute. Mr. Danieu had connections, and with the writing of one letter by me, and a reference from him, I was in – as dishwasher.

Postcard of the Cary Hotel

      One night every week, I think it was Friday, there was a different opera onstage at the theater in Chautauqua, and Mr. Danieu took in as many of them as he could. One time he took us to see Pagliacci – and this will always be my favorite because it is about a clown, and it is only two acts long. Sigh. Pagliacci is still sad – but I do identify more with brokenhearted clowns than I do with hari kari.

      Before we went to the opera that night in Chautauqua, we ate dinner at the most famous hotel there – the Atheneum – a glorious building right on the beach. My eyes got so big at the thought of possibly being a part of something so wonderful as Chautauqua!

      When I went to college, Mr. Danieu's niece and I were in many of the same classes since we had the same major. Mr. Danieu took both of us to Chautauqua one night the summer after freshman year to see an opera, unfortunately I do not remember which one we saw that night. But I do recall we dined at the Atheneum again.

      So in Mr. Danieu's attempt at giving me some culture, I would have to say that the love of opera didn't take all that well (although I do not hate it!), but the memories of Chautauqua still churn my dream of starting my own Chautauqua someday in an old church that I will buy and I'll hire my daughters to play piano and tell stories and teach and entertain and change the world!

126 20150506 Chautauqua part 2