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This is a little lighthearted note for a late Friday post. Current affairs, yeah, but the cultural side, you might say.

I only heard about this video thanks to Bingley seeing it on Ace’s sidebar. Judging by the results when I popped it into X, holy smokes.

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Dang near missed another international incident.

Part of the reason my brother sent it is because we are the two classic musicophiles in the family, both having classical voice training. Bingley can still sing beautifully. I spent too many years yelling down a flight line when I wasn’t willing to starve to death while waiting to be a Broadway star.

I like my creature comforts.

The aria Bocelli is treating his audience to is “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s opera Turandot. It’s one of the more familiar melodies in the world – most people will recognize it even if they haven’t the first clue where it came from. In the hands of a master, it’s mesmerizing, powerful, and chilling and one of the penultimate challenges for a tenor.

It is a sad day when he can no longer hit the notes of the “…All’alba vincerò, Vincerò, Vincerò!” crescendo at the end. Heartbreaking. It’s like hanging up your spikes when your body won’t cooperate anymore.

So, to have a front-row seat for a serenade from a world-renowned, sublime tenor like Andrea Bocelli could be the treat of a lifetime for some people. I’m sure it was the thrill of a lifetime for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to have him grace the G7 gathering she was hosting. Quite a coup for her country.

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Then again, opera isn’t everyone’s schtick, is it?

Sometimes, while the music is beyond comparison, it’s still a hoot to watch the body language of the audience. And that’s precisely what this little moment in time – the video’s first 20 seconds – at the end of the Bocelli concert gives us.

What a snapshot. 

From left to right:

POTATUS looks like he dozes off for a second

MELONI is in raptures, as one would expect.

SUNAK is a giddy little boy sitting with a good friend and having a great time.

VON DER LEYEN What is with the crossed arms and scowl – a veritable glower – on my favorite Bond villainess?! Is that the Teutonic music appreciation face?

SCHOLZ is busy ignoring the “no cell phone filming allowed” signs. Germans [insert eyeroll]

Well, didn’t things explode over Gampie napping in every language on the face of the Earth, but hey. 

He is what he is. The White House is spinning it as he was “in the moment.” I think that line’s a cheap fake, but it’s their problem.

WHATEVER

Von der Leyen was the one who set me back a bit – woof.

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Nessun Dorma has always been something I will stop what I’m doing to listen to should I hear those familiar strains, even over a store’s audio system.

One of my favorite versions has nothing to do with a “name” singing it. In 2007, a pudgy young cell phone salesman with bad teeth and wearing an ill-fitted suit ambled on stage at Britain’s Got Talent. The look of horror on Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan’s faces when Paul Potts said he was there to “sing opera” is awesome to behold to this day.

And then he blew the doors off the place.

 I just love it.

Puccini’s Turandot is an opera about a princess who has her sociopathic moments trying to find a husband and picking through eligible suitors. 

As for Nessun Dorma, someone should have told POTATUS it translates to “NONE SHALL SLEEP.” 

Not that it would have helped.

Pooped is pooped.