"An Evening with Mozart" with Thomas Shivone

My youngest son is doing a benefit performance for a little educational, non-profit called the Walsingham Society, an organization to which my family and I are closely associated. He, the beautiful soprano, Megan Hamm, and accompanist Sonia Shin, will be doing duets and arias from "Mozart's Greatest Hits."

The performance is in Dallas, just north of downtown (west of Lemmon and north of Wycliff), at Church of the Holy Cross. Map and location here.

You are invited.

• Friday, July 15, 7:00 - 8:30 PM.
• Wine and hors d'ouevre following.
• Admission is free.
• There will be a donation urn prominently displayed somewhere for people who want to donate a nickel or two.

If you do come and we haven't met, please find me and say hello. That'll be the big, ugly guy nervously pacing at the back of the church. Not the urn.

Following are the details as described in the press release from Lovell-Fairchild Communications.

Thank you.

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"An Evening with Mozart"

Friday, July 15, at 7 p.m., award-winning opera singer Thomas Shivone, trained at Philadelphia’s famed Curtis Institute of Music, will perform from “Mozart’s Greatest Hits,” at Church of the Holy Cross. The evening is sponsored by The Walsingham Society.

Mr. Shivone, a 21-year-old native of Fort Worth, known for his rich and colored baritone, was the youngest vocalist to enter Philadelphia's Curtis Institute. He has performed more than twenty operas at Curtis and has sung professionally with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, with the Master Chorale of South Florida, and in locations around the world.

“Opera was the first popular music, the sitcoms of their time,” Shivone says, “and it’s coming back strongly.” And while seeing the Metropolitan opera on high-density theater screens is wonderful, Shivone said, nothing compares to the experience of hearing a well-trained voice—the music and the words—in person.

Shivone studies in New York City with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, whose students are at major international opera houses, including New York's Metropolitan Opera. His coaches include Danielle Orlando, who for years worked with tenor Luciano Pavarotti as accompanist, judge, and artistic coordinator the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competitions. In 2006, Thomas won the National Public Radio’s “From the Top” competition and the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke award. He has performed Verdi’s “La Traviata” and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” with the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

The Walsingham Society was formed by a league of graduates and friends of The College of St. Thomas More eager to extend the classical idea of education and culture. Copies of lectures also appear on the Walsingham web page: www.WalsinghamSociety.com

Future lectures include founding Walsingham Society member Mary Moorman Armstrong—an expert in the relationship between religion and law in modern culture, and a consultant on the documentary film As We Forgive, Rwanda (2008). A cum laude graduate of Boston University School of Law, Mary also holds a Masters of Art in Religion from Yale University. She currently is a doctoral candidate and lecturer in systematic theology at Southern Methodist University.

For more information, call Brinton Smith at 817-925-5658 or visit the Walsingham website.

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As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

.

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

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More hamburger news: Consumer Reports says In N Out better than . . .

I don't want to take anything away from the June 30, 2011 Consumer Reports report that In-N-Out is better than a McDonald's -- but it does solicit a kind of, "okay so what else is new" response.

In case that's not enough to rock your world: Chipotle, according to Consumer Reports readers, is better than Taco Bell. Sherlock Holmes step aside.

Here are snippets from Consumer Reports:

"With high marks for food, service, value and speed, In-N-Out Burger topped the burger chart in Consumer Reports' first-ever major ratings of fast food restaurants. McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's all ranked lower."

"Consumer Reports readers made over 98,000 visits to 53 fast food chains, and found that Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s and Taco Bell offered uninspiring food and so-so service. While In-N-Out Burger was the top-ranked burger chain, other restaurants also did well in their categories."

"Chick-fil-A topped KFC and all other chicken chains, with high scores for food, value, speed, and the politeness of its staff."

"Chipotle Mexican Grill beat out 8 other Mexican food chains, including Taco Bell."

Here are the Consumer Reports' top fast food restaurants for overall value, my comments in parentheses: 

• In-N-Out Burger .... (have never been, can't wait to try 7th Street's)
• Chipotle Mexican Grill ....(food always lukewarm when served . . . which I do not like)
• Chick-fil-A .... (too many smiling white people. .. makes me nervous.)
• Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza .... (have never been but wouldn't go anywhere named Take N Bake)

For fast food restaurant enthusiasts, of which I am one (if I might be serious for a moment), the report is pretty interesting: Consumer Reports.

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