OK, we've been to the Victor Café. Outstanding! The waiters/waitresses are not amateurs. They are the real thing. They are classically trained; students of the professional opera programs in Philadelphia, and the repertoire they sing is interesting, not just the popular arias as one might expect of this kind of thing. They sang beautiful, lesser known arias and art songs, and did overall a very good job (with some ups and downs). It was very enjoyable, and apparently the patrons respect the singers: everybody was silent, stopped eating, and listened attentively, applauding at the end. Nice!
The food was pretty delicious and reasonably priced. We got a bottle of a Venetian wine for $36 that also uses the apassimento method that the Amarone della Valpolicella employs, for a third of the price.
This place is not to be missed by opera lovers visiting Philadelphia!
Some pictures of my friends Michelle and Jon (one can see a picture of Verdi on the wall - top left corner, second from the left - there are plenty of pictures of opera personalities), myself, and the food:
From there we went to the beautiful Kimmel Center for Luca's recital (which was excellent; see below for the review - I met Luca backstage and we made plans for his interview which will happen over the phone this Saturday at 12 noon.
The Perelman Theater, the more intimate venue where the recital was given, starting to fill up (later, almost sold out)
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