It would have been enough to hear a symphony with the Golden Age Collection of string instruments that brings the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra into a class of its own.  The orchestra itself still has some growing to do to bring itself up to the class of its instruments, but with this new collection the bar has been raised, so they have nowhere to go but up. 

It would have been enough, but we got more.  We got singers (not to mention the conductor, George Manahan) from the New York City Opera performing a concert of excerpts from Le Nozze de Figaro.  Set in the castle of Count Almaviva near Seville the passion runs high.  Love, lust, hatred, vengeance, conspiracies, and since this is a comic opera, the consequences are that they live happily ever after, exactly the way Passion & Consequences work in real life.  

When I go to an opera or to a concert alone (and when I'm not alone) I often meet the people sitting around me and listen to what they have to say about their experience.  Plus, that's what makes taking public transportation home after the performance so interesting, people are talking about the performance.  So, as I give you my opinion, I also share what I've heard from people who may have much more opera experience than I, and from people who have just had their first exposure to opera.  When I tell them that I'll be writing a review, I never have a lack of input, and I love that, especially from opera virgins. 

Last night there were some overwhelmingly consistent remarks, first an foremost was the youth and beauty of the performers, and the magnificent voices coming from these young people.  People still think of opera as something for the old, rich and gray haired, making sounds that they can't and don't want to understand.  Last night showed quite a few of those people (at least those sitting near me) that they couldn't be more wrong.  They loved it.  I heard the same comments on "The Loop" (a great service the City of Newark has set up to take you from the NJPAC to Newark Penn Station for $1.10).  People had a great time and were thoroughly entertained.  That's really what its all about, isn't it?

This was a concert and more.  In a traditional opera concert, it is about 95% singing and 5% acting.  It is a concert, not an opera.  Last night was more like an opera without costume and set.  There was a lot of acting, a lot of very good acting.  Although there were no surtitles, people understood what was happening because the acting showed them.  One man on the Loop even told me that if Susanna (Tonna Miller) wasn't an opera singer, she could be an actor.

Cynthia Watters (Countess Almaviva ) was a beautiful and interesting soprano who fit the part of a Countess very well,  and was able to grab our hearts with her sadness and humiliation.  The Duettino "Che soave seffiretto" between the Ms. Watters and Ms. Miller was truly a treat. 

I've seen baritone Stephen Powell (Count Almaviva) in a number of roles, and every time I see him I have to force the very impressive picture of Eugene Onegin out of my mind.  It only took a few minutes to do that last night.  He was quite the rich Count, in voice and presence.