I know that to the forcefully ironic it might seem a little melodramatic to admit, but as the richly composed music of Tchaikovsky swelled—music that I must have heard a million times in television commercial of the past—with the trained dancers interpreting a story I’ve sadly never seen before, a large tear welled up in my right eye, for I knew I was watching pure art.
You see, ever since I learned that my late uncle Elfego Esparza was a world-renowned opera singer in the sixties and seventies—a bass, mind you—a newfound love for the classical arts has been awakened inside me. And though I’m but a spiritual novice, I recently attended my first every ballet, a dress rehearsal of Oklahoma City Ballet’s The Nutcracker: Short & Sweet.