My last meal

June 21, 2017 • 1:45 pm

 

UPDATE: This wasn’t meant to be a suggestion for a last meal when you’re dying, or in prison. Let me be more specific: you’re told that at a certain moment you will be quickly and painlessly vanished from existence. Those are the circumstances I envisioned here.

____________

No, I’m not gonna die, but I was thinking, as I sometimes do, about what I’d eat if I had just one more meal to ingest before I died. American prisoners on Death Row get such a choice, but there are two problems: they are limited to what is either on hand in or can be prepared by the prison cafeteria, and, worse, NO ALCOHOL.  Other countries have permitted alcohol, for example, Adolf Eichmann asked for (and drank half of) a bottle of red wine before he was hanged in Israel. Wikipedia, of course, has an article on last meals, which in the U.S. tend to be comfort food. I used to browse the Texas state execution site just to see what last meals the prisoners had, but they stopped adding that feature. (I was always curious what someone would eat when they knew they were going to die.)

But let’s assume you can have anything you want: food and alcohol. You are limited to four courses or five items, and can choose the booze as well.

I think I’d have something like the following. Please, no food-shaming me in this post; I won’t have it.

And I’m asking you to choose your last meal, too, as I’m interested in what readers would eat.  Here goes:

  1. A big hunk of goose foie gras, lightly sauteed or made into a terrine by leaving it overnight in a heated oven that was turned off, served with slices of lightly toasted baguette. Wine:2009 Chateau d’Yquem
  2. Either a huge honking Maine lobster or a big bowl of gooseneck barnacles, both with plenty of butter. Wine: White burgundy from Domaine Leflaive
  3. A big 40-day-old dry-aged ribeye steak with its slightly gamey taste, cooked rare and accompanied by gratin dauphinois potatoes. Wine: 2000 Chateau Petrus (infanticide, but gutsy)
  4. Dessert: rice pudding made as they do at L’Ami Jean in Paris

If I could have a dessert wine, it would be a nice vintage port from Graham’s, but I think that’s asking too much.

Now THAT is a great meal, at least for me. What would you have?

(By the way, a while back I described the best meal I ever had in a restaurant–at the Troisgros in the village of Roanne, about 60 km from Lyon.)

115 thoughts on “My last meal”

  3. A fine cigar or pipe of aromatic tobacco, both of which I gave up for health reasons over 30 years ago.

    I understand that some American prisons deny tobacco to the nearly departed.

  5. “My last meal” — that certainly has the ring of finality to it. Shall we “do this in remembrance of [you]”?

  6. Well, some day we all will die…and few of us will do so in conditions that are conducive to a luxurious last meal. Overwhelmingly, the last meal will be a regular run-of-the-mill meal, with a disproportionate percentage of those being hospital bedside service.

    I don’t think he got a chance to eat any, but, as Dad lay on his deathbed in his living room this past November, he directed me in making chicken soup. Even if he didn’t have any, I know Mom and some others ate it up over the next few days…which may well have been what Dad had in mind.

    If I can manage something similar, that’d be nice. But, if not, that’s okay; I’ve had (and expect to have) enough great meals in my life that the very last one doesn’t need to be anything out of the ordinary.

    Indeed, I think I’d rather have such a meal now while I’m still young and healthy and free enough to enjoy it….

    Cheers,

    b&

    1. Sorry to hear about your Dad, Ben. Good job you were right there. (My Dad passed in 2010 (86, he had a great and long life).)

      I have, unfortunately, had some very recent experience in hospitals here. I will say a couple pf things about them:

      1. Nurses are (generally) angels (figuratively, figuratively!)

      2. The hospital food has improved beyond recognition compared to my main experiences previously (mainly surgeries as a youth). Menus! Ordering by phone. And everything I had tasted good! (E.g. Stir-fried veggies, sandwiches, salads, properly steamed veggies, etc.) And, I wasn’t feeling particularly good — so it wasn’t hunger being the best spice.

      1. My daughter is an RN – ICN. Just retired with some regret. Loved the job and some colleagues. The compliment much appreciated! They don’t get enough –
        as for last meal? Perfectly ripe sliced heritage tomato sandwich on coarse white home-made bread. Mayo. Whole Lobster out of the shell, spring asparagus. Coffee ice cream.

        1. I thanked every nurse for everything they did for me in the hospital, it was constant. And I was genuinely grateful.

          Wonderful, strong, caring, intelligent people. Thanks goodness for the goodness of nurses!

      2. I agree about the nurses and all the hospital staff, however I lost 10 lb in 10 days when I broke my hip last year! The food is cooked (?)off site at our hospital.

  7. Wait, what? You’re gonna polish off that meal (of which I otherwise wholeheartedly approve) with a dessert that’s close kin to tapioca? Here’s hoping the friend Jean has some super-special recipe that makes it worthwhile.

    2. Close kin? TimeTree.org says they diverged 150 million years ago. (This is a biology site, after all.)

      Personally I would skip the goose liver and steak, and add some fruit and green vegetables.

      1. Thanks for the clarification, GK. I was going by their juxtaposition in the refrigerated display at my local deli. 🙂

      1. Two-buck Chuck? Big deal, I’ve sampled the wares of Mogen David (and not just the “good stuff” my friends serve at Seder). 🙂

  8. Port is too much to ask when you are already getting foie gras and rib eye? Go for it!

    What I fancy to eat is very dependent upon mood and the time of day. On death row buttered toast and water might be about it. I’m pretty sure that under the circumstances outlined anything would turn to ashes in my mouth.

  9. Huh, I didn’t know barnacles were edible, let alone good eatin’.

    I’m not sophisticated enough to choose a last meal like yours, but I think mine would be heavy on dessert. I love pie, and one flavor just wouldn’t be enough: cherry-rhubarb, bean, pumpkin, blueberry… Maybe some Indian Pudding and vanilla ice cream too. As for the relatively unimportant pre-dessert part of the meal, it’s hard to choose. Something with potatoes…

  10. A 5-course omakase meal prepared by Morimoto where he also pairs each course with an appropriate sake. I would ask if one course could include uni.

  12. Pretty standard fare for me…fllet mignon, loaded baked potato, aparagus, St. Louis gooey butter cake for desert. Don’t drink anymore, but I woukd splurge if my last meal and breakout a fine Merlot.

    1. Oooo, .this ‘ne. be mine as well, Mr Bessinger.

      May I join you ? followed by >dessert, please:
      a more or less entire tart cherry pie with
      premium vanilla ice cream, not ?

      I’ll b-my-ob: “a fine Malbec” it will be
      w a .blue – label. Johnnie Walker after dinner – chaser. Yes.

      Blue

    2. This is more in line with my tastes. I am completely ignorant of anything Jerry has imagined. I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food, I’m afraid. I’ve not had gooey butter cake, but it sounds delicious.

  13. When my Dad was dying of cancer his last request was a bowl of porridge. Simple taste but satisfying.

    I agree with Jerry for most but I would have duck confit for the main course and finish, after the port, with a large glass of Ardbeg whisky.

  14. Sounds terrific, Jerry! I might opt for fresh rather aged beef; but why split hairs? I might add a cheese course … Some strong aged goat and sheep cheeses …

  15. I love your food choices, but I think I would ask for unlimited Westvleteren XII as the liquid accompaniment.

    1. I love Belgian Abbey ales. I had that one once, unfortunately. I’d purely love to have some more cuz it was out-of-bounds good.

  16. Is Death Row part of the scenario? If not, I’d be inclined to specify the venue and my dinner companions, and let the chef worry about what’s on the menu.

      1. Okay but if it were the death row scenario then I’ve decided I want a whole roasted adult blue whale and I can’t be executed until after I’ve finished the whole thing.

        1. Be careful of what you wish for…in the types of fantasy stories where these things happen, such a wish would result in you being force-fed the whale, even as it rots….

          Cheers,

          b&

          >

          1. If I’ve learned *anything* from reading fantasy, Ben, it’s that those traditional three wishes *never* work out as one would like. Should the occasion ever present itself to me, I’m going to go small, and extremely specific.

  17. What’s the point of food shaming over healthiness when you’re scheduled to die?

    For myself…

    If it’s to be a morning death, then steak and eggs (ribeye medium rare), blueberry pancakes with butter and real maple syrup, Philz(tm) brand coffee extra creamy (flown in from California if necessary), and bottomless mimosas.

    Evening, it’ll be ribeye steak and lobster (no, not copying PCC), mashed candied yams, fresh sourdough bread, Mai Tais, and a mixed berry pie a la mode.

    Alternatively, I can always go for extra spicy Thai curry. That tends to be more painful coming out than going in, but if we time it right I won’t have to worry about that.

  18. 1. fish/seafood soup.

    2. pork spare ribs.

    3, roast turkey/lamb/pork with roast vegies, peas, cranberry sauce, hot English mustard, plenty of stuffing, wholemeal bread and butter or margarine.

    4. apple cider.

    5. pavlova

  19. Start with a garden salad and ranch dressing, followed by a char broiled steak, cooked medium to rare with a light pepper seasoning. Accompanying the steak I’d like steamed spinach with vinegar and salt, and baked potato with sour cream, chives and butter. Freshly made lemonade makes a good accompanying drink, and for desert, Jerry’s favorite rhubarb pie. Hold the strawberries please.

  20. My last meal would be

    Appetizers: barbecue pork belly on pork bun rolls topped with Japanese slaw; or thin lightly seared tuna pieces over frisee salad(sans blue cheese)with sweet mustard miso dressing

    Black raspberry sorbet

    Main course (accompanied by a pinot noir): Either a chicken and waffles sandwich (this would pair with the first choice for appetizer) (the fried chicken is topped with barbecue sauce and a cabbage slaw and placed between two waffles); or a real Japanese Kobe ribeye or strip cut, with red wine reduction, cippolini onions and potatoes au gratin (pairs well with the second choice of appetizer)

    Dessert (accompanied by a riesling): Creme brulee (and it better not be from the refrigerator. It has to be warm and the top just carmelized before being brought to me) or pecan pie (my favorite pie)

    I just realized I’ve been salivating while writing this post 🙂

      1. It’s not that I don’t like blue cheese on a salad, but if you’re laying the nearly raw seared tuna over it, that wouldn’t mesh well.

        1. One of small, local, unpretentious restaurants (suburban strip mall!) serves a killer Niçoise salad with seared tuna (cooked as you like it, very rare for me). It is wonderful.

    2. You know what, I’ll add poached lobster tails with butter and stuffed with crab meat and bread crumbs as a second entree (assuming I have the Kobe steak, which I probably would), since my meal only comes to four items and this would still be part of the main course.

  21. When I was a kid of around 10 in 1980, the family lives in San Jose, California. We sometimes frequented a family restaurant whose name no one in the family recalls (but it wasn’t a Denny’s, which was right across the road).
    For my last meal, I want the fried chicken that mystery restaurant had. With the caveat that it has to evoke the exact same delight to me today which it did back then.

  22. I concur with PCC(E) on the lobster and ribeye. For a starter, I would go with a big bowl of gumbo. Side dish would be either a baked potato (I know, boring) or mac’n cheese. Cheesecake for dessert. Lots of wines, craft beers and 18-year-old Laphroaig to top it off.

  23. 1) Mozzarella Caprese: perfectly ripened heirloom tomatoes lightly sprinkled with large grain salt, Buffalo mozzarella, thinly shaved fresh garlic, liberal chiffonade of fresh basil, drizzle of top shelf EVOO and balsamic vinegar that cost at least $100 a bottle.

    2) Duck Confit in puff pastry with tallegio cheese, cardamom, and blueberries, topped with a ligonberry drizzle.

    3) Red Snapper in Lemon Butter Sauce: keep it simple and perfect, fresh fillet of Red Snapper, fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice and zest, Kerry Irish butter from grass fed cows.

    4) Poached Pear: a perfectly ripe Bosc pear poached in a sweetened Reisling with a whole scraped vanilla bean, the poaching liquid reduced to a sauce to glaze the pear, finished with fresh whipped heavy cream and garnished with a fresh baked butter, brown sugar and brandy tuile partially dipped into a fine dark chocolate.

    1. Very nice! I forgot about duck confit, also one of my favorites (though I would leave out the pastry).

      1. Pastry is optional, but it’s good for soaking up the juices and wiping the plate.

  25. When I lived in Tunisia I used to buy a dish made by road-side vendors called “Briik” (phonetic spelling). It was made with a dough not unlike phillo – thin but not buttery- that they formed into a thin round dough which was fried in olive oil. In the center would be an egg, shawarma (lamb), garbonzo, onion, pepper, cilantro and flavored with cumin, harissa, salt and pepper. They would fold the couch over like an omelet so the egg cooked. It was crispy, spicy, nummy.

    I’d like to eat that one more time.

    If not then a world class Reuben would do.

    NOM.

    1. Aww, that sounded good until I got to what was inside the dough 🙂

      How is it pronounced? Breek?

  26. Hummus + simple crusty bread, thinly sliced
    With a dry German wheat beer

    Persian Baghali Polow ba Mahiche
    With a slightly sweeter & ‘hoppier’ beer

    Lemon & vanilla cheesecake + candied lemon peel on top

    Strong coffee + cheeseboard

    Cigar

    More beer, belly dancers & fire eaters please

  27. Well, assuming I don’t have to deal with the after effects of consuming all of this:

    1) A Chicago-style pizza from Bacino’s: Pepperoni, onion, and sliced garlic;

    2) Banana cream pie;

    3) Dad’s Root Beer in glass bottles.

  28. I might choose to spend all day at the Country Buffet 🙂 Then again, I might not. Since I love red raspberries, they would be featured throughout the meal. Get warmed up with a hoppy draft beer like Modus Hoperandi. Then a nice champagne with fresh raspberries paired with raspberry basil pastry canapés. Next, mixed fresh fruit salad, of course featuring raspberries, with a chardonnay. Main course, Argentine beef, baked potato with only butter, salt and pepper, grilled asparagus and a Malbec. Finally, multiple desserts – red raspberries with a bit of cream, strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream, and a fresh baked cinnamon roll, all taken with a nice dark aromatic coffee.

  33. I don’t get too excited about food and never look forward to a meal. I’m sure that would be all the more true if I were scheduled to die.

    That said, when I’ve allowed myself to get very hungry, some meals provide a much better payoff than others, and it’s hard to improve on a slab of BBQ Ribs, french fries, and corn on the cob.

  34. Alleged last words of Kit Carson (died 1868): “Wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.” That would do me fine, with some nice sourdough bread and a couple pints of good lager.

  35. Not sure exactly what I’d have. It would take a long time to think about. But it would include:

    Fruit: fresh passion fruit, strawberries, and raspberries.

    Chocolate: ginger pieces in dark chocolate, hazelnut praline in chocolate, Bailey’s Irish Cream chocolates.

    Vegetables: roast kumara, roast parsnip, roast pumpkin.

    Meat: chicken or lamb.

    There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned prawn cocktail. Lots of fresh cooked, chilled prawns on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce with a good seafood dressing, garnished with chopped parsley, plus a wedge of lemon.

    Not sure what else. There are other favourite foods that need to be worked into the menu.

  36. To start:
    Escargot and scallops wrapped in bacon and served in butter.
    Creamed mussel soup or Manhattan clam chowder.

    Main course:
    Porterhouse steak.
    Roast potatoes.
    Yorkshire pudding with gravy.
    Honey glazed carrots and parsnips.
    Fresh peas, buttered.
    Pilsner Urquell beer.

    Dessert:
    Strawberry shortcake if local strawberries are in season, otherwise New York cheesecake with blueberry sauce.
    Cognac.

    Another possibility is good old fish and chips, halibut, prawns, fries.

  38. Sushi (variety plate).

    Lightly fried prawns.

    Sicilian pizza.

    Duck.

    Red enchiladas.

    Vegetable Tempura.

    Egg rolls & crab wontons.

    Pecan pie.

    Chocolate souffle.

    Nine courses. I can do it because I eat a lot all the time and this would be the last.

  39. Caesar salad minus the anchovies, a rare but un-aged ribeye steak, Barbeque ribs with Sharko’s hot barbeque sauce, or Rasta Joe’s hot barbeque sauce, duck confit in puff pastry, baked potato with butter and sour cream. Stella gorgonzola for a cheese course, followed by a pint of Three Twins Salted Caramel ice cream and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Creme Brulee ice cream with an Allegro coffee Latte. Preceded by a couple bottles of Rolling Rock beer.

    2. They can put your anchovies on my Caesar salad.

      I usually challenge the staff with, “… and as many anchovies as are allowed.”

      But I love Caesar salads without the fish as well.

  41. Apparently, an eccentric, I am.

    My likely first choice for a final meal would be roast turkey breast, green beans, peas, long grain rice, especially fine biscuits, stuffing with walnuts and chopped celery and not-to-sweet pumpkin pie with whipped cream. To wash it all down, I would want a highly chilled Coca-Cola powered over ice flakes (the kind that Coke-in-a-cup vending machines used to dispense).

  42. Moules mariniere. Chilled crisp white wine.
    Pan-fried duck breast, rare, with cherry and chilli sauce (my own recipe) and roasted baby plum tomatoes. Cabernet Sauvignon.
    Slow roasted leg of mutton, crispy roast potatoes, sauted cabbage and broccoli. Merlot.
    Cheese board. Must include Blue Stilton, vintage Cheddar, Gorgonzola. Vintage port and Scottish single malt.

    I haven’t actually drank alcohol for years, but if I’m going then I’m going with a wallop.

  43. Even if it was a painless vanishing, if I knew it was coming I think I’d still be too anxious to enjoy anything.

    As for a fantasy meal in general, I’d also go for surf and turf, although I’d like a garlic and white wine butter sauce for the lobster, and I prefer filet mingon over ribeye. I might also ask for a slice of really good Chicago deep dish pizza loaded with sausage and veggies.

  44. Ginger beer and rum. Sandwich of thick-cut bacon, sliced raw onion, crispy lettuce, mayo and coarse ground pepper on bagel-toasted soft commercial bread. Chocolate ice cream. Dill pickle to cleanse palate. Aged cheddar and tart apple. Grape Nuts lemon puff pudding (whole recipe, hot from the oven) A wafer-thin mint.

  45. Tacos al pastor, con rábanos, cebollitas, y limón. And a selection of salsas.

    This is, after all, la comida de los dióses.

    And ale the way we ask for it in México…negra y amarga, como mi alma.

  46. 1. A slice of Tortilla de patatas and a Chilean empanada (which has minced beef, olives, potatoes and a boiled egg inside) with chimichurri salsa.

    2. A fresh-from-the-tandoor hot buttery naan with mixed lentils dhal and Goan tiger prawn curry. With Tusker lager.

    3. Churrasco with chimichurri again. With Malbec wine.

    4. Steamed chocolate pudding with chocolate custard, my absolute favourite dessert, a love for which I acquired in high school dinners ( a meal eaten at lunchtime!)

  47. I’d start with lobster tails cooked in garlic and butter. Paired with a crusty French bread.

    For the main course: saddle roast of lamb with fresh mint sauce. Oven roasted potatoes which have been roasted in turkey drippings, crispy & brown on the outside. Steamed broccoli smothered in cheese sauce, made with extra old cheddar.

    For dessert: a big bowl of Baskin-Robbins chocolate-mint ice cream (they now call it “Mint Chip”, but I sill call it chocolate-mint). With a bowl of fresh raspberries on the side. And to finish, a few chocolate-covered brazil nuts (made with the best chocolate in the world: Stilwell’s of Montreal).

    Nothing to drink. I wouldn’t have room!

    1. @Claudia

      1st & 2nd: I love those!

      Stilwell’s is known for chocolate? I know about their humbugs, but not choc. What is it they do to choc?

      1. Sadly, they don’t make chocolate anymore.

        But when I was a kid in Montreal, they made chocolate and every Easter I got a Stilwell’s chocolate Easter egg (hand made, hand dipped). It is the best chocolate I have ever tasted, to this day. They were still making chocolate when they moved from their Verdun location to, I think, La Salle, in the 1990s.

        I’m not sure when they stopped making it, but probably when they closed the La Salle store and began to sell on-line only. The humbugs are delicious, but the chocolate was out-of-this-world.

        I wish I had the recipe for that chocolate. Gladys Stilwell, are you out there? Please share your recipe with me!

  48. Can’t help noticing there are no vegetarian meals listed. Guessing it’s because we don’t think we’re going to die. But mine would be

    Steamed artichoke
    Large bowl of veggie chili with corn bread
    Pecan pie
    Green tomato pie

  49. A mile-high seafood platter (to share) from one of the top restaurants in Portugal or Spain, with a gallon of garlic butter, plus seafood and veggie paella made with about a kilogram of saffron. Mumm’s Champagne. Samplings of a variety of great cheeses, fruit and ice wine for dessert. Then a potent ginger beer to go.

  52. This is something I just can’t really answer.

    I’ve always found it incredible that anyone could eat just before being put to death.

    I can think of a great meal. But as soon as someone adds “before you die” I lose my appetite.

    Whoops, I see Jerry’s update. Strangely, that doesn’t help much… I can’t think about my stomach if my non-existence is pending or joined with the thought.

    Well, I guess I’ll go for:

    The cheeseburger from Au Cheval in Chicago (or Fuddruckers…I just love their cheeseburgers)…a strawberry shake, followed by the best bread pudding someone can find.

    As good as it would taste going down, at the end of that my stomach will be begging to be put out of my misery anyway, so non-existence here I come!

  53. 1. Sliced cucumbers in sweetened rice wine vinegar
    2.Armenian Pilaf (butter, vermicelli, long grain white rice)
    3. Armenian Stuffed Grape Leaves (grape leaves, lean ground beef or lamb or a combination of both, chopped onion, chopped green pepper, long grain white rice, tomato sauce, spices (such as garlic salt, Lawry’s Season Salt)
    4. Either a truly fine Baklava or a New York Cheesecake.
    I’ve had to forgo alcohol so long that I can’t imagine having it. Maybe a really good iced tea.

  54. I remember when I was a kid that my mother would say: “Maybe the best food in the world is a slice of bread with cheese”

    At the time I couldn’t understand why you would say that about something pedestrian as bread with cheese.

    But now I’m at that exact same spot as my mother. I think my last meal would have to be fresh, wholegrain bread with old Beemster cheese.

    (Beemster cheese is what would be called Gouda outside of the Netherlands, but within the Dutch borders we name our cheeses after the origin of the cheese. The confusing thing is that Gouda is a city in the Netherlands, but it’s also a type of cheese that is called after the city because that was the location of the biggest, most famous cheese market where those cheeses were traded. So you can have Gouda cheese from every part of The Netherlands, or outside the Netherlands for that matter)

    1. I’d add just one thing, butter. With fine examples of just those three things one can make a grilled cheese sandwich to die for (sorry!).

      If you feel like it you can add little accents into the middle of the grilled cheese sandwich. A paper thin slice of ham, a light smear of whole grain mustard, a smear of caramelized onions, a smear of apple butter . . . but even just the plain grilled cheese can be a gourmet experience.

  55. Imperial crab
    White asparagus with vinegar and capers
    Aunt Pat’s cole slaw and potato aalad
    Aunt Nancy’s macaroni salad (with shrimp)
    Corn on the cob (Silver Queen)
    Mom’a cookie and cream ice cream
    Rum and coke (Gosling’s Black Seal and OLD Coke!)

  60. In the last days of my youngest boy’s life(22) he craved cheese. The dietitian in charge approved soft cheese in jars. It was too late, he never emerged from the coma.It still haunts me almost 8 years later. Eat what you like and never regret.

  62. Ok, I’d have to go with something like…
    1 – wild mushroom crostini with a bowl of Italian wedding soup
    2 – proscuitto ravioli with roasted tomatos, garlic, broccoli rabe and rocket (what we call arugula)
    3 – warm gingerbreak cake with shortbread crumble, vanilla creme anglais and sour cream gelato
    No alcohol for me – just some Earl Grey Blue Flowers tea from Cardew’s and maybe a cappuchino with dessert.

  63. So, something kinda significant missing from, I think, every response so far….

    As prelude…my wife and I had a wonderful date last night. We met after work at the movie theater to watch the Metropolitan Opera’s “summer encore” HD re-broadcast of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.

    The opera itself is new to us both; neither had heard it before. And the opera and the production, every aspect of it from the largest to the smallest bit…was mind-blowing. This is one that’ll be talked about for years.

    We had resigned ourselves to movie theater hot dogs when we turned around and saw across the walkway, “Beer Research Institute,” with a sign that they also served food.

    So, of course, that’s where we ate. We shared half a dozen 4 oz samples of beer ranging from really good to superlative, and ate some surprisingly good bar food.

    In other words: something totally new, totally unexpected.

    I rather like the idea of being adventurous to the end….

    Cheers,

    b&

      1. Indeed, that’s a great performance, one for the ages…but, believe it or not, I think last night’s actually topped it.

        …and that was on top of simply unbelievable staging (as in, pearl fishers free-diving in the open sea over the set), just as remarkable performances from the rest of the cast (and orchestra and chorus), and even rock-solid acting, to boot.

        Whatever superlatives you might want to think of for this production…they fit. It’s hard to imagine the Met outdoing itself…but it did.

        Cheers,

        b&

        >

        1. That must be the Polenzani/Kwiecien one. I haven’t seen it, but with your review, I’ll make a point of it!

          There’s also a Russian recording of it with Kaufmann and Hvorostovsky floating around the net. Crap sound, but another great performance.

          1. Yes — this one:

            http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/SynopsisCast/Les-Pecheurs-de-Perles/

            Simply stunning. Damrau’s arias were as delicately lyrical as any I’ve ever heard, and backed by at least as much power as any screamer’s. Polenzani…gorgeous sound, exuberantly joyful and defiant, did not leave _anything_ behind. Kwiecień was the glue in the thick of it all, spinning on a dime between evil villain consumed with rage and tragic hero for whom your heart cries out, playing his voice with perfection.

            Truly a masterpiece.

            Cheers,

            b&

            >

  64. I have thought about this, and seen many interesting suggestions from people here that got me thinking.

    But I conclude that I cannot answer this question unless I know who I am with and whether or not my companion(s) can share with me.

  65. I could do far worse than two crab cakes (must be made in Baltimore), Maryland silver queen corn and beefsteak tomatoes, a few Samuel Adams lagers (honestly, screw the Natty Boh!) and a large piece of chocolate cake. Then just before vanishing, a double Lagavulin scotch, neat. Hell, make it a triple.

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