Writes of Passage

Opera is one of my favorite events to attend.

The houses I went to:

• St. Pete Opera @ Palladium
• Sarasota Opera, 2023
• Hungarian State Opera House 2022
• Essen
• San Francisco opera @ Yerba Buena Ctr, 2022
• San Francisco Opera
• The Met
• Vienna State Opera
• La Scala

… and the operas, by year it was first premiered

• The Marriage of Figaro (1786) Met
• The Magic Flute (1791): SF
• L’italiana in Algeri (1813)
• The Barber of Seville (1816)
• Lucia di Lammermoor (1835)
• Rigoletto (1851)
• Don Carlos (1867)  
• Carmen (1875) Met; SF; Sarasota
• Samson and Delilah (1877)
• Eugene Onegin, (1879)
• Cavalleria Rusticana (1890)
• Pagliacci (1892)
• La Boheme (1896)
• Tosca (1900)
• Madama Butterfly (1904): Met; Sarasota
• Turandot (1926)

Sydney Opera House, La Scala, Palais Garnier in Paris, Bolshoi Theatre, Teatro Colón, Vienna State Opera, La Fenice, Hungarian State Opera House, and Teatro di San Carlo, The Royal Opera House in London

• La Scala (for short) is, by many, the top opera house in the world.
• Berlin: capital of the opera, with three opera houses.
• Teatro di San Carlo: the oldest active since 1737
• Sydney Opera House: most recognizable
• Dafne: the first opera, in 1589

724 Cypress Village Blvd
Sun City Center, FL 33573

Probably will return.

… more pix on Google Maps, Yelp.

Colorful light shades. Although it saturated the small space, with the high back chairs, but the foods are decent.

The freshly made guacamole by the table side, is bit salty but yummy. The chips are fresh. The rest is a blur -:) I only got a few photos.

They’re re-roofing or something, wires are everywhere.

^{Love the tiles: the top L was in my home, the top R in Shanghai, both were made by Chee Hsin}  

1528 State St.
Sarasota, FL 34236

… more pix on Google Maps, Yelp & TA

Another restaurant with ‘Brick’ in its name – hopefully this owner/manager isn’t going to be nasty as Hales Blackbricks, can take genuine and constructive critics.

Probably won’t return.

Love their decor – high ceiling, industrial. The last booth by the bathroom is angled. I don’t know they did that to shield the bathroom entrance or needed to be. In any case, it looks good. Two big open windows connect their outdoor area. The length of the bar looks out to a garage.

I particularly enjoyed their tiled tables: the patterns are familiar to Chee Hsin’s, which I’ve a book on it, self published on Amazon.

The service is good. The pretty young girl has red and purple nail polish – maybe I should go for the purple, to match my hair.

The food is a little trying. The bacon burnt end is on the sweet side but is tender. The brisket is thick and dry. With the butter knife, cutting became a chore. The ribs is a little softer than the brisket, but have it better many other places.

The young girl, the maitre d’ and a lady in black pants came over, asking how’s everything – they certainly care.