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68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2018 PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK WINE WINE IS THE LIFEBLOOD of nineteenth-century opera. Wine lubricates librettos, lovers, plot devices and much of the social intercourse that occurs on the operatic stage. And, as one would suspect, Italian opera is the most wine- drenched. ere is even an Italian word to describe a song that ex- horts people to drink or to toast: brindisi. Giuseppe Verdi's operas are full of brindisis. In the first act of Otello, Iago raises his glass to the Moor and his wife, Desdemona, and proceeds to press the reluctant Cassio to drink. Iago, Cassio, Roderigo and the chorus sing "Inaffia l'ugola!" ("Wet your throat!"). In Act III of Verdi's Falstaff, Shakespeare's fat knight, rising drenched from the River ames, sits outside his favourite tavern, the Garter Inn. Wet and dejected, he calls for a pitcher of mulled sherry. He then proceeds to sing a paean of praise to the beverage: For wine is warmer than the glow of sunshine. Full of summer! Feel it smoothly sweeping away the dust of gloom and vexation. See how it lights up the eye, revives and kindles the brain, ere slyly instilling tremors tiny but thrilling, e inner trilling of sweet intoxication. Verdi's La Traviata includes that much-loved duet with chorus, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" ("Let's drink from the joyful cups"). en there's the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore: "Fill up the goblets! New strength and courage flow from lusty wine to soul and body." Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved his wine, too. He must have been pleased that his librettist for Don Giovanni, Lorenzo Da Pon- te, created an enduring advertisement for an obscure red wine from Trentino called Marzemino. In the story, the licentious Don Gio- vanni orders his servant Leporello to pour the wine: "Versa il vino! Eccellente Marzemino!" Earlier in the opera, Leoporello signals his appreciation for "lusty peasant lasses" and expresses his desire to amuse them until night comes. In response to this admission, Don Giovanni delivers an aria that begins, "So that the wine may set their heads whirling/go and prepare a wonderful party." en there's the tipsy song, "Ah! Quel dîner" from Offenbach's La Périchole, a song with which sopranos have a lot of fun, along with the darker, more serious drinking song from Varlaam's Boris Godunov. In Act II of Mozart's e Abduction om the Seraglio, the hero, Pedrillo, plans to free his fellow travelers from captivity by getting Osmin, the Turkish pasha's right-hand man, drunk on two bottles of wine. e pair sing an amusing duet, "Vivat Bacchus!" PEDRILLO: Vivat Bacchus, Longlive Bacchus, Bacchus was a fine fellow. OSMIN: Shall I chance it? Shall I drink it? Can Allah see me? PEDRILLO: What's the use of wavering? Down with it, down with it! Don't delay any longer! OSMIN (drinks): Now the deed is done, Now I havedowned it; I do declare, that's brave! | DETOURS | Wine and Opera No form of entertainment pays tribute to wine like opera, in which characters swill, toast and praise its virtues