Louis Roney: Let's Party!

Toward the end of February in Florida, my b.w. and I begin to get the same kind of feeling we got in New York when May came along and spring at last was in the air.

On Feb. 23 the temperature reached 86 degrees here and was truly swimming weather. Although it caught us by surprise, we were throwing a party that afternoon at our house for a lot of friends. The sliding doors of our lakeside screen porch were flung open while air conditioning kept the living room comfortable for our 32 guests.

My boyhood in Winter Park comes back to me often in my memories, and I recall how glad I was to see even our mild Florida winter coming to an end. For many years in my singing career I lived in north Europe, and when one takes into consideration that Paris is on the same latitude as Montreal, one gets an idea of how cold it is in April and even May in Hamburg, Bordeaux and Copenhagen.

I remember a June 7 evening on top of a small mountain outside Lyon, France, when I sang “Samson and Delilah” outdoors in an ancient Roman amphitheater and a frigid mistral blew in at full force. The temperature dipped into the 30’s and the audience of some 15,000 were all in overcoats and carried blankets for their legs and feet. I was singing opposite the renowned Mexican mezzo-soprano Oralia Dominguez.

She came into my tent dressing room in tears saying, “I can’t sing in this kind of cold and I’m worried about my voice.” As Delilah she was dressed seductively in a minimum of clothes and my costume was a pleated short skirt, bare legs and laced up boots! We were frozen.

The winter days are terribly short in North Europe and spring seems forever in coming. Suddenly in June when summer finally bursts on the scene, “then, if ever, come perfect days.”

Lots of my friends in European opera companies used to swim in the ocean in the summer, but when I put one Florida-bred foot into the North Sea, that was as far as my body went! I can take all the heat the weatherman can dish out, but cold means pain to me.

I lived in New York for some years and, though New York is infinitely colder than Florida, it is nowhere as cold for as long as Northern France and Germany. So a beautiful February day in Winter Park was perfect for our party – a wonderful day with many friends.

There were drinks out on our lakeside porch and someone to serve them. At the Steinway through the glass sliding doors in the living room were singer Jose Velez and his partner, guitarist Luis Garcia. Their music featured both men on guitar and highlighted the splendid tenor voice of Jose. They performed wonderful Latin music with their two guitars and played and sang a number of popular, and unfamiliar songs in Spanish.

These guys are real pro entertainers, highly gifted, anxious to please, and do a great show.

Our guests had plenty of time to sit or stand around and chat while they sipped anything from wine to water. On the dining table were plates of delicious hors d’oeuvres and desserts (also with servers).

A lovely warm day in Winter Park in February, a bunch of fun people in nice surroundings with great music, good food, drinks, some helpers, and you’ve got a successful party. There! Our secret is out …

About Roney: Harvard’42—Distinguished Prof, Em.—UCF 2004 Fla. Alliance for the Arts award (Assisted by beautiful wife Joy Roney)