spring is here...

...at least in Brussels.

I'm really amazed at the great weather here... it was at least 16 degrees and open blue sky here today, and it was the same yesterday. We have a forecast that is sunny and warm all week to come. It's quite a contrast with what I'm hearing is happening in Toronto, with lots of snow, and in other parts of Canada such as Manitoba, where it's reportedly -50 degrees with the wind chill. Brrr!

It's been a busy week, so I've not posted for a while; the boys have been off school for the week for the congé de carnaval so the house has not been a quiet and tranquil place. Maggie has been off as well, so we've all been making the most of spending time together. We've managed to have two solid TV-free days in a row, which has been nice, involving lots of playing in the garden and in the tree fort, working in the yard, eating lunch outside, etc. Malcolm has spent hours playing with a garden rocket made from a water bottle, inner tube valve, champagne cork, and bike pump, all of which were found or recycled, thanks to instructions in the Dangerous Book for Boys, and Duncan has been happy to watch, and play soccer with his friend Matt who lives around the corner.

When we haven't been outside we've been catching up on reading. Malcolm, having devoured Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn has moved on to Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, and is almost finished it... I'll have to find something else quickly to keep him occupied. Fortunately Maggie has access to lots of good novels for young readers through her school library, so she can bring something home for him. Duncan meanwhile is doing lots of pre-reading behaviour himself, as well as art and imaginative play with his Playmobil knights set, something that keeps him very pleasantly occupied. He still is playing the piano and guitar, and singing a lot...

... as am I. The solo audition I sang at La Monnaie a week ago Thursday went really well: I was well prepared, in a positive and confident frame of mind, felt that the planets were aligned in my favour, knew the accompanist, and I think these factors greatly influenced my singing. As I might have explained before, simply obtaining this audition was a success for me, since my initial requests to audition were not successful until, through persistence and some luck, the situation changed.

This audition was not for a role, but purely as an introduction to the casting director, but still I felt very energized by the whole thing. In a way these "speculative" auditions are better than ones for specific parts, because the singer gets to decide what he or she wants to showcase, and can play more to their strengths. In an audition where they are looking for a specific type of voice, or even a narrower repertoire, one has a little less freedom...

That was the case in another audition I sang in Liège this past Thursday, in which they requested three Italian arias, preferably including a Verdi one. Since I don't have a Verdi aria, and only had two Italian arias worked up, it necessitated a lot of work to finish getting Bella siccome un angelo from Don Pasquale up to speed to present; I really didn't have time to learn a Verdi aria from scratch. As it was, I only got a chance to sing one aria, and heard later that same night that I didn't get the part I was auditioning for. Still, I now can say that I've sung on the stage of the Opéra Royale de Wallonie, (even if it was in audition) something that I've wanted to do for years. More importantly the casting team including the general director have heard me, seen my photograph and read through my c.v., and have me on file. I hope to sing for them again soon, for something else.

I requested to sing early in the audition period in Liège because I had previously-made plans to attend a performance of Handel's Giulio Cesare here in Brussels at La Monnaie. Fortunately the train schedule allowed for it, so I joined two friends to experience this production staged by Karl-Ernst and Ursel Herrmann and directed by René Jacobs. Handel's opera is very long, almost four hours, and the set was something I'd never seen used before... the stage had narrow grooves running across it, and sticking up through these grooves were rows of translucent reeds that moved soundlessly back and forth to set new scenes, or sometimes moved during arias themselves. The characters could hide in the bullrushes, as it were, or part them and climb through, pursue each other, struggle, etc., and boats and other vehicles could appear to "float" along the tops of the reeds.

At first I was skeptical about whether the reeds themselves could provide enough interest for an entire opera, but by act two I was convinced that the idea was a good one, especially when the reeds were bolstered with the appearance of strange alchemical rolling vehicles, and colourful lighting effects. A particularly magical moment, and my favorite of the evening happened in act two, when a portion of the orchestra played on the stage... one aria for Julius Caesar that was really a trio with two horn players was particularly satisfying, and demolished for me completely the notion that any barrier existed between the singer and musicians... fantastic!

I gradually came to realize that the reeds, and the set itself, were highly stylized versions of, and owed a great debt to, baroque opera special effects, in particular the intricate and fabulous mechanical sets that were used in the 18th-century to create illusions of the sea, clouds, ships and monsters, and so on. The Drottingholm theatre in Stockholm is one house that still maintains these incredible pieces of stage machinery, and they have appeared in film many times, notably in Bergman's film of The Magic Flute, and in Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen.

Anyway it was a splendid time, with lots of very accomplished singing, as the singers were without exception extremely talented vocally, and very good actors too. They enjoyed the support of a very disciplined yet natural-sounding orchestra.

Tomorrow we are heading off to the Antwerp zoo with the kids. I'm sure I'll have lots to report next time!