La Belle Meunière à Bruxelles!

Yesterday I had an early appointment with the Echevin de la Culture of the commune of Ixelles to discuss a proposed Die Schöne Müllerin performance that Peter and I are planning for the the Chapelle de Boondael.  This old country chapel lies on the border between Ixelles and Watermael-Boitsfort, perhaps a five-minute walk from our house; it is in a pleasant setting among several large trees, is of an intimate size and has a good quality piano, so it is a great location for a recital.

I must say I was very impressed with the process; the Echevin (or deputy Mayor) and I had a brief chat about my singing career and the project; he gave his approval and sent me across the street to the administrative offices to fix a date with the administrative staff.  I joined the meeting of the culture team that was already in progress, and we quickly picked the date of May 12th, 2012.  The commune will publicize the event in their arts publications and cover our professional fees for the concert, so we are quite pleased.

I must say that for all of my complaining about Belgian administrivia I was very much impressed with how quickly the whole thing was handled.  Now it would seem I can add a European capital to my list of performances of Müllerin!  There may be another one for the list soon, as Peter has a lead on a series in Vienna...

Yesterday evening we sang through part of Gerolstein.  Offenbach is really quite tricky; when you listen to it performed, it all seems logical and simple, but deeper exploration - when learning the pieces - reveals that he seldom writes a phrase   the same way twice, but rather likes to permute the line in unexpected and humourous ways. This madcap playfulness is very charming, but makes the music tricky to memorize, especially when he deliberately sets the syllables counter to how they are emphasized in the spoken language.  I remember having the same problem learning the Carmen quintet, where Bizet frequently sets a weak syllable on a strong beat, and vice-versa.  Interestingly the libretto for Gerolstein is also by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy; I wonder if that's a kind of signature of their work, or maybe it's not so uncommon in French opera and operetta?