My pretty Irish Girl!

In honor of the ancestors I most resemble in look, I am writing my St. Patrick's Day post in green. Yeah for the Irish! One of my Irish ancestors immigrated to America when he was four. Who was he, you ask? The great Matthew Thornton! He was one of those wonderful Rennaissance type men during the colonial period of America. He actually was the governor of New Hampshire, and (our family's crowning glory) signed the Declaration of Independence. If you ever look at the document, or a copy of it, his is the last name you'll see, in the bottom right-hand corner. I'm related to him through my maternal grandmother, and am the first in 5 generation on that side to even have red hair or green eyes.

Last night was The Merry Widow in Reno. It was pretty good--go Nevada Opera Company! I thought it was well sung/performed; particularly considering that it was a dress rehearsal (and the performers weren't necessarily singing at 100% level to save their voices for this weekend when they have the performances). I thought it was very funny. I must admit, though, the secondary female lead (whose name starts with a V, but escapes me right now) was an obnoxious character. I felt the character was portrayed well, just an annoying character. "Flirt with the widow, because I want to be a virtuous wife." Then, she'd turn around the moment her love interest did this very thing, and be very jealous. Ummm, okay. The English translation (which we saw, sadly) was written by a couple from Reno, and the wife was at our performance. Kinda cool.

Tonight, I'm seeing The Fantasticks again--also for free (certainly an added benefit of doing theatre is getting into various shows for free!). Yeah! But, before that and after tutoring my Dutch student today, I have a bit of excitement that I've just learned and agreed to. I had a good friend as a child in Exeter, named Jenifer Brasuell. She was one of my best friends all the way through high school when I moved to Colorado, and one of the friends who wrote me fairly consistently. She "found" me and sent me an e-mail in December, and we've written back and forth. She called me a couple of weeks ago, during rehearsal and I couldn't talk to her. I called her last weekend, and that was great fun. She called me today, and she's in Reno for the night! I'm going to meet them for dinner--how cool is that? I haven't seen her since Exeter High School's graduation in 1998 (we went back so I could see my class graduate). Been awhile! Yeah for old friends!

This title is from a song by the same title. It's from the 1959 Disney classic, Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I don't know that I would thoroughly classify this as a musical, but it's not exactly a non-musical. A happy medium, perhaps. I liked it when I was a kid, and we used to rent it every St. Patrick's Day. The Banshee and her death carriage always used to freak me out, but it is still enjoyable. Plus, it was Sean Connery's American movie debut!