Persephone Abbott

Posts tagged “Idle Opportunities

Artistic License

Posted on April 20, 2025

Cleaning up my social media this week, I came across the name of a French baritone in my list of friends. Jacques Calatayud was a devoted friend to Suzanne Sarroca (and her former student) and he had died. And so had she. They died within a year of each other. I had no idea. In 2015 I met up with both of them for dinner in Paris. Sarroca was already quite in advanced age, still living in her apartment on the rue Notre Dame de Lorette, and Jacques was attentive to her needs. He screened the diva’s socializing activities and facilitated the meeting with Sarroca. I remember him as a very gentle and kind person.  “You are lucky,” Sarroca said to me over dinner,…

Idle Opportunities – Meeting a Parisian Man

Posted on February 8, 2024

Cynthia Murray moved to Paris to become an opera singer and escape her dysfunctional Californian family. The problem is some of the family escaped with her to Europe, and now she’s scrambling to find new ways to take her career to the next level. But will she manage to circumvent the family dramas and create a solid musical foundation for herself? Set in 1992 Idle Opportunities lifts the curtain to reveal the backstage antics of the opera student world and the drama of a blended Californian family that holds a DNA mystery. The story unfolds as Cynthia moves between Paris and the Netherlands, culminating in an opera production of The Magic Flute. Excerpt read by Persephone Abbott