Thanks, Bob!

Erratum: Da Ponte's father converted to Catholicism in order to marry his second wife (not Lorenzo's mother who had died.) I took home the books Bob loaned me and had finished The Librettist of Venice by Rodney Bolt within twenty-four hours. Fascinating stuff! Next up, Da Ponte's own memoirs.

We've all done it, right? Sat in a classy restaurant, licked our forefinger and rubbed it gently around the rim of one of the expensive and partly-full wine glasses sitting before us and, to the annoyance of other diners sitting close by and, entirely ignoring or oblivious to, the embarrassment of our guests/hosts, produced the kind of sound calculated to set off both car alarms and neighbourhood dogs. It took the genius of Benjamin Franklin to see the inherent possibilities in such a method of producing sound. While in England in 1761 he saw a diner ratchet the whole concept up a notch by putting different amounts of wine in different glasses, thereby producing different notes, while being pelted with bread rolls by other patrons.* Franklin, much impressed, went away and formalised the entire process, taking thirty-seven hemispheres of glass of varying size and thickness, linking them together, designed a way to make them spin, painting them different colours and, using his moistened fingers (there was no way to improve on that bit), 'played' the glasses, each of which produced a different note. As horse-drawn carriages had no anti-theft alarms, Franklin had to cope only with choirs of howling canines and developed the instrument to the point where he was able to take it to dinner parties and entertain his friends. This would produce conversations along the lines of:

Her: "Mr Franklin is coming tonight, dear."

Him: "If he's bringing that ******* glass thing I shall dine at my club!"

Franklin called his invention the Glass Armonica. I suspect he was living in the East End of London where it was - and remains - customary to drop one's aitches. A passer-by, upon hearing the instrument probably remarked "Wassat, Mr F? Some sorter 'armonica?" and so the instrument came to be named. Be that as it may. The point is, who should stumble upon this contraption but good old Wolfi Mozart, who was so impressed by the thing he actually wrote for it! You think I jest? Just press the start button below and you will see I lieth not.

So the next time you are in a Michelin three-star, have the sommelier bring you thirty seven wine glasses and give it a go. You know everyone will love it! The photo at the top of this post is of Franklin playing his instrument. I have Photoshopped out the bread rolls.*

* Okay, I lied about the bread rolls.

I'll post more here on Thursday, after I have seen the Final Dress Rehearsal of Così. Then, Friday is opening night. I hope you have as fun a week as I expect to!

Be happy and productive.