On Valentine’s Day we attended a star-studded dinner in Sarasota created by conceptual artist John Sims, called “The Square Root of Love” (Sims is the former coordinator of mathematics at Ringling College of Art and Design.) Various artists, including an elderly formal poet, performed between five splendid courses, but the most memorable was the soaring voice of opera singer Michelle Giglio.
Her rich soprano notes threatened the crystal and almost stopped our hearts as she sang while strolling around the tables. Here’s a poem responding to an aria from Verdi’s brutal opera “Rigoletto” recently staged to a sold-out house at St. Petersburg’s Palladium Theater. Look below to hear “La Donna” sung by Luciano Pavarotti.
—Peter Meinke
This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2020.