Opera Chic is back from a recharging day trip to Parma & the environs, where she sampled delicacies that Verdi himself pined for when away from his native Ronc, ran through the grassy farmlands in her black wedge Gucci platforms, then wrestled a baby sheep to the ground, plucked its wool out with Shu Uemura tweezers, and knit herself a freaking tea cozy.
'Tho she sampled plates and plates of yummy things (thanks to the excellent restaurant at Locanda del Lupo and Signora Miriam's always-stellar Trattoria La Buca), the highlight of the trip was exploring Renzo Piano's revamped, late 19th century Eridania sugar warehouse, Auditorium Niccolò Paganini, where she joined Maestro Daniel Harding and his Mahler Chamber Orchestra as a backdrop to Hélène Grimaud's twinkling Beethoven piano concert no. 4. As if that wasn't enough, Harding's invocation of something sublime indeed settled on his musician's bows for Brahms Symphony no. 3 in F major and left us breathless. Keep us close for a full report tomorrow...