Full Pull-- Movin' on up

 

How about a wine tasting with your Saturday morning pickup?  Since we were last there in September, Paul and his crew at Full Pull moved the wine business a few blocks south into a much larger and grander warehouse.  Parts of the building is still under construction, and I overheard Paul saying they planned to hold "events" at some point. We wish them luck in their new home.

In the meantime, picking up your impulse purchased wine is kind of an event in itself.

With a teriyaki lunch, the Full Pull excursion was pretty much our excitement for Saturday. I heard clinking coming from in the back room of the basement while John rearranged wine in the afternoon.  Noodles and shrimp for dinner, and then we watched the PBS Tony Bennett "Duets II" special John recorded a while back. Did you know Tony loves everyone, and everyone loves him?

On Sunday, more serious entertainment at the Symphony: Verdi's Requiem Mass, 85 minutes long, no intermission.  Four soloists, double choir and full orchestra. The extension was on the stage to accommodate everyone, so our fourth row seats became first row seats. 

It was like going to the opera and finding yourself at church, or vice versa. Verdi was not conventionally religious, but he composed the Requiem in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian man of letters. Like all his operas, the music expresses powerful emotions in the text, especially the scary Dies irae (day of wrath.) If that doesn't put the fear of God in you, nothing will.

At the time of its premiere, the Requiem was criticized by some as being too operatic in style for the religious subject matter, and female singers were not permitted to perform in Catholic Church rituals.  However, from the beginning Verdi intended to use female singers.

Verdi wrote: If I were in the good graces of the Holy Father [i.e., the Pope], I would beg him to permit—if only for this one time—that women take part in the performance of this music; but since I am not, it will fall to someone else better suited to obtain this decree.

  The second performance of the Requiem at La Scala, 1874, with Verdi conducting.