Somehow I missed knowing about the Renee Weiss/ Peter Westergaard opera, staged here in Princeton for one night only, tonight, Saturday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m. at 185 Nassau Street.

So I’m hurrying to tell about it, Tweeting and Blogging. This is an “acid test” of social media. If you hear about it from me for the first time and are as eager to attend as I am, let me know andlook for me tonight. I’ll be with my houseguest from Dallas.

From the Princeton University website:

A collaboration between two longtime members of the Princeton community has produced a chamber opera based on a true story of love and courtship featuring singing, poetry and dance.

The Center City Opera Theater of Philadelphia will present the first fully staged production of “The Always Present Present” by librettist Renée Weiss and composer Peter Westergaard at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, in the Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau St. The show then will move to Philadelphia, where it will be performed Sept. 8, 10 and 12, as part of Philly Fringe.

The opera is an extension of a book of poetry and letters by the same title published in 2006 and written by Weiss and her husband, Princeton professor Ted Weiss, an award-winning poet, editor and literary critic who died in 2003. The story draws from correspondence the two exchanged 70 years ago when they were falling in love, separated by the distance between her home in Allentown, Pa., and his graduate school in New York City. The book was the last volume of the Quarterly Review of Literature, which the Weisses edited together for nearly 60 years and which was nationally acclaimed as one of the most influential and cutting-edge literary publications of its time. More here

To get a whiff of why I am excited about this, how Renee and Ted Weiss led quiet lives but with global influence, here is Carolyn Foote Edelmann’s story in U.S. 1

And for another whiff of the sweet sweet book of loveletters that Renee published after Ted’s death, a book review by Stuart Mitchner.

Some tickets are still available because I just bought two online. But you could try your luck at the door, and repeat performances are in Philly.

Did I mention the production features two dancers?