Antwerp debut

It's very late, or conversely, very early... I just got back from the concert a few minutes ago... it's 1:30 in the AM, and I'm bloody freezing... I got out of the Salon maybe at 11:00, walked to the train in Antwerp (freezing cold, 20 minutes) got on the train (a 'milk run' which stopped at every hamlet) then got out of the station around 00:30, then had to wait 10 minutes outside (freezing) for the night bus, walked home (did I mention it was freezing?) etc., etc., so much for the glamourous life of the opera singer!

It went well, the organization is really very friendly and they sang very well. The conductor is a fairly young fellow, intense, charismatic and musically very intelligent, and his singers and orchestra follow him very closely. The concert was in a church in Antwerp very close to the cathedral. This particular church was built a little more than a hundred years ago in the neo-byzantine style (so it's quite new by European standards) and in the last five years or so was deconsecrated and converted to a concert hall, and a modern extension was added, with change rooms, electrical rooms and so on. The interior of the church is more or less unaltered, with the ornately carved wooden pulpit halfway back into the sanctuary, all decorations intact, and the organ still functional. The intendant of the Vlaamse Opera (one of the three main opera companies in Belgium) was there and he mentioned to the conductor that he was pleased about the concert in general... I'm not too excited, while I did my best to sing as mightily as I could, I timed the solo from my own copy of the recording, and it lasted exactly 31 seconds, so I doubt I made much of an impression on anyone in such a short time.

Nonetheless, my European debut with its attendant angst is out of the way. I sang in a lovely old church in Antwerp, with a very good conductor and period orchestra, and now there's a European gig on the resume; I can mention the concert to the Vlaamse opera intendant when I call for an audition, and the conductor seemed interesting in having me back, at least he said so, so it's good. I'm very pleased, and very tired.