We attend a Merola opera performances through the prism of: which singer will become a star. Some will. And when they do, we can be insufferable opera snobs and say we knew it all along. The participants in the program -one of the most hallowed opera training grounds- are thirty singers and coaches in their 20s handpicked out of 800 applicants. Come check them out for their Grand Finale concert on August 18th.

This year's, the two operas they staged in full at the Cowell theater (Postcard from Morocco and La Finta Giardinera) added a twist in our assessment of the singer's potential: we'd never heard either this contemporary one-act ninety minutes piece nor that early Mozart opera. We had no benchmark to compare the singers to, and kept being distracted by where would the story go or how it was orchestrated. We had to tease apart the vocal prowess from the novelty of the composition.

At least, we were familiar with Amadeus' vernacular. Mozart wrote la Finta Giardiniera when he was 18, and already a full fledged composer, but one not so wise in the choice of his librettos yet. It's basically the reconciliation of Belfiore with Violante. It takes three acts for them to make up, because he merely attempted to murder her before the opera starts and left her for dead. That's an interesting take on domestic violence. Had he only bruised her arm instead of stabbing a knife in her chest, there'd be nothing to sing about.