Sull’aria che soave zeffiretto

July 19, 2022

On the 4th of July, I set out with Carla Edwards and Jeff Williams to see fireworks on the East River.

From Newtown Creek, we would have front row seats for the Macy’s display,

and almost everyone I know with a boat was out on the water.

It was spectacular.

We tied up to the Tideland Institute barge, a beautiful dock and social scene designed by the amazing Danielle Butler and Nathan Austin.

They weren’t listening to the Macy’s music program, the one designed to go along with the fireworks would have been a mashup of patriotic and pop standards played by a military band. They were listening to something completely different, and it seemed like a sweet and subtle shift, a perfect refusal for the moment.

“It’s Motzart’s Sull’aria … che soave zeffiretto,” said Nathan.

When Nathan sent a link about it later, I thought maybe there was even more to it. It’s a beautiful song, and the characters who perform it in the opera Figaro are duplicitous, plotting, and eventually right. So here is the Macy’s 2022 fireworks display set to Sull’aria che soave zeffiretto:

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