As we explained this past February, in a post about Signor John Crispo, the wonderful Opera Man of Bay City, MI, State Park, this crazy business of stylish -- and less stylish -- musicians we daily praise or make fun of, exists only because at the root, there's people's infinite passion for the music, the love of the opera. And it's always healthy to remind oneself of that.
Opera Chic is proud today to introduce you Maestro Jack Harvey, one-man wind section of the dairy section of Weis Market, Honeygo Village Center, Perry Hall, MD:
Jack Harvey whistles while he works at Weis Market in the Honeygo Village Center.
Usually, he's whistling Mozart.
"I might as well entertain myself with the best," he said while stocking milk, butter and yogurt in the dairy department he manages.
Mozart's music is so perfect, "He must have taken dictation from God," Harvey said.
Shoppers occasionally come up to him and express surprise that someone is whistling classical music in the mundane setting of a grocery store.
Co-workers have noticed it, but sometimes don't recognize the source. "He perks me up just seeing him in the morning," said Anne Murphy, manager of health, beauty and general merchandise. I hear him all the time. It's contagious, and it puts a smile on your face just walking past him," said Dawnn Jones, front end manager. She didn't know it was Mozart, Jones said.
After all, on his very death bed, the great Wolfgang Amadeus himself, of all his great works, hummed to himself "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" -- until Kappelmeister Roser was summoned, sat at the harpsichord and played and sang the great aria from The Magic Flute -- the jolly birdcatcher's song was the music Mozart needed to hear before he took leave of this world.
We like to think that that "celestial man", as Da Ponte called him, would be as happy to hear his music whistled by the dairy guy at at the grocery store as he'd be to hear it sung and played in any swanky opera house.