A little while ago someone from Utah Symphony Utah Opera reached out to me and Meg and said that they wanted to sponsor Strangerville. Meg was immediately like "HURRY AND TAKE THEIR MONEY BEFORE THEY FIND OUT WE'RE TRASH."

She was, of course, referring to the number of times we have discussed poop on Strangerville and the lack of any discussion whatsoever about such topics as classical music.

When we got the email from Utah Symphony Utah Opera, I had only ever been to one opera in my life. It was when I was in college back in two thousand mumble mumble and I took my friend Erin with me to see one that they were putting on in Salt Lake because my friends Andrea and Shane were in it and it has always been a dream of mine to sit in the back of an ostentatious theater and use those little binoculars while saying things like "superb" and "grey poupon."

As we walked out of the show

Erin: That was really cool.

Eli: It was really cool.

Erin: I bet it would be interesting to go to an opera in English sometime.

Eli: Uh . . . Erin . . . that was in English.

Erin: . . . ok, I'm not good enough of a person to go to operas.

So with that background, our friend with the Utah Opera kindly offered us tickets to see Moby Dick, which is the show they've been running in Salt Lake City this month.

I brought Jolyn with me, because she's a classier person than I could ever be. Meg brought her husband, who, she has now screamed on a number of occasions in response to general internet confusion, IS NOT ELI THANK GOD.

Jolyn and I attempted to video document the whole thing:


Then we made Meg have an awkward photo shoot with us in public.




To our great surprise, we were notonce kicked out of the place. And we had a great time.

I sold my soul and this post is probably hashtag sponsored but I'm not even remotely sorry about it because I am super proud to be one small usually-too-trashy voice in my neck of the woods trying to promote the really wonderful arts scene we have in my beloved city. Even though I'm not really an opera person (read: knows nothing about opera), I was blown away by how talented the people were, how incredible the stage was, and how much I have sung in an operatic voice in the last five days.

YOU'RE WELCOME, MY NEIGHBORS.

Utah Symphony Utah Opera was kind enough to sponsor this week's Strangerville episode on top of allowing us to attend their wonderful show. It was strangely perfect timing because when they reached out to us we were in the process of organizing an interview of Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick, author of The Encore: A Memoir in Three Acts, which includes an incredible account of Charity's experience of twice receiving a double-lung transplant.

Today's episode is one of the most incredible stories we have been able to share on Strangerville. Please check it out. And help show some thanks to Utah Symphony Utah Opera by checking out their shows and subscribing to their fun podcast, The Ghost Light.


This time in Strangerville, Meg hangs out with Mitt Romney, Eli makes a huge mistake in San Francisco, the Utah Opera/Utah Symphony drops by to remind us that all theaters are haunted, and an opera singer survives two double-lung transplants.

Segments:

1. The Ghost Light, by Jeff Counts (music: Prelude to Moby-Dick by Jake Heggie) (Starts at 12:11)

2. The Encore, by Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick (music provided by bensound.com) (Starts at 20:45)




~It Just Gets Stranger