This is Consuela Pang as I met her in Rome, in January 2015 on the Caelian Hill listening to a really clever version of Rodorigo's "
En Tierras de Jerez" by some local busker. She few in from Krakow where she runs the "Singapore Thick", a Chinese Fusion Bistro. Over coffee, in a small bar on via Druso, she told me her story: her mom, Celia García was a soprano in "Captain Morton McAvoy's Travelling Most Excellent Opera Company". During their yearly Asia tour, she was singing the part of Mesmerolina in Giorgio Pantileschi's "
Psyche and Eros" at the Singapore Lyric Opera where the Reverend Pang Li from the Grace Baptist Church of Mattar Road heard her unbelievable voice, saw her incredibly voluptuous body and was instantly smitten. He took her to dinner and they spent the night in a small hotel on Geylang Road. Rev. Pang resigned the next day from his church and joined McAvoy's as Li, a stagehand, prop master, set painter and general labourer. In the next several months, the company made its way to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tashkent, Minsk and eventually Krakow where the highly pregnant Celia sang her last role: Ghiadródena in Michelle Panteotti's "Fruit of Love". After the show, Li drove her to the hospital where she gave birth to Consuela at dawn. McAvoy's left three days later and the Pangs settled in the city where they opened a 24 hour Launderette. The business was very successful. On the second floor Celia gave singing lessons and in the back room Li dealt hashish. Consuela grew up with a love for music and, in time, took over the family business ... she got rid of the hash and the washer-dryers and opened the restaurant where she serves and does the books and her husband Andrzey cooks. They are very happy ... Consuela came to Rome with Celia to see the 1,000th commemorative showing of Pantileschi's "
Psyche and Eros", the opera that started it all ... their only regret was that Li could not be with them ... he died a year ago when he cought some virus that was going around.
