Impromptu opera regales Mexico City market-goers

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The tenor breaks into song next to bunches of bananas strung high above ripe papaya. Wearing a red market apron, he approaches a woman wrapped in a purple shawl and serenades her for 90 seconds while clutching her hand and looking her in the eyes. Tears stream down the woman's face.

The opera performance Saturday is part of an effort to bring the arts to everyday life in Mexico City. A troupe of four singers surprise shoppers at one of the city's 300 public markets, chopping beef while they belt out romanzas, courting fruit vendors with arias or, in the case of the tenor, moving a woman to tears with lines like "eyes that cry don't know how to lie" from the Spanish-language opera "La Tabernera del Pueblo.