"Happy Birthday, Universe..."

 

... that's what you would say if you were a follower of Irish Bishop James Ussher, who in the 17th century did the math - well, the sacred arithmetic - and announced that he had determined from careful analysis of the Bible that God created the universe on October 23, 4004 BC, in the night preceeding that first dawn, and not, as British author Douglas Adams would have you believe, just before afternoon tea... unless of course, the dawn in question was GMT, and the observer was drinking that tea in Tokyo Japan... According to Ussher's calculations, as of this morning, the earth's only got about 6005 years on the clock thus far...

There's lots of creation with a small "c" going on around here.  This weekend we had the Fauré Requiem, and Malcolm sang in the alto section while I did the baritone solos; that was very cool.  Then on Sunday morning the children did readings as part of the harvest service, and there was lots of good music for both Junior and Senior choirs.  As well I haven't been called to every rehearsal so have had a couple of days off, and have been preparing for the Liege audition and arranging others, and taking a closer look at the parts I have to learn from La Traviata.  My audition repertoire is changing a bit as I continue to develop as a singer, so there's more work to get even familiar pieces ready.  I'm excited about the newest piece in my set, the aria to Venus, the evening star that Wagner gives the bard Wolfram in Tannhäuser, "O! du mein holder Abendstern..."

Hugh and Sheila left this morning on an itinerary that we devised together, and will take them through Namur, Dinant, and Luxembourg; then Trier, Cochem, and Koblenz, and finally to Köln and then to Brussels; it should keep them on the road until Friday.