Word: cantos
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Could this be what it felt like for Alice when she went through the looking glass? The elevator that transports guests down to Bel Canto provides a surreal start to an evening in London's first lyrical dining room - the elevator carriage resembles a shrunken La Fenice, Venice's gorgeous opera house. Downstairs in the plush velvet-and-gilt dining room, which convincingly resembles an opera box, dimensions are restored to conventional expectations. The service, however, goes beyond them. Not only are the waiting staff attentive and swift, but all of them boast voices so utterly pure and transforming that...
...This is the London debut of Bel Canto, www.lebelcanto.co.uk, an established Paris eatery which harmoniously pairs understated French cuisine with theatrical entertainment of the highest order - the front-of-house ensemble are all trained opera singers specializing in bel canto (meaning beautiful singing), the melodic Italian vocal style of the 18th and early 19th centuries, which impresses with all manner of embellishments, fast scales and long trills. The playlist judiciously balances pieces that appeal to the aesthete yet remain accessible to the opera-ignorant: most of the extracts - performed for a couple of minutes at approximately 15-minute intervals...
...Rest assured, the singers do not operatically draw attention to enthusiastic diners double-ordering the gratin dauphinois. It may be the singing standard - the cast are fresh from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the London College of Music - that elevates dinner at Bel Canto from an evening meal to a night at the opera, but the food plays a mean second fiddle. Bistro classics include a beautifully caramelized shallot tatin and dill-rich salmon gravadlax, king prawn and black pearl scallop skewers, and hot chocolate fondant with violet ice cream. Still, the most delicious parts...
...patriotism is the last refuge for scoundrels, what do you call a Cabinet minister who flips off the national anthem? Certainly not a statesman - nor a reliable political partner. By waving his middle finger Sunday while barking out a verse of Il Canto degli Italiani, Italy's Reforms Minister Umberto Bossi raised real questions about the long-term viability of Silvio Berlusconi's center-right ruling coalition...
After a series of recordings with Sutherland, Pavarotti made a sensational Metropolitan Opera debut in La Bohème in 1968. Much in demand today, he is interested only in the bel canto composers and Verdi. "My dream is Il Trovatore," he says, "but it is so demanding that I will not try it for at least five years." Opera lovers will not have to wait that long to hear him at his best, however. His current singing season will reach a peak at the Met next month, when he sings in Donizetti's rarely performed The Daughter of the Regiment...