There are wine dinners, beer dinners, scotch dinners, underground dinners, the list goes on...but (to the best of my knowledge) there's only one local dinner event that's paired with opera music.
It so happens that Gina Galati, daughter of Dominic and Jackie Galati (of Dominic's, Dominic's Trattoria, and Gio's downtown) is also the Artistic Director of New Opera St. Louis. (Do you see where this is going?) New Opera's season is winter-months-only which leaves the summer wide open for fun things like "Opera Nights on the Hill." Here, Dominic's provides the four course dinner and Gina assembles the opera talent (two to four singers per event).
The third of the four dinner series, called Broadway Review in Sicily, was held last night (see the complete schedule here). Once again, I was late to get on board, but at least I was able to attend. ...Dominic's had a packed house. Watching them kick out 85 coursed dinners as quickly as they did--there were even choices within each course--was a delight, the mark of a professional kitchen. Other reservations and unsuspecting walk-ins got the full run of the menu in their own private room. Nobody missed a beat.
The singers (Gina Galati and Nora Teipen) alternated songs in four short sets, with pause time in between, allowing guests to equally enjoy the music and the table conversation and to give proper attention to each. As the ladies strolled the respective dining rooms, guests could literally feel the power and the carry of their voices.
The combination of what was on the plate and what was in the air was, well, moving and exhilarating. A lot of umm's, a lot of goosebumps, and in the case of Gina's final cadenza of Think of Me (from The Phantom), even a few tears. Not saying if any of them were mine. -- George Mahe
