1. Waking up on day 298902852 of #quarantinelife feeling like:
What does the coming day hold for me?
All is darkness… No matter, Fate is just.
—Kuda, kuda vy udalilis from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
2. Staring out the window, wishing I could return to life as I used to know it:
Oh my country, I will never see you again.
Oh blue skies, sweet breezes of my homeland
You glowed in serenity in the morning of my life
Oh green hills, fragrant streams…
Oh my country, I will never see you again.
—O patria mia from Verdi’s Aida
3. Scrolling through Netflix for the fifteenth consecutive hour got me feeling like the Duke from Rigoletto:
One [show] or another, to me they’re all the same
I won’t surrender my heart to one over another
Each [show]’s beauty is destiny’s gift to me
If one enchants me today, another might tomorrow!
—Questa o quella from Verdi’s Rigoletto
4. When the spring pollen invades my sinuses and makes me think I have the Rona:
When I am laid in Earth
May my wrongs create no trouble in thy breast
Remember me!
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate…
—When I am laid in Earth from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
5. Breaking out the third bottle of wine since noon today like:
Let’s drink! Let’s drink with joyous abandon
May this fleeting hour intoxicate us with pleasure
—Libiamo, ne’ lieti calici from Verdi’s La Traviata
6. Telling my children about my trips to the grocery store 20 years from now like:
Fiercely the flames are raging
The frenzied mob comes running
Their joyous shouts resound
…
Higher and higher, flames mount to the sky
—Stride la vampa from Verdi’s Il Trovatore
7. Going to sleep at 10pm after a long day of nothing and missing my friends like:
Moon in the heavens, your light shines on everyone near and far
…
Moon, tell me, where [are] my beloved [friends]?
Tell me, where are [they]?
—Mesicku na nebi hlubokem from Dvorak’s Rusalka