Musical weekend

It's Sunday morning and Maggie and Malcolm are still lying in. Duncan of course is up, has had his breakfast, and is singing away while he plays with his little action figures... I never noticed Malcolm making up dialogue for his toys, but both a script and a soundtrack seem to emerge spontaneously from our younger one. It is charming for the first 30 seconds or so, but then makes it a little hard to concentrate when one is trying to read or write something...

He'll have more opportunity to exercise his musical imagination after today, as my search for a digital piano was finally successful. After a sharp bit of bidding on eBay I managed to find a youngish Kawai piano, for about half the cost of a new one. I'm arranging to go pick it up this evening.

It will be a great relief to have a piano in the house again. Although I really don't like electronic instruments - even a mediocre acoustic piano sounds better to me than an electronic one - the flexibility of being able to move the piano from the living room to the upstairs bedroom (when required), and the lower cost makes it the best option for us and our apartment. I've been making do with a pitch-pipe for warmups and rehearsals the last eight months, and that's no good either; I haven't been able to explore the harmony of the accompaniment when learning an aria, and it really wouldn't be a bad thing to do some piano work myself, as Bruce has said, it will help my music reading. Duncan did a little bit of beginning piano work with me last year in our other house, and he keeps bugging me for more; there are spots still open for music classes at the music academy nearby, and I'm going to call tomorrow and get him enrolled, and Malcolm too if he wants.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to getting back to my own routine. Being home with Duncan for the past week has been a chance to be close with him, but I've needed some time away for my own mental health, and have taken a couple of opportunities to do so: on Thursday evening I went to see a movie by myself while Maggie stayed home and caught up on some homework, and then yesterday I went swimming in the late morning and got in 2 km, or 80 lengths in just under an hour. I think exercise is critical for stress relief, but equally important is having some time to oneself, to regain one's mental equilibrium.

I might do a little more exercise today, and take a walk to the Sunday market. It's not sunny but it is around 10 degrees out, so that's reason enough to get outside and pick up something nice for dinner. There are great deals on flowers there also, like 50 tulips for 10 euros, that sort of thing.

Last night Maggie and I went to the cinema again, this time with our friends Bryan and Kiana and Constant, to see Madama Butterfly broadcast live from the Metropolitan in New York. It was stunning both visually and musically... for me it is very difficult to maintain my composure through any Puccini opera, and Butterfly is particularly affecting. The way that it unfolds dramatically is unbelievably powerful, and somehow Puccini's music connects directly to my emotional centre... I'm a wreck afterwards, in a good way. Patricia Racette who sang the Butterfly was particularly powerful, and I awoke this morning with the themes still circling in my head... such incredible music.

Happy Sunday!