Divamensch

I heard Voices of Ascension in a concert called "Masters of the Renaissance: The Netherlands School" on April 23, 2026. I've been going to V of A concerts at least once a year since around 2003. They're a professional chorus based at the Church of the Ascension in Greenwich Village. They're astonishingly good - - their artistic director and conductor Dennis Keene does a genius job at programming, selecting the singers, and bringing out the glories of the music. They have the

Karen, Susan, and I saw Innocence at the Met on April 22, 2026. It's a new opera from 2021 by Kaija Saariaho on a libretto by Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière. This was Saariaho's last opera, she died in 2023. The Met did her first opera, L'Amour de Loin, in 2016, that was stunning. Innocence was more ambitious and a deeper, more impactful experience. It's the story of a school shooting and its impact on the family of the shooter, the community, and the victims themselves. I