There’s almost always something in my brain, some terrible thing somebody’s said, or a scene that I know cannot ever occur but I cannot un-imagine it, or the voice of a demon or maybe just me saying over and over the same old you’re awful so why not just call it a day. And some other times, and these times are, by comparison, a relief, things like the Rice-A-Roni (“The San Francisco treat!”) jingle or the “Yo-Ee-Oh, Yoooo-Oh” castle guard chorus from “The Wizard of Oz” fill up my head. These uninvited earworms drive me nuts.
I wish I could choose my earworms, and if I could, one of my first would be a few bars from “Au fond du temple saint” in The Pearl Fishers. The simple melody, which repeats throughout the opera, does what Western music is meant to do. It quiets you, then it swells, and then it makes you want to stand up like something’s lifting you, arising you…