Alignment is key. Whether it’s about car wheels, shakras, or humor, it’s essential that elements designed to work together be arranged so that they complement and build upon individual virtues and needs, rather than clash in opposition. The humor in Minnesota Opera’s The Italian Straw Hat does not align with what I want as an audience person.

My editor likes to say that half of good alignment is marketing to the right people. Certainly the prospect of hearing an opera by the film soundtrack composer of The Godfather, Part I and The Godfather, Part IIpiqued my interest. Nino Rota’s stage works are not performed very often in this country, although Shakespeare fans may have heard his soundtrack for Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 screen adaptation of Romeo and Juliet starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.