Willibi-Walibi-Woo

Saturday was a particularly busy day.  We were up early to feed Duncan a good breakfast, and then he and I walked together to his Karate test.  The entire examination was about 90 minutes, and the sensei took particular notice of each and every one of the students.  In the formal examination he spoke to the assembled students and their families about a number of individual students, and included Duncan, whom he praised for taking care of the younger students, and making them feel welcomed and encouraged.  That is something that Duncan has done since he was a very small child, so I wasn't surprised to hear it from his teacher, but was glad that those are character traits and behaviors that the sensei values as well.  Duncan was successful at his examination and moves up to his first belt.  Based on the kind of structure and positive culture of respect that this dojo fosters we will be very happy if he continues to study Karate.

Then it was a dash home for a quick sandwich and then Duncan and two of his friends and I hopped in the car and took off for Walibi, the local amusement park.  It is built much the same as Canada's Wonderland, and has similar rides.  There are a number of roller-coasters, a white-water rafting ride, a fleuve, and so on.  The boys made an immediate bee-line for the Loup-Garou (Wher-wolf), a large wooden roller coaster, and then proceeded to try almost every ride they could, with his buddies only opting out of a couple really terrifying ones.  Duncan was brave and tried every one to which he was given admittance, even the scary ones, and I stuck by him, and miraculously escaped serious harm...

Physical harm anyway.  One ride which was borderline for psychological damage was the "Dalton Terror", a free-fall tower 77 metres tall.  After being seated in groups of four, one is slowly winched upwards to the top; there is a pause of a few seconds, and then the carriage is released, beginning a four-second free-fall that reaches speeds of 110 kilometres per hour, before magnetic brakes slow the descent and ease the carriage back to the ground.  I found the drop to be extremely unpleasant, and must say that if that is what free-fall feels like, it must take incredible courage to jump out of an airplane a second time.

Being very early in the season the park was only at about 15% capacity, so we never waited in line for more than a few minutes; usually on the roller coasters there were perhaps two people in front of us each time.  There were more gentle rides as well, interspersed between the more frightening ones, such as a guided boat trip, with lots of wild geese and ducks, and one had to walk a reasonable distance between each ride, so one had time to regain one's equilibrium.  The chain swing carousel got a second ride, as did the Loup Garou, and we even got in some bumper cars, my personal favorite.  Near the end of the day we got some cotton candy, and then finished off with a ride on the very large ferris wheel, which was just right.  Here are some photos:

Sunday was a nice day, and Duncan was given the flowers from the communion table after the service, which he appreciated very much.  Then we headed over to the Gardners' home for an afternoon lunch of heroic proportions, with beautiful sunshine in the garden for a glass of rosé champagne, followed by lots of excellent conversation, delicious food and good company.

Birthday presents have arrived on time today, and cakes have been baked and iced, so I am sure that Duncan will have a wonderful day.  Malcolm is being patient as the older brother; he knows that his own birthday is coming very shortly…

Duncan hasn't decided yet what he wants for his dinner, but as tomorrow is the Fete du Travail and they have no school, perhaps we will eat out, and go see the new Iron Man Movie?  Any film starring A-list actors such as Sir Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce and Robert Downey Junior that ALSO involves flying suits of armour and major explosions can't be bad…

In musical news - yes, this is actually supposed to be a music blog - I am continuing to prepare for Carmina Burana.  The first rehearsal is coming up this weekend so I have to rehearse it daily as part of my "endurance training".  I also have been asked to sing some Mozart arias for an opera festival committee; they are doing some planning for 2015 and would appreciate hearing me later on in June. In other news I was very happy to bump into La Monnaie's dirigent Peter de Caluwe yesterday; he has recently been the recipient of a great many awards and honours, so it was nice to congratulate him in person.  I look forward to the next project with La Monnaie, in a season or two, but in the meantime I count myself very, very lucky to have lots of contracts with other companies to keep me busy, and many other companies to audition for.

Speaking of that, back to Carmina...

p.s. Here is an interesting article from the Guardian Music Blog about pianist James Rhodes.  I can relate to the author's sentiments; although unlike him I have been very lucky to have not needed a psychopathic teacher in Verona (as I have a very sane, nice one in Toronto), and even more lucky not to have had my own decision to pursue art cost me my marriage, necessitate time in a mental hospital, etc.  I also do not recommend this career as a weight-loss regimen!  But as someone who returned to a career in art after a number of years in a large corporation I found his story very moving, and inspiring.  Perhaps you will find it so, also?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/apr/26/james-rhodes-blog-find-what-you-love

Birthday

 
At last Spring has arrived, although the weather continues to be stubbornly variable; today the temperature has been stuck in the single digits.  At least the tulip trees are out in force; there are also lots of tulips and daffodils, which are brightening up the gardens quite a bit.

Last Sunday we enjoyed a lovely service, but I must admit that with all due respect to our minister, it was a little hard to concentrate on the sermon because of the delicious odours wafting up the stairs from the kitchen.  It was the annual Afro/Filipino luncheon, and we all raced downstairs to have our plates piled high with delicious dishes that the Filipina and African members of our congregation had prepared.  I think that Malcolm filled his hollow leg, at least temporarily!  He is still in the midst of a growth spurt and so eats continuously.  In other Malcolm news, he played one of his upcoming flute exam pieces - "To a Wild Rose" - for his school music assignment, and it apparently went rather well.  I'm glad that he's taking the opportunity to perform; it will really make his flute exam result much better, and he seems to enjoy learning and presenting new pieces.

Yesterday was sunny and warm, and the thermometer on the car read 27 degrees as I drove around to do some errands.  Needless to say the top was down and the radio was cranked… it was Benny Goodman's "Small Groups" CD most of the time, although I did give a little listen to a group called Apocalyptica, which a friend lent me:  four 'cellos playing the music of Metallica.

One or two of the pieces were interesting but the rest of the album sounded very repetitive and uninteresting, and it served to remind me of how boring a lot of today's popular music is (if Metallica can be considered "popular" music), at least harmonically-speaking.  Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of new music - Duncan makes sure that we listen to new things all the time;  PSY, Sexion D'Assaut, Flo.rida, Macklemore, etc.  - and it is heard frequently on our radio (well, okay, on Spotify), but taken out of its usual performance context and arranged for classical instruments, I feel that most rock and pop music ends up showing its simpleness, and not in a good way.  I really don't regret having chosen the artistic path that I'm on, not one little bit; I find classical music infinitely rich, complex and unfathomable, with infinite possibilities for exploration and refinement...

One of my errands while toodling around in the car was to do some grocery shopping, and I was happy to find a) Irish beef on half price at the Carrefour that we could put on the charcoal rotisserie and b) the new special edition of Duvel "Tripel Hop".  This year they chose a Japanese hop for their 2013 edition, and it is super yummy; kind of citrus-like with some delicate perfume... delicious.  Maggie got really excited when she saw this box; this is one beer that we both really enjoy sharing together.  Limited-time-only; last year I bought a few to put down in the cellar but of course they didn't last very long...

 

It was still warm out when I got home, so Duncan and I washed the car.  I have engineered a nice little system with Gardena connectors, so we are able to connect a 25 metre garden hose to the kitchen faucet, and run it though the living room, out the Juliet balcony doors and drop the spray gun down to the broad sidewalk below the house.  Duncan and I had a nice time washing and rinsing the car with water that had the chill slightly broken by adding a little warm water to the mix in the kitchen.  Unfortunately one has to be very diligent to shammy off all of the water after rinsing; here in Brussels the water is so hard that one has to descale the espresso maker and kettle every couple of weeks, and if you leave tap water to sit and dry on the car it develops a white powdery film.  Michel is planning some renovations and we are expecting a water softener in the next little while; that will make everything that uses water much happier and healthier, I am sure.  Duncan had a good time doing something cool with Dad, especially when it involved spraying things with a water gun.

Speaking of Duncan, his birthday is coming up early next week, and so we are celebrating it this weekend.  He has his Karate examination in the morning on Saturday (and so will miss drama and dance) but then at noon his buddies will arrive and we will pile into the car for a trip to Walibi, the "Canada's Wonderland" equivalent of Brussels.  Duncan has never been to an amusement park before, except the Aqualibi water park, so he is really looking forward to it with great anticipation.

I am the lucky winner whose semi-circular canals will get a renovation, as Maggie and Malcolm are staying home.  Yikes.  It's been quite a while since I rode a roller-coaster, so wish me luck, and a good supply of Gravol...

This afternoon is my last chance for a couple of days to really look at Carmina Burana; that performance is coming up on the 17th of May, and I have been singing it back into the voice.  It is a very demanding piece, so at Bruce's suggestion I have been singing sections of it today, then taking ten minute breaks in between to write this blog, and it's going rather well.  This is really the only way to practice it, as there are intervening pieces where the choir and other soloists sing in between; doing all the baritone solos at once would kill me!  On that note, the timer has gone off, back to the piano for the last baritone solo before the boys get home...

Bon weekend a tous!








p.s. The poster for the Brussels Choral Society concert has also arrived; here it is:

Back to School

It has been a busy time since my last post.  My parents were here for a week-long visit; the children and Maggie were off for two weeks, and so I have had little or no time to myself except late at night.  As usually happens during these busy times I have no opportunity to really plan, to gather my thoughts, to rehearse, so this morning everyone left for their respective schools, and I breathed a large sigh of relief... after I walked Duncan to his school and returned via the grocery, it was nice to make a second cup of coffee and relax for a bit, and make some lists for the next couple of weeks.  I have over a month until the next performance of Carmina Burana, but it needs to be sung back into my body, and there are some new pieces that I need to learn now for next season.  As well there are a host of other family activities coming that will require my energy and participation between now and then, so it's important to do some recharging of the batteries whenever one can.  I read a very interesting article on the Huffington Post this past week called After the Show: The Many Faces of the Performer that explains in some detail what cognitive scientist Scott Barry Kaufman has to say about the sometimes mystifying behaviour of creative people, including their need for what Robertson Davies called "creative lassitude"...

Given that the last two weeks have been a holiday time for most people, and that I had spent so much of the preceeding couple of months in rehearsal, we've made the most of the time off to socialize with others.  The first week of holidays included an afternoon luncheon with Graham Coop and his wife Geraldine and their two boys, Charles and Leopold.  Graham is a lawyer specializing in energy policy, and Geraldine teaches at the Lycée Francaise, but they are also both talented musicians, having met in the 'cello section, and both continue to play with the Brussels Philharmonic.  We also had a little time with the Gardners; Andrew and I had lunch earlier in the week, then a cigar on the terrace, and we are discussing a little joint venture into bee-keeping, of all things; the city of Brussels in encouraging urban bee-keeping to help counter the alarming crash of honeybee populations, and for a reasonable investment a single hive can produce as much as 100 kg of honey per year.  Beehives are not at all an uncommon sight in rural Canada and there are products such as the Beehaus which make urban beekeeping quite simple... more discussions are needed, but perhaps we will be setting a beehive up soon...

My parents arrived on the 6th, and I showed them around some of their old haunts here in Brussels, including their favorite friterie near the Bourse, the Dandoy cookie shop, Grand'Place, their old neighbourhood and so on.  Then on the 8th they took the boys on a tour to Trier, Koblenz, areas of the Moselle and the northward branch of the Rhine river, visiting a number of castles including Burg Eltz and Rheinfels Castle, as well as a visit to a local church and some demonstrations of the church organ there; my parents have taken this trip a couple of times before and so had everything well planned.

 

They were gone for two nights, and so Maggie and I decided to take a short trip south to the Champagne district, and put the top down for a little drive southward.  We made the trip in three hours, and stayed overnight in a beautiful little boutique hotel called the Hostellerie La Briqueterie a few kilometers east of Epernay.

This hotel and restaurant is located in an old brick factory, and as it is situated some ways outside of the town it has some lovely views of the surrounding countryside.  The rooms were lovely and we enjoyed the swimming pool/steam baths/sauna and jacuzzi very much, before heading down to the Michelin-starred restaurant for our dinner.  The prix fixe menu was fantastic, with too many delicious flavours to mention in detail, but I think the lemon grass and ginger carrot soup with lobster that was the amuse bouche was my personal favorite.

 

The chef Michael Nizzero was, interestingly enough, born in Etterbeek, and has pursued a career that has taken him to some of the finest restaurants in the world, such as the Waterside Inn and restaurant One-O-One, in London, Pisces in Dubai, and number of Belgian restaurants including the Sea Grill.  We had a chance to talk with him afterwards, and found him very pleasant, and happy to discuss some of his techniques.  The rest of the staff was great and the service exemplary.

The next morning we visited the small champagne producer Vollereaux, perhaps a kilometer from the hotel; had a self-guided look around the cellars, met the family dog, saw their bottling operation and tasted a few of their champagnes.  These were delicious enough that we drove off with a good selection of bottles to share with friends and family over the next little while.  Interestingly we met another couple (Scottish-Belgian) who had made the trip down from Brussels for the same reason, and also a woman from Antwerp; both parties stayed in the hotel, and visited this champagne producer at the advice of the concierge.  The Belgians really are enthusiastic about their food and drink!

Upon our return we had a second night alone in our house before welcoming my parents back from their trip with the boys.  They had a lovely time and took lots of pictures... Then it was only a matter of another two days before I took my parents to Gare du Midi for them to catch the early train to London, and wished them safe travels for the next stage of their journey to Guernsey, Scotland and Ireland over the next month or so.

We had a chance to try out some of that champagne Friday evening, when Penni and Damien invited us to their home for a delicious dinner.  Our mutual friends Isabelle and Oliver also attended, and we had a fabulous meal and conversation together.  I was happy to try out my new sporran and kilt belt, and so wore a casual kilt ensemble to the dinner (although less casual than in the photo below).

 

For those men who have never worn kilts before, I warn you that if you are like me, you will likely spend the first half hour or so at a party absent-mindedly trying to put the hand that isn't holding a glass into a pocket that stubbornly refuses to be there.  I suppose that is actually a good thing; it's considered bad etiquette to stand conversing with someone with your hands in your pockets, so perhaps kilt-wearing will improve my comportment?  In any case we all shared a delicious meal of Waterzooi, a traditional Belgian dish, and we left late, feeling very satisfied with the food and the company.

Saturday afternoon I went to the general rehearsal of Pelléas et Mélisande at La Monnaie, and it was great.  It was the revival of a Pierre Audi production from some years ago, and the set was very interesting: a huge abstract red object (an ear?... trumpet?... uterus?) that rotated and rather magically became at times a tower, a castle, a cave... Mélisande started out with a bald head (!) and the colour of her gown changed every so often, which could have been confusing, but the dreamlike, hallucinatory qualities of the music fitted in rather well with these visual elements, and the overall visual experience was very special.  The orchestra is always great at La Monnaie; I loved it, and hope to see the other cast during the run.

As this rehearsal was in the afternoon, I was home for dinner, and we made it an early night, and were all ready ahead of time for the Sunday service at St. Andrew's.  The afternoon was a really glorious 23 degrees, so we put the top down and after a brief stop for a sandwich went on a little jaunt down to Wavre to see Bryan and Kiana, their children and the menagerie of cats, dog and chickens for a glass of bubbly and a little visit at their home in the countryside.  Spring has been delayed everywhere this year it seems; it isn't at all unusual to have cool temperatures into April in Canada, but in Brussels we've enjoyed much earlier appearances of spring in previous years, and the Belgians were beginning to become quite desperate, so when the sun appeared and the temperature soared yesterday, people everywhere became a little bit giddy.  T-shirts and shorts were seen everywhere, and open cars proliferated. 

We had a lovely drive down there and back, and a very nice visit with their family.  Bryan and Kiana are just back from holiday in Chamonix; they got in some skiing and Bryan had a chance to try out some high-altitude cross-country running.  While Bryan is the Director of Information Technology for Europe, Africa and the Middle East for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, he has discovered ultra-marathon running over the past couple of years and seems quite talented at it, and will run the Mont-Blanc ultramarathon (166 km) this coming August.  It's amazing to see someone so passionate about something, and to pursue it so enthusiastically, despite having discovered it a little later in life than most.  I can completely relate... Go, Bryan!

Today has seen mixture of sun and rain, but the thermometer tells me that it is 17 degress.  If it stays dry then I think we'll be charcoal-barbequeing ribs on the back terrace tonight.  I am sorry to hear of the bad weather in Canada, and wish everyone a speedy arrival of springtime!

Post-Passion, and pre-Carmina

I just received a couple of nice photos from the St. Matthew Passions.  You can see by the scarf and leather coat below that it was cold in the church for the generale, although I think cold is an understatement; that my breath is not actually visible in this picture is in itself a miracle.  Fortunately they closed doors and ran the heaters for the second performance.  I also dressed far more warmly for it, so I managed without too much trouble, although there were audience members with quilts and blankets and knitted hats, trying to keep warm...

I received an offer for more work with the choir and orchestra in the future, but rather sadly had to refuse, on account of other commitments.  So far I have recently had to say no to Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the bass solos in Die Jahreszeiten (the Seasons) of Haydn, and the Johannespassion, on account of other contracts.  A nice position to be in, actually.

 

At present I am busy planning a concert of French-Canadian music mixed with European music, and hope to present this in Belgium, Canada and perhaps other places.  As well my mind is occupied with the Carmina Burana that is approaching in mid-May...