Journeyman

Lots of travelling these days... I made it back home on Saturday, but on the way from Central Station to our house, managed to squeeze in a coaching with Peter Tomek on the Bach Christmas Oratorio at his studio near La Monnaie.  Then it was over to Adagio music, which is having a liquidation sale, so I took the opportunity to stock up on some scores for projects already on the horizon, and also get some flute music for Malcolm for next year.

Then we had a nice dinner together that evening before Maggie and Duncan had their rehearsal for the Christmas pageant.  That took place the next morning, and Duncan acquitted himself well as the evil King Herod.  Malcolm was excused because of exams, but he did come to the evening carol service to sing with the senior choir, and do a reading, Isaiah Chapter 9, beginning at verse 2:

² The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.

³ You have multiplied the nation
And increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian.
⁵ For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

⁶ For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Pretty vivid imagery!  I always love it when the reading is something that I have sung, or heard sung.  Malcolm of course knew verse 2, from hearing me sing it in the Messiah many times, but he also had a listen to verse 6, as set for the choir, from the famous Elmer Iseler singers  / Andrew Davis recording.

He read well, I think; I had to go on the impressions of other worshippers, as unfortunately I didn't hear it; I roared up to Antwerp for the first rehearsal of the Christmas Oratorio.  It's going to be great to finally sing the last two parts, and I have a very nice soprano partner, Astrid Stockman, for our challenging duet, "Herr, dein Mitleid".  I have listened to quite a few versions of this duet.  Here's an unusual one, from 1981, with Christian Schnellert, boy soprano, Robert Holl, bass, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Concentus Musicus Wien.

It is getting me very much in the Christmas feeling.  Today I go to Den Haag to rehearse with an opera repetiteur, and then will continue to Amsterdam, with our next show tomorrow evening.  I have to make two more trips down to Antwerp/Brussels over the next week for the generale rehearsal and the concert for the Bach, and then Maggie and the boys will be finished school and can come with me.  A nice Christmas present for me, and for us!

Third performance coming up

It's been a little while since my last post... but as you can see above, the flowers from opening night are still keeping fresh.  We've had the generale and two performances since my last post, and Bruce was here for a vacation, so I was otherwise occupied showing him around the town.  But now he's back in Toronto, and as Kris is in Brussels for an audition, I am on my own, and thought that I would write a bit before gearing up for performance number three tonight. 

 

The generale went fine; there were little acting stories to be polished and logistical manouevres to be rearranged, but everything was in good shape, and we had a great opening night last Saturday.  There was a party afterwards and I received a great many interested looks from the mostly Dutch partygoers as I attended in Scottish dress.  The female technicians were the most curious, and demanded to know if the rumours of "regimental" kilt-wearing were true; I replied that while I appreciated their interest, I needed to keep a few secrets to myself...

We celebrated a bit the next day, starting out with a voice lesson... during Bruce's time in Amsterdam we took advantage of my employee privileges to reserve a studio frequently, and so we had a total of five voice lessons, covering the Bach Christmas Oratorio, the St. John Passion arias, two arias of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, Belcore's aria from L'elisir d'amore, Valentin's aria from Faust and the Count's aria from Nozze several times, and Fritz's aria from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt.  Whew!  Considering that I haven't had a lesson since last spring it was great, and he is happy with how my voice is sounding.  I am very grateful for the help and support that he has given me, and also honestly glad to sing a lot of music that is more extensive and interesting than the very small part I sing in this Prokofiev opera!  The good news is that the conductor and casting director here agree, and I will be auditioning for them sometime over the next week or so.

As you can see by the smoky photo, we finished off that day with a visit to the Hajenius cigar store, and a nice Partagas and a glass of port in their cigar bar.

We also managed to visit four museums during his stay, thanks to the Amsterdam Museumcard.  It's around fifty euros but is good for one year, and gives access to maybe 35 museums.  It's great because one never has to get fatigued by spending more than a couple of hours in each museum, as you might feel obligated to should you pay for each visit; it's easy to come back another day.  I hadn't visited any museums before on this trip, as our rehearsal schedule was very restrictive, and no one else in the cast seemed interested in seeing the collections... But we made up for it, and saw the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum; the latter had massive security including scanners and even facial recognition software, which I think is new since Maggie, the boys and I visited four years ago.  We also saw the Museum Willet-Holthuysen, which is under a continual process of restoration to make it appear as it did during the late victorian period, when an art collector couple lived there, and the Rembrandthuis, which was Rembrandt's house and studio / gallery for many years.  It is mostly filled with paintings of his contemporaries, but there is a huge exhibit of his engravings, and a studio upstairs where one can participate in an engraving/printmaking workshop in the apprentice's studio... you can bet I will be taking the boys there!

As well we saw two concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw; the first was a recital in the small hall, which is one of the most beautiful acoustics in the world.  This was given by my friend Peter Gijsbertsen, the tenor who sang Don Ottavio in our Don Giovanni recently, and it followed a similar concert he gave in London's Wigmore Hall recently.  I was particularly excited as it included Schumann's opus 39 song cycle, which I mean to do with Dina Namer in Canada, and Peter Tomek in Brussels or Vienna sometime soon.  The recital was lovely; I congratulated Peter on his great performance, and hope we can do something else in the future, as I really enjoying singing with this new tenor friend and colleague.

The second concert was a performance of the Messiah of Handel, given by the Amsterdam Baroque Ensemble, in the large hall.  Really gorgeous acoustic; we were seated in consul seats on the stage, behind the orchestra and choir and so could see the face of the conductor throughout, and had a good sense of how it felt to sing in the hall.  I think the last Messiah I attended as an audience member was maybe in 1997; it was certainly before I had ever sung it, and it was great to experience this beautiful piece purely as a listener.

We also did some brocante shopping, and I found a few little presents for Christmas, but also something for myself.  The Baron is a Bavarian, so I was happy to have a little memento of the character in this inexpensive Tyroler jacket, which to me looks as if it was never worn.  Lucky!

Speaking of questions about the Baron, Malcolm was curious about how they made me look older, and so I explained that they apply a bald wig first; this makes me look a bit like Doctor Evil from the Austin Powers movies.  Then they apply a grey hair wig that they have constructed based on a cast of my own head, and then hand-tied hairs of differing tones to really simulate an older me.  I am quite happy with the result, and with the new Hugo Boss "smoking" that they gave me to wear in act IV, as you can see in the photo below, with my elegant fellow Canadian, bass-baritone Alain Coulombe, in burgundy velvet, and the very nice (and very tall) French bass-baritone Guillaume Antoine.  We are ready for the casino again tonight...  Les jeux sont faits!

Piano dress tonight

It has been a busy time here in Amsterdam; I realize that I haven't blogged in almost three weeks.  The time has really been taken up with a lot of rehearsing but also with planning and preparation for other projects.

I had a few days off the weekend before last, and so had a chance to head home for a visit, and catch up with the family.  It is a bit disorienting for everyone, with me being away during the week and sometimes over the weekends, but I realize that that was a reality for my father and his siblings; my grandfather was a structural iron-worker and was involved in building many bridges, hydroelectric dams, and other large civil engineering projects, and so he was away for most of the time.

Still we had some nice meals together, and I made it to church to hear the boys sing.  As well I had a coaching with Peter while I was back, to try to work more on my opera repertoire.  Now that the show is getting ready to open, I will have more time to organize auditions and want to be in good shape.

Speaking of shows opening, I am not the only one with a show; Duncan's Evita opens tonight.  Maggie has had to shuttle him back and forth to the many rehearsals; unlike all of his other activities (school, karate, ballet, theatre) which are accessible on foot or by bus from our front door, we have now had a taste of the role so many parents seem locked into: family chauffeur.  I know that Maggie will be very happy when the production is finished and Duncan can go back to getting himself where he needs to go on foot or by public transit.  About Evita, I saw a few photographs; the production looks very nice, and Duncan will I hope comport himself well.  I'm sorry that I probably won't see the production but that's just how it goes.  Toi toi, Duncan!  Have fun!

Here in Amsterdam I have been enjoying the use of my bicycle; it cuts the commuting time from around 40 minutes to about 20, plus I am getting to see lots of the city, and starting to get my bearings.  One has to budget a little extra time, because there are a number of lift bridges, including this one pictured over the Amstel river, and when barges have to pass through everyone has to wait.

We also saw a little bit of the countryside earlier in the week when we had the first orchestral rehearsal; it was held in Den Haag, a 45 minute bus ride to the west, and everyone was excited to hear this excellent orchestra... for some composers the melodies are so distinctive that you immediately know who wrote the piece; for others, it is the orchestral colours that immediately tell you the composer, and Prokofiev belongs to this second group.  It really sounds amazing.  Of course as a child I had a "Peter and the Wolf" vinyl record, and then later played trombone in the school band, and had a go at "Kije's Wedding" from Prokofiev's film music for Lieutenant Kije, which I loved, so it is really very satisfying to be playing on the stage with these kinds of wonderful colours - mostly from the wind instruments - flowing up from the orchestra pit.

We have already had several rehearsals on the stage, and one with orchestra.  Tonight we will have our piano dress rehearsal with wigs and makeup and our final costumes, so that will be exciting.  Then we have three more rehearsals before we open on the 7th of December.

I also had a nice time last weekend taking the train and bus out to Haarlem, where Maurice and Ana McGinley live with their children.  We met them this past summer in Croatia, and hit it off rather well.  We were happy to resume our conversations and have already made some Christmas plans: Maggie and the boys are planning to come to have Christmas here in Amsterdam, so will be up here for almost a week; the McGinley's have invited us to come for dinner on Christmas Day, and to stay over in their house while they are off in Paris for a couple of days after Christmas.  That will really be an interesting little holiday for us, I think, and I'm looking forward to exploring Amsterdam with the family.

 

In other news I have been planning a lot of travel back and forth to Belgium; I have been asked to sing a Christmas Oratorio in Antwerp for the 22nd of December, so I have agreed to make my way to Antwerp twice in mid-December to rehearse.  I have performed four out of the six parts of this piece before; parts 4 and 5 with Stephanie Martin and parts 1 and 6 with Howard Dyck, both in Toronto.  This time we will do parts 1, 2, 3, and 6, so I will finally get to sing the remaining parts, which is very satisfying, but I do have to learn them!

As well, the Chapelle des Minimes has asked me to sing Bach Cantatas 16 and 65 in January.  BWV 16 has some interesting bits.  The bass sings a recit that ends with the words "O, should not therefore a new song be taken up, and that we sing in fervent love?"; this is followed immediately by the next movement "Let us celebrate, let us rejoice" which is a quite unusual da capo aria for bass and choir.  It will be great to try this unusual structure out!  BWV 65 is an epiphany cantata, and so has lots of orientalism in its texture, to point out that the Kings were from the East.  It has a lot in common textually with the last part of the Christmas Oratorio, and the finale chorale melody also appears in the Matthew Passion.  It's very cool to discover these textual and musical connections, and I'm very happy for my continued relationship with the Chapelle des Minimes; this will be the sixth concert I perform with them, for a total of perhaps ten cantatas.  It's an early Christmas present!

Okay, off to the theatre for wigs and makeup; pictures to follow.

Home for the weekend

 

Last night we had another performance of Don Giovanni in Hasselt, Limburg.  Here are some photos of our production.  Here I am dressed as the Commendatore, and seem to be casting a spell on the Don, played by Werner Van Mechelen; in fact we are about to have a duel, or perhaps I am reacting to his having just stabbed me...

 

In the scene below, Giovanni has commanded Masetto to leave, and has taken away Masetto's new bride, Zerlina (Liesbeth Devos), who he says will accompany him, safe "in the hands of a cavalier".

Here Masetto consoles himself with some heavy drinking, obviously upset at Zerlina's complicity in her seduction by Giovanni.

And here is the confrontation of Giovanni by Donna Elvira (Britt Truyts) while I prepare to temporarily resume the costume of the Commendatore...

These photographs were nicely provided last night by the production team, and were taken I believe during the first performance in deSingel Antwerp.  We have one more performance tomorrow night, and so as I am not called for rehearsal today will stay home with the family in Brussels.

I have had an interesting time the last couple of weeks.  I wrote earlier about our Messiah, but neglected to mention that one of the musicians in the orchestra at that concert said that I greatly resembled Willem Alexander, the King of the Netherlands.  I didn't think that only a couple of weeks' time spent living in Amsterdam would have rubbed off so quickly, but it's not every day that you are told that you resemble a monarch, so I took the compliment. 

Interestingly when I was a very small child, my grandmother Helen kept her hair in a style that to my mind at the time resembled the coiffure of Elizabeth II, so whenever I saw the heads side of a coin, or the Canadian one-dollar bill, I thought it was a picture of my grandmother.  She had that kind of regal stature for me as a toddler.  She also handled her Dodge Dart like a racing driver, which impressed me even more.

I finally caved in and bought a bike at the Waterlooplein flea market, which runs every day at the square behind the Musiektheatre.

Batavus is a good Dutch make, and with three gears and two handbrakes, lights and a wheel lock, I am sure that I will have no trouble reselling this bike at the end of December.  Marie-José at the opera has even suggested that if no buyers are found in the company then I should put up an annonce on the bulletin board and she assures me it will sell.  If not, the vendor agreed to buy it back at half the purchase cost.

Bicycles are king in Holland; here is a photo of the parking garage at the relatively small railway station at Den Haag HS.  It is really sad that downtown Toronto doesn't make cycling more of a priority; if they could only see how well it works in Holland...  maybe we can convince Rob Ford to come try the pharmaceuticals in Amsterdam, so that he could be convinced?

Wisselvallig

Wisselvallig is the Dutch word for wildly variable weather, and that certainly describes what has been happening in Amsterdam today.  This morning there was no rehearsal scheduled, so I slept in, but was awakened by the noise of hailstorms in the back garden, pictured above.

We've spent so much time in rehearsal the last week that my memory is somewhat disjointed, but I do remember that the week began as it ended, with extreme weather.

After last weekend's two days off for our Leuven Don Giovanni performance, my mind was quite disconnected from this production.  This was complicated by the fact that I was called at the last minute to replace a colleague in Messiah, which necessitated some car travel from Brussels to Antwerp and some last-minute rehearsals.  I was thankful - not for the first, nor probably for the last time - for Bruce's exhaustive coaching on this work, which I sang for the first time back in 1998, and after fifteen performances I know that I could sing the Messiah tonight on 30 seconds' notice if I had to.  All went well, and after two nights at home, I rushed back to Amsterdam Sunday evening, only to have to wait: early monday morning the city was struck with wind storms with gusts up to 140 kph, and this toppled trees, pulled down the tram lines, delayed a number of flights for cast members, and in at least one case caused the death of a Dutch couple when their houseboat was crushed by a falling tree.  As the tram lines were down there were no trams and so we had to walk to the theatre, which took the better part of an hour.  Even so we spent a lot of time waiting as there were successive delays of our rehearsal, in the hopes that all cast members would arrive.  Here is Kris pictured above during the walk to the theatre, trying to stay dry.

The people of Amsterdam did their best to adjust but they were really taken aback by the ferocity of the wind, and seemed quite shell-shocked.  It was strong enough to knock over planters and locked bicycles, and many people stayed indoors, so the city had a sort of post-apocalyptic feel to it, like something from a movie.

 
But fortunately, by the end of the day things were back more or less to normal, and by Tuesday morning we were in full swing with the staging rehearsals, held from the first day in working costumes while the final costumes are being made.  I'm quite happy with the Act 1 costume of Baron Wurmerhelm, as he gets to wear nice lederhosen... let's just say that I'm doing my best to channel Christopher Plummer and humming Edelweisse under my breath.  We were able to finish Act 1 yesterday morning, so we finally staged the bit where the Baron has his solo, and so I gave a little sigh of relief now that that is over with.  Small parts where one has only a few lines to sing are far more stressful than big ones, where one has much more time to make a good impression vocally.  But to be honest, Andrea has been easy to work with, and I find myself anticipating what she wants without her having to say it.  As well, Marc Albrecht our conductor has said that he is interested in hearing me sing a real audition, so I must get my voice in shape for the baritone repertoire after these Don Giovanni performances are over and done with.  I have lots of inspiration all around me; our Don Giovanni, Werner Van Mechelen, is singing Alberich in Götterdämmerung, which opens in a few days here in our theatre.  The set is really fantastic, and the Brünnhilde is Catherine Foster of England, who was a midwife until perhaps fifteen years ago, when she made her career change and started singing opera.  Quite an inspiring story, don't you think?!

 

As always some cast members are easier to get to know than others, but it's a challenge to remember everyone's name as there are more than 30 characters in The Gambler... It helps that the staff in de Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam are really like a family, with a very comfortable attitude, despite the high number of productions that they undertake each year.  Midweek we had the yearly staff "drink", which helped a little at breaking the ice for our cast.  This little party included many returning extras and chorus members; the evening ended with the presentation of "The Golden Eyelash / De Gulden Wimper", an award presented to the best "extra" of the season.  It is named for a long-serving extra, also named Wimper, pictured below, second from right... also pictured is John Daszak far left (our tenor lead "Alexei") and Kris Belligh who plays the "unlucky gambler" far right.  John is a powerful singer, very sociable, and as a transplanted Englishman (he lives with his wife and children in Stockholm) he is very happy to share a pint, and there have been a couple of opportunities to do so thus far.

Today was a quiet day; I managed to get my laundry done and hung up to dry.  I also had a little walkabout to find some dinner ingredients.  For my birthday meal this evening it was roast chicken, elevated in the roasting pan over an improvised "rack" made of carrots, garlic and onions; also I made potato wedges in olive oil, and brussels sprouts simmered in cream, which is a Timothy Vernon recipe that I got from Bruce, that is really super easy and very delicious.

Dinner was interrupted by the rattle of more hailstorms.  I haven't bought a bike yet, choosing instead to rely upon the trams, and if this weather continues I don't know that I'll bother to buy one.  Can you believe it, two hailstorms in one day?  Bizarre.

Now that we are into the normal rhythm this week should go smoothly.  I do need to arrange things with the production team so that I can sing my last two performances of Don Giovanni, in Hasselt and in Heist-op-dem-Berg; the opera administration here has already agreed to giving me the NA (not available) for each day, but a lot depends on how staging goes, and the most convenient high speed train leaves at 13h18, while our rehearsals normally end at 13h30.  Ideally I will be able to get away a little early, and also won't have to come back in between the performances, and so can have some family time in the interval.  Fingers crossed.

About the Don Giovanni, it seems to have been a success...  The Flemish arts channel did a more involved video segment on our production, that can be viewed here.  I'm not quite sure why I get so much screen time, but it's flattering!

Hump Night for Don Giovanni

 
No it's not what it sounds like.  I mean that we now are more than half way through the run of five performances, so as of the intermission last night we were "over the hump".  Yesterday was a bit of a nail-biter for a few reasons.  First, while I had received a "Not Available" from the DNO to go to Leuven for my transfer rehearsal in the afternoon, I was still called in the morning, until 1:30.  As it happened the rehearsal in the morning was cancelled, but by the time I had discovered this and tried to book a train ticket all of the high speed trains to Leuven were sold out, and I mean, all of them.  Normally you can buy a ticket without a seat and sit in the bar, or in the little foldout seats between the carriages, but even these were at capacity.  So I bought a slow train ticket and reconciled myself to arriving late.

Fortunately I thought to call Lisette, our Donna Anna; she lives in Den Haag and we quickly changed plans; I was able to take a short trip to her and then we drove together directly to Leuven.  Whew!

The show went quite well, actually.  The other aspect that was "nail-biting" was the question of vocal readiness... we had taken two weeks off without singing through the show together, and many of us had been battling illness.  Lisette, Britt and I were all much improved but much of the cast still has a nagging cough.  The Schouwburg (playhouse) in Leuven - built sometime in the 1910s or 1920s - is quite beautiful to look at, with four balconies and boxes in the usual style, and while there isn't much sound coming back to the stage the sound in the house is quite good, I think, provided one is not too far upstage.  We adjusted the staging somewhat to help cheat downstage and sing directly into the house at all times, and having the orchestra in a pit instead of sitting on stage right was more comfortable, plus it meant that it was easy to have peripheral vision contact with the conductor at all times.

There were some videos taken for COBRA television, I think of the Brussels performance, but perhaps of Antwerp, that show some of the performances, plus a little bit of yours truly, in my guises as the Commendatore and as Masetto.

But about Amsterdam, I really haven't had much time to see anything.  Getting my bearings has been challenging enough, learning the tram lines, meeting the cast, etc.  Fortunately it is a 800m walk to the tram stop, then a straight shot of ten stops to the theatre, so that can usually be done in under half an hour.

There is a swimming pool perhaps 300 metres from the apartment, and a 12-visit card is about 50 euros.  Not super cheap but the convenience is really appreciated.

The city is lit up at night and has a perpetual festive feeling, with many open markets, and lots of people out at all hours, although our apartment faces the Rembrandtpark and is very, very quiet.

The opera house itself is a new one, built in 1986 and seating 1600; like the slightly larger Four Seasons Centre in Toronto, it has a glass facade allowing people inside to stay connected with the exterior.  For the first time in my working experience, the ballet is also housed within, and they are preparing productions at the same time.  It's quite cool to be walking back from the canteen with a cup of coffee and hear music coming from the studio, and to catch a glimpse of the dancers going through their paces, or to eat your lunch sitting next to a bunch of ballerinas with their stiff ruffled skirts over the back of a chair, or the young men with their leg up on the lunch tables stretching out a cramp.

We have had some musical rehearsals already, but on Wednesday we had the entire cast look at the presentation of the maquette of the scene design, and then spent the rest of the day reading through the translation of the opera from a printed copy, in Russian, English, French and German.   This was done in a big room with about 50 people in attendance, with over thirty of those people cast members.  The strange thing is that most of the cast has one or two lines to sing, so it was a lot of sitting and waiting.  Kris, Guillaume and I are of course familiar with this approach as it is the same as we experienced with La Traviata last year, but there were some worried faces on those who I am sure wondered if the next six weeks will be spent sitting listening to others read their lines.  They can relax, we only have to do this once!

I had a look at the designer's concept for the costume of Baron Wurmerhelm; it would appear that I will be dressed in Bavarian Lederhosen for the show, which delights me to no end.  As well, in this production the libretto clearly plays with the idea of people entering the stage continually whenever their name is mentioned, and Andrea wishes to extend this to the other people in the cast.  Wurmerhelm and the Baroness his wife are mentioned frequently, as they disapprove of Alexei (the main character) and of his employer (the General) and the general's girlfriend (Blanche) because of Blanche's past antics.  Serafina (who will play the Baroness) and I expect to be seen in the periphery of the stage many times throughout the opera, and also in the Casino scene.

As it takes place in a casino, there was an Amsterdam casino visit organized for yesterday, and today the players in the casino scene will be watching excerpts from Scorsese's 1995 film Casino.  This is presumeably to help them understand the kind of feeling that is needed in this important ensemble scene, which is really the climax of the opera.

What else?  I managed with some consultation with Maggie to confirm the ingredients of my Grandmother Helen's Apricot Chicken Curry, and so managed to make do in a strange kitchen with some less than usual ingredients.  Still it all worked out, and Kris was very appreciative.  We'll see what he makes when it's his turn to cook.

Meanwhile I have a couple of days at home before returning to Amsterdam on Sunday, so luckily I will get to sleep in my own bed tonight before Maggie's parents arrive for a ten-day visit, to coincide with the Toussaint school vacation for Maggie and the boys.  I wasn't sure that I would see Hugh and Sheila right away, so that is a lucky alignment of schedules.

Today it's laundry and assembling some articles that the apartment lacks, that I don't wish to purchase but can borrow from home.  Have a Happy Weekend!

If a high speed train leaves Brussels...

Lots of time spent figuring out which what things to take, but no major problems. After all, the weight issue is an annoyance primarily while walking to and from the transit stations, and not a financial concern as it can be when flying.

The Thalys train takes approximately two hours to travel to Amsterdam, so I should arrive a bit before 11h. From there I will head over to our apartment and drop things off, and then head to the opera house to get measured up for costumes, fill in some forms at the payroll department and then have a musical rehearsal.

Tomorrow should be fairly quiet, as I don't seem to be called for the casino scene, which is the most complex moment of the opera musically. It will be a settling-in day I am sure, with grocery shopping, getting my bearings, etc. The next thing on my mental agenda is figuring out the best way to get to Leuven for Don Giovanni on Thursday; a train will be ideal but the schedule may not accomodate me; we shall have to wait and see.

There were emotional goodbyes for everyone at home; I hope everything goes well while I am gone...

Happy Thanksgiving

There are many things to be thankful for for all of us today... not least of which is our personal safety and health, and that of our friends and family.  We had a wonderful weekend with at least two  celebratory meals, and as Maggie's birthday often coincides with the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend the celebrations are usually linked.  On Saturday we had a wonderful dinner with Oliver and Isabelle Boucher, and their youngest son Thomas, sharing four favourite Thai dishes from our Young Thailand cookbook.  Clement (pictured below at Maggie's left) and Malcolm were at a youth group movie night but showed up in time for the cake, which was a lovely four-layer 70% cocoa orange-flavoured chocolate one, with butter/marscarpone cream icing, and a cocoa-dusted marzipan top.  Deadly.  Next time I make it I shall try to remember to cut smaller pieces, as I think I gave everyone atherosclerosis...

Then yesterday afternoon it was oven-roasted turkey, potatoes mashed with some small rutabagas from our garden allotment, beets from the garden allotment, and brussels sprouts.  I didn't make a pumpkin pie as the leftover cake is still plentiful, but we hope to take care of the last of it tonight, when the boys will also give Maggie their presents.

Speaking of the boys, they are both doing fine, busy with their school work and other activities.  I am happy to have some time off after the Don Giovanni performance at the BOZAR, and am still trying to kick this stubborn cold, which is improving but has not yet disappeared.

Today Duncan is home because of a conference pedagogique, and tomorrow I have to take him in for a medical check-up, so we are making the most of our unanticipated weekly time together.  I leave this coming Sunday for Amsterdam, so it will be a long stretch where we won't see each other very much outside of FaceTime or Skype.

Looking over my score of Prokofiev's The Gambler, I realize that my sung part is really tiny, but I am sure that I will have no shortage of things to do on the stage, if La Traviata with the same staging director is any indication.  Meanwhile I am looking forward to the time in a new city, getting to know the bicycle paths and nice groceries, etc., to know my new colleagues and to get to know the staff at Hetmusiektheatre Amsterdam.  As well the search for a Dutch agent, as well as questing for Dutch concert auditions will continue, and I already have talked with the Reisopera director about auditioning for him while I'm there.  I hope to audition as well for the visiting conductor; interestingly he is from the Opera in Graz, where our friends Renate and Dietmar live, and most probably they know each other.

Peter (the Don Ottavio from our Giovanni) and his girlfriend live in Amsterdam, Lisette (Donna Anna) and her family live in Den Haag, and our Canadian / Australian family friends that we met in Croatia are in Haarlem, so it would seem that I should have no problems finding people to visit should I get a little lonely.  As well, as soon as we get established I should have a much better idea of the schedule and so hope to get home to Brussels frequently... otherwise I suppose I shall have to console myself with frequent visits to the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum...

In other thankful news we also heard that Maggie's parents will be coming for a visit of at least ten days, over the time of the school break.  That is a fantastic surprise; it's great to hear that they are feeling up to a transatlantic voyage, as it has been since last autumn that we all saw them.  I likely won't be able to spend too much time with them but at least Maggie will also benefit from some time with them and so will the boys; I hope to catch up and visit with them later in the spring, when I am in Canada on my own.  Certainly I have at least one concert in Ottawa confirmed, and if they are staying in Ottawa for the winter as planned, we will have some social time together.  About those spring concerts, the dates have more or less been confirmed:

2 March 2014 @16h George Frideric Handel: DETTINGEN TE DEUM, Joseph Haydn: MASS IN THE TIME OF WAR

Toronto Classical Singers, Christ Church Deer Park, Toronto, conductor Jurgen Petrenko

2 April 2014 @20h "A Night in Vienna" with soprano Allison Cecilia Arends

Toronto Concert Orchestra, conductor Kerry Stratton, Markham Theatre

30 April 2014 @17h30 “Mid-Atlantic: a voyage of Canadian and European song”

with Dina Namer, piano

Canadian Music Centre, Toronto

3 May 2014 @20h "A Night in Vienna" with soprano Allison Cecilia Arends

Toronto Concert Orchestra, conductor Kerry Stratton, Barrie

8 May 2014 @19h “Mid-Atlantic: a voyage of Canadian and European song”
with Dina Namer, piano, Temple Israel, Ottawa

In between I plan at least one trip out west to audition, as well as some other auditioning in Eastern Canada, and perhaps other performances.  We shall have to wait and see...

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Brussels tonight

The Brussels performance is tonight, and everyone is excited to kick it up a notch, after two very appreciated days off.  The salle of the BOZAR is larger than deSingel but acoustically excellent, if I remember correctly from Carmina Burana, so we should have no problems.

 

I don't have access to all the pictures yet. except for the few that have been used in the reviews and publicity.  You see Werner Van Mechelen (Belgium) above far left as Don Giovanni, with Norman Patzke (Germany) as Leporello his servant; Peter Gijsbertsen (Netherlands) is on the far right, as Don Ottavio, and yours truly (Canada) stands behind him as Masetto; Peter and I collectively impersonate the Commendatore to frighten Giovanni and help bring about his comeuppance.  Below we have the "execution" scene (what in the original production was the Don's abduction to Hell by demons, but in this case it is the women he has toyed with who enact their revenge), with Liesbeth Devos (Belgium) centre as Zerlina, Britt Truyts (Belgium) left as Donna Elvira, and Lisette Bolle (Netherlands) as Donna Anna.

I am unfortunately still sick with a terrible cold, but to set my mind at rest, had an examination withmy physician yesterday; there is no infection in my lungs, but congestion being breathed down from the sinus and nose while I sleep.  I have a good complement of medicines so should be able to sing without any trouble tonight, touch wood.  Maggie and the kids are coming as well; it's always nice for them to see what Dad has been up to.

I can't read the reviews as they are in Flemish, and some are not accessible without a subscription, but that's not a bad thing; it's better to save them until after the show is over.  In any case, the important thing is that the conductor and staging director are happy with what we have delivered, and they are, so no worries!

Big Success

It was a great success last night, after a frantic twelve days.  We have been so involved in the preparations that we have no idea if something will work or not, and so to present something for the first time in a new hall is very much an act of faith...  As the last notes of the finale rang out the sold-out deSingel crowd of 940 leapt to their feet and applauded uproariously... something that I have never seen before in an Antwerp audience.  It's true that European audiences seem to applaud with special vigour and for long periods, but standing ovations of ten minutes are a rarity here.

At the reception afterwards I was happy to break out my kilt to show solidarity with Bart, our conductor, and Korneel, our staging director, the two "Ministers" of the production, as Korneel envisioned.  Here we are above, with Liesbeth, who played Zerlina, to the right of the photo.  Why kilts?  I will post some photographs if they become available, but to may mind the clothing designs were mythologically inspired, with some greek elements (Donna Elvira's dress for example) and other celtic touches, like the kilts worn by some of the male chorus and the two ministers pictured above.  As well there was a strong animalistic element; Don Giovanni has two long bull's horns, which he uses as swords, drinking vessels, telescopes, etc. and the Commendatore has a helmet with ram's horns and another horn on his right hand; the duel scene involves a literal locking of horns before the Commendatore is killed.  Horns are of course a symbol of infidelity, and of sexual potency.

There are many operatic stereotypes being referenced; a spear and horned helmet (à la Wagner), a woman dressed as Helen of Troy, the use of the bull/toreador image are some obvious examples.  Also the transparent presentation of the technical aspects of the production reminds me of other shows "about a show", like Ariadne auf Naxos or Pagliacci, or the very funny comedy play Noises Off.  One might think that being on stage for the whole opera would be tiring, and it is, but an interesting side-effect is that one has time to get completely comfortable there, under the uninterrupted gaze of the audience.

It was a very trying performance; a number of the cast were singing sick, Britt Truyts (our Elvira), and myself among them, so now we have a couple of days off to rest and recover before the BOZAR performance on Wednesday.  I hope to be in better health by then, and look forward to the boys and Maggie seeing the production as well...