Mattila does the splits

Tonight I had the great joy of attending a performance "from the front of the house"---meaning, listening to one- instead of coming in backstage and singing in one!
I saw Karita Mattila in concert with Martin Katz.
She sang beautifully, looked gorgeous, had three encores, but the part that I'm still jaw-droppingly crazy about is at the very end (after a cool jazzy/operatic rendition of The Man I love) she turned to us and said, "I usually only do this for my Swedish and Finnish audiences..but you've been such a wonderful group". She then proceeded to get down on one knee. I thought- cute, she's like acknowledging us as the audience- deep diva bow on the floor.
And THEN--- she was in the SPLITS!
I'm NOT KIDDING!!!

SPLITS! And yes, her dress was fine. She was wearing one of those hot Spanish themed things that is all stringy, so you can stick your legs out, but when you stand still it looks like one piece.

I can't get over it!

I turned to my friend and she said "grandma just did the splits". I think I said something like "holy jesus"...sorry.
Even though she does NOT look like a grandma--she is a lady of a certain age and most certainly looked no older than..well- does it even matter? She looked hot and younger than she is...so go her.
She's pretty much either a MILF or a GILF.

Oh, and her rep was the Hermit Songs, a set of songs from her homeland, Wolf spanishlieder, GRANADOS- LA MAJA y EL RUISENOR! (My current favoooorrrrite spanish piece), and then another set of spanish.
Encores were another homeland piece, That pretty Gypsey Song from Dvorjak (she dedicated it to the mothers since it's almost mother's day), and then the Man I love.

Loved it.
She had such poise. Such presence. Spun high, super chesty and awesome low, can travel through melismatic music seamlessly and effortlessly. If anything, it seemed like she was "warming up" in the first set, and could have gone on singing for hours by the end.

It was really an experience not to be forgotten quickly- especially those last 5 minutes!