“here’s looking at you, kid!”

When I won the Verdi prize in Busetto, Italy, I would go before I sang to this statue, one like it, and “talk” to him, and if he looked intrigued or in fact winked at me I knew I would be wonderful. He did wink just before I sang for the first time there and then when I won! They called me the “crazy american from California who talks to Verdi!”, laughing good naturedly.

When I first arrived at the Met, I sought solace at this statue, and then after my debut there is a picture in the Post with my hand on his shoulder, looking very proud. He was winking then too! I made this pilgrimage to see him the other day, and took these two fotos.

Here is the hello from the great man who has “baciata” my life so intensely. Don’t his eyes look alive? Viva Verdi.