When we were leaving Venice a few years ago on a repositioning cruise, our ship played a song over the intercom and it's been rattling around in the back of my brain all that time. I knew the music was from an opera. I knew it was a well-known and well-loved song, but I couldn't place it.
And, while I grew up hearing a few recordings of classical music: Carmen, The Nutcracker Suite, a bit of Tchaikovsky, as well as those wonderful classics used in cartoons because they were in the public domain. (You do know that Bugs Bunny used to sing things like Figaro because the songs were free...sort of like finding a great photo on Creative Commons.)
Anyway, I was raised by barbarians. I never went to the opera. I never watched polo. I never played golf or tennis. I was raised as an upper-middle-class barbarian. And, that is why I couldn't remember the name of the song that I heard as I left Venice. I remember being out on the promenade deck watching Italy fade away, and I was crying because I wasn't ready to leave. We were only in Venice for three or four days...and it wasn't enough time.
And...the...memory...has...been...haunting me all this time.
So...the song I had been searching for was O Mio Babbino Caro from the Puccini opera Gianni Schicchi. I had never heard of Gianni Schicchi. And, that's probably why my searches were futile. Also, I seem to recall that the version played on the ship was sung by a man, so I was looking for something sung by Pavarotti.
At last...the title is in my grasp...it's like finding the car keys you lost last year. It's one less thing I have to look for. And, listening to the song reminds me of Venice and the fabulous white sun hat with a black band that I bought at a boutique on the Piazza San Marco.
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