One unhappy puppy

Did you ever cough so much and so hard that your ribs hurt? Not really your ribs but the muscles arond them. That's me the last two days. Various expectorants have not helped much. I've had enough fever to be cold in a perfectly comfortable room. I sound like I'm dying of consumption. And guess where I'm going in half an hour - to Symphony Space to watch Violetta of LA TRAVIATA die of consumption. I'll take water and cough drops and a thick scarf to cover my mouth and try not to drive the rest of the audience nuts

This is the third showing of a HDTV from La Scala of a live opera performance. I saw AIDA a couple months ago. I skipped TRISTAN AND ISOLDE [I'm not a Wagnerite] but I can't miss this even if I were actually dying of consumption. I adore every minute of this opera, I weep copiously at the end and I feel lifted "on wings of song" after seeing oe hearing a performance. I know it's a cliche to say it's my favorite opera, but it IS. So I'm going to fortify myself with all that is necessary and go -- happily, it's only two blocks away. Angela Georgieu [which may be misspelled] has the title role.