Thankfully we had a most unusual mild winter here, as we were meeting another couple to go and see another theatrical run of “Wicked” and this time it was at the Detroit Opera House, or the Michigan Opera Theatre, and the venue is actually the fifth location for the Detroit Opera House.  The building opened in 1922, designed by one of the most lauded designers in Detroit, and was built for 2,700 seats, and called the Capitol Theatre.  Later it was converted to a cinematic theater that seated about 3,500 people, when it became the Paramount, then the Broadway Capitol, and finally the Grand Circus Theatre; and it was reportedly the fifth largest movie theater in the world. The theater like Downtown Detroit had slipped down in prestige and eventually had a minor fire.  The Michigan Opera Theatre purchased the building and named in the Detroit Opera House and had a major renovation with a return to 2,700 seats in 1996 and the debut performance was with Luciano Pavarotti.

We met the other couple and made arrangements to park at the structure behind the theatre., If there are several events going on in Downtown Detroit, parking becomes dear, and sometimes unavailable.  Hence, we met early and decided to go have some wine before dinner and then the play.  The weather was hospitable and a sport coat and sweater sufficed for walking about the twenty blocks that we covered.  We went to The Royce Wine Bar, which is located on the opposite “corner” of Grand Circus Park from the theater building.  We have been there for wine tastings, and sometimes just for a glass or two of wine, but since there were four of us, we just bought a bottle of wine, and I felt a little sheepish, as I wasn’t aware that there was a corkage fee for enjoying a bottle in the shop, I am so pedestrian.  We shared a bottle of I. Brand & Family Cabernet Franc Bayly Ranch Paicines 2020.  Winemaker Ian Brand is a maverick, and I like his very modest statement on his website “We are not in ‘wine country’ Nor do we have trophy wineries.  This farm land, desolate hills, and solitude.  What we do is simple, without artifice, and we enjoy it.” He produces three collections of which the I. Brand & Family is his single vineyard offerings.  The Bayly Ranch is a three-acre planting of ten-year-old Cabernet Franc vines located on an 800-foot elevation facing the slope that faces the San Andreas Fault.  Paicines has a population of about forty people, and at one time was a major growing area for Almaden Winery.  The area is very similar to the Loire for daily temperature swings.  The fruit undergoes a twenty-two-day maceration, using whole berries. The wine is aged for eleven months in six neutral and one once-used French oak barrels, and then aged for an additional nine months in bottle.  A total production of one-hundred-sixty-five cases produce.  A nice garnet colored wine with red highlights offered notes of cranberry, strawberry and “Sois-bois.”  On the palate a mature feeling wine with tones of cranberry and strawberry, with hints of cooking spices and a nice medium length finish with dusty fruit (terroir).     

My Bride and I had seen the first theatrical performance of “Wicked” and I really wasn’t thrilled to see it again, as I didn’t really enjoy the first run of the play here in Detroit, as it was at The Masonic Temple, which sounds like a strange venue, but it is very popular not only for theatrical productions, but also concerts.  The Masonic Temple in Downtown Detroit is the largest Masonic temple of its kind, basically a city block in size and was built in the glory days of Detroit, when big was better and the city was actually competing with New York City, especially for the arts, and the largesse of the Detroiters, was basically second to none.  To give you an idea how large the facility is sixteen-stories tall, with three theaters, three ballrooms and banquet halls and a clear-span drill-hall.  The cornerstone was placed in 1922, using the same trowel that George Washington used to set the cornerstone of the United States Capital.  The horseshoe-shaped temple auditorium was originally designed to seat five-thousand, but because there are a few poor sight-lines for a theater venue, six-hundred seats were removed. The funny thing is that my Bride and I both agreed that it seemed like we had seen a totally new production of “Wicked” and we really enjoyed this version, much better, but I still complain that enunciation has suffered from the current theatrical actors that I have seen in the past decade or so.  I only lament, because when I was in elementary school, we had to attend a class called “auditorium” and we had to learn how to speak and project from the diaphragm, which sometimes my family and grandchildren wish I didn’t.