Intermezzo

The Falstaff Diet

How does Ambrogio Maestri, the world's busiest Falstaff, maintain those career-defining curves?

As with any job, it's all about how much you put in.

Food is in Maestri's blood - he worked in the family restaurant until his late 20s and his discovery by the perspicacious Riccardo Muti.

The big baritone has never lost his love of tucking in, and now uses his operatic down-time to share his authentic Italian recipes with a hungry world.

Risotto above. More cooking lessons on Maestri's YouTube channel.

Dinner with Wagner

At the 2013 European Culture Prize gala to be held in Leipzig on 21 May, the theme is local boy made good Richard Wagner, whose 200th birthday is of course celebrated on the next day.

Klaus Florian Vogt (winner of the Music prize) will sing from Lohengrin, and guests will tuck into what were allegedly Wagner's favourite dishes. The menu comes from a book of family recipes handed down to the composer's great-granddaughter, Daphne Wagner.

Die Meisterbaker

We can only imagine how thrilled Matti Salminen must have been when he learned more than just singing skills were required for his role as Gurnemanz in Cologne Opera's new Parsifal.

Director Carlus Padrissa has deemed that the veteran bass will mix, knead and bake ten loaves of bread during the six-hour show. These will be distributed to the salivating audience at the end.

For anyone who can't wait that long, the opera house is for the first time providing a restaurant service during intermssions.

Libiamo, dunkiamo

"To realise the magic of our beautiful tin simply twist the body anticlockwise and the delicately embossed horses prance to the lilting melody of La Traviata. To complete this feast on the senses the tin holds a scintillating selection of our scrumptious biscuits in seven different flavours, including our clotted cream digestives, luscious lemon thins and chocolate & macadamia nut."
Fortnum and Mason

Rene Pape's beef

It's been a while since I dipped into Die Oper kocht.  But one particular dish has been calling my name ever since I bought the treasure trove of operatic recipes. 

The instructions for Rene Pape's Sächsischer Sauerbraten mit Klößen und Rotkraut (boiled beef Saxon-style with dumplings and red cabbage) don't quite hang together, I couldn't track down the main ingredients, and I don't like dumplings. But, unlike most folk not brought up on the stuff, I actually like boiled beef and cabbage. Must be something to do with school dinners.

Cleopatra's supper club

While Egypt gets its first taste of democracy, guests at Salzburg's Whitsun Festival will be treated to a taste of Egypt.  After they've watched Cecilia Bartoli as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in Egitto on 27 May, the privileged section of the audience who stumped up the €€€ will decamp to the splendid Karl-Böhm-Saal for an Egyptian feast.  Traditional Egyptian music will accompany the  goat cheese-stuffed dates, pita bread and tahini, and belly dancer Nabila has been recruited for the purpose of "spreading oriental flair".

Forget the traditional spaghetti - this opens up a whole raft of opera-themed dinner possibilities. How about a nice platter of Schwartenmagen after your Salome for starters?