End of the year

We all made it through!  Everyone is finished today!  Malcolm passed his examinations, and had some special successes in the two subjects to which he was devoting most of his attention; this adds to his good results in his music theory and flute performance courses, and he passes into the 3rd secondary grade (the equivalent of Ontario grade 9).  Duncan had an good audition and so was accepted into the Brussels Light Opera Company children's chorus for their autumn performance of Evita, and he received his bulletins yesterday, with some excellent results, so he passes into grade five.  Maggie had her last day of school yesterday, and is now looking forward to some down time, with lots of relaxation and time for her hobbies.  I just sang a little lunch programme of Mozart Arias with David Miller, for a group planning a potential opera project for 2015, so that was fun.

But it was more fun because it officially marks the end of my singing season, so now all I have on the books is to learn Masetto / Commendatore for Don Giovanni in October, and to think about filling in the rest of my schedule for the next 18 months or so... I hope to get in some coaching with Peter in early July before we each head off on holiday.  I also see a cigar or two in my near future, although the weather has been disappointing; while Toronto has had a heat wave, we've been hovering between 13 and 19 degrees for the last couple of weeks, and it's been rainy.

This afternoon the boys have their general rehearsal for the Junior Choir concert, which will take place tomorrow night.  They have lots of singing to do and Malcolm will be playing two different flute pieces as part of the programme.  Then our holidays really begin... Happy Canada Day for July 1st, and bonnes vacances...

Duruflé and Bach... planting the garden... future projects

It has been a busy little while.  Lots going on, not least of which was a bad flu which knocked me out exactly two weeks ago.  I finally got tired of waiting to get better and sketched out the garden plan for Malcolm, who headed over to our allotment, raked it smooth and sowed everything.  It was good timing as we've had a lot of cool weather with lots of rain so the seeds have already sprouted, and we will soon have roquette lettuce and radishes, with beets, rutabaga, cucumber, and potatoes to follow.  The strawberries that I found in place while clearing the weeds have many large berries but I doubt that they will be ripe before we leave on vacation.

While the flu lasted a few days, and turned into a cold that is still hanging on, the worst of it has passed, I think, and I was able to sing both concerts this past weekend without any major problems.  Head colds are not really a big deal for singers, although they can cause a lot of coughing or sneezing, which can injure the ribs or the vocal folds, but a flu knocks your energy down so much that you just can't get the body working to support the airflow properly.  Fortunately I was ok, and both concerts were judged a success by the conductors, the choirs and musicians, and one hopes, the audiences!  This coming friday I have one more little bit of singing to do, for a lunchtime opera festival, and then that is it until the end of September.

Interestingly I had some positive follow up contacts from both concerts; one of the violinists from the Bach concert yesterday morning was very complimentary, and we got talking enthusiastically about Bach.  As it turns out he is Dutch, is well established in Amsterdam and was mentioning that he appreciated my sound, and that if I liked Bach I should consider singing in Holland.  I told him that my plan this fall will be auditioning there during my stint with the DNO, so he asked for my contact information and has passed it on to his musical "family" in Holland.  I hope that something comes of it, and that we get to collaborate in the Netherlands again, perhaps on the Passions, or something else.  I also hope that I get to sing this cantata number 88 again: it has some great music for the baritone in particular, with a big aria in the first part in 6/8 time about fishing, that turns into a 4/4 allegro section about hunting.  The second part  has a nice arioso solo with the 'cello and organ on the text of Jesus, telling his disciples that he will soon make them "fishers of men".  It was good practice for the Hunting Cantata this coming September in Antwerp with Paul Van Loey, a reprise of our performance of the same programme from 2011.

Later that afternoon, after the boys' choral rehearsal for their concert that is coming up on Sunday, we went to visit friends of ours in Nivelles, and while touring the Collegekerk there, ran into the organizer of the Brussels Philharmonic - with whom I did the Duruflé - where he was scouting out locations for future concerts.  We stood admiring the church building, and I mentioned how much I liked it.  He mentioned how much he had liked the performance of Duruflé and asked for my telephone number for future projects.  So we shall see how that goes.  To speak of the Duruflé, the choir and orchestra managed a very ambitious programme.  The sound in the church took some getting used to for everyone as it is a huge space, but we all managed to find the right balance, I think, and the concert was nearly capacity, which is great news for the organization.

In other Netherlands news, I managed to get in touch with Nicolas Mansfield of the Reisopera, and on the strength of my upcoming DNO project was able to get a quick response.  We will be having an audition this autumn there, as soon as we can arrange it, and I would be very happy to follow my baritone colleagues John Malloy and Kris Belligh who have performed with that touring company.  Meanwhile I have a few leads on Amsterdam apartments, and have been lucky enough to find a couple that just might be affordable; it will soon by time to decide as they will rent quickly enough after the summer months have passed.

Malcolm has been home all week past since his exams are finished, and he gets his results on Wednesday morning.  We are of course hoping for good marks, after all of the work that he did in revisions.  Duncan also had a week of examinations, and tells us that his results were ok, although we have to wait another day or two until his actual report card comes home.  Maggie's last day of teaching is fast approaching as well, and I know she is looking forward to the summer.

In other gig news, I have just been talking with Jurgen Petrenko of the Toronto Classical Singers, and it looks like we will have some additional performances next spring in Canada: the Haydn Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War) and the Handel Dettinger Te Deum, in Toronto.  Both are quite exciting with rousing choral and orchestral music, as well as a number of good solo parts, including some very nice baritone solos.  Working with Jurgen again will be a lot of fun; we haven't collaborated since the Elgar Coronation Ode and the Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony some years ago.  This will mean that my springtime visit to Canada will have at least four performances (the Jurgen concert, two Vienna concerts with Kerry Stratton, and Dina and my Canadian Music Centre recital) which will certainly console me for for missing the Passion season here in Belgium.  As well I am hoping to make a visit to the western Canadian opera companies to try and audition there, and there are some other projects in the works for that period, so I surely won't lack for things to do.

The boys are also busy with their own musical endeavours.  Malcolm received a good result on his flute jury, and excellent results in music theory.  He has a rehearsal this afternoon of the Haydn flute trio from part 3 of the Creation, which I had arranged for three flutes and piano; they hope to have it ready to perform this Sunday evening at the Junior Choir concert at St. Andrew's.  Then this evening Duncan has a choral audition, so it should be a busy day.  I am also occupied with many things; I have to sing through my Mozart arias for Friday; then tomorrow we have doctor's appointments, Malcolm's report card pickup, a rehearsal for me with my pianist, then a meeting with the accountant...

Performances of music and dance, Bruce trip to Scotland and England

 

I've certainly had way too much going on in the last two weeks to have any time at all to sit down and write.  It's been a fortnight "crowded with incident" as they say.

To begin with, I had three performances of the Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem to deliver.  Peter Tomek has remarked that as a baritone singer, there are a number of pieces in the concert repertoire that are done all the time, and that I should be able to sing these for many years to come.  The list include the Bach Passions, Messiah, the Fauré Requiem, Elijah, the Haydn Creation, and so on.  These three performances were my 8th, 9th and 10th of the Brahms, and it is always good to revisit something that you have touched upon at various times in your career.  I think my first performance was probably sung in English, with the Melos choir in Kingston in the late 1990s, and I was very proud to make my Kingston Symphony debut in the same piece back in 2009.

Bart's choir is fantastic and the four hands piano version, while lacking some of the harmonic support and colour of the orchestral setting, on the plus side allowed for a more nuanced singing texture.  These performances were special for me in another way, because the last time I sang in the AMUZ concert hall was in fact waaaay back in November of 2007; in fact, that performance in Handel's Dixit Dominus was the result of my very first Belgian audition, and turned out to be my European singing debut, with this same conductor and ensemble.  The difference is that this time Bruce was there to hear me sing, which was wonderful.  Things have certainly changed a lot in five years!

What is also interesting is that Bart will conduct five performances of Don Giovanni this coming autumn, in another debut for me, as Masetto / Commendatore, with at least one performance in the beautiful BOZAR.  Looking forward to that!

With the Brahms performances over, it was time to pack up Schnelli and head out to Amsterdam, to view the sights including the Concertgebouw (pictured below) and the newly renovated and reopened Rijksmuseum.  It is absolutely gorgeous, and very large; we had about three hours there and barely scratched the surface, concentrating on the flemish primitives.  If one is going to visit, my advice is to buy a multi-day pass, go on one day for a few hours, then take a long break and do something else, then go back the next day for another session.  Otherwise one gets overwhelmed, and simply can't take in the details any longer.

We had a brief lunch on the museumplein and then roared off to the DFDS ferry terminal in IJmuiden, which in the later afternoon is a route that can get congested, so it was a bit of a nail-biter to get there before the check-in closed.  We made it in time, and were lucky to have beautiful weather for the voyage.  Unlike the crossing that Maggie and the boys and I made on January 1st of this year, the sea was flat and calm, and so it was a very peaceful and contemplative trip, and the gravol wasn't really needed.  While it was the half-term school break for the English, and there were lots and lots of Geordies making their way home to Newcastle after a wild weekend in Amsterdam, fortunately there were few noisy people on deck 6, and so things were very quiet.  We even had time for a cigar and a Heineken on the stern deck, watching the port of Amsterdam recede into the distance, and contemplating the many off-shore wind turbines as they spun...

Upon our arrival in England the next morning, we headed north, stopping first in Alnwick to check out Barter Books, one of the UK's largest second-hand bookstores, and made a few good finds.  Around the corner from the bookstore is the Duke of Northumberland's home, Alnwick Castle, about which I have written before.  It is large and very beautiful, and has been used very famously as a location for the Harry Potter films.

After the castle we retired to the Black Swan pub for lunch and a pint, and discovered that the town residents are very friendly.  A couple from Australia was meeting a local couple at a nearby table, and after I offered to take their photograph together.  The Australians left on their journey, and the local couple didn't wait for an invitation but brought their pints over to our table and sat down!  John and Fiona were very nice; she is actually not from the Northumberland area, but rather from the outer Hebrides of Scotland, so was interested to hear that we were heading next to Scotland.

We had some miles to go after lunch was over, and crossed in the later afternoon.  Bruce was thrilled to finally make it to Scotland, after thinking about it for so long...

We enjoyed the familiar fantastic hospitality of Rob and Viki, and their family, and had some great walks around the village.

The next day we stopped off in Leith for Bruce to purchase a new kilt jacket and waistcoat, and then drove into Edinburgh proper, walking the Royal Mile, seeing the Castle, and even spitting on the Heart of Midlothian outside St. Giles Cathedral for luck.

Speaking of St. Giles, it was nice to tour it again.  I had forgotten the loveliness of the Thistle Chapel, where the British Royal Family worships when they are in Edinburgh.

The next day we bid our hosts a fond goodbye, and didn't mind the wet weather as most of the day was spent on the motorway, heading down to the Cotswolds, near Swindon where Bruce's Grandfather was born.  We found the house that was built on the site of the family farm:

... and in the midst of a slow drenching rain found the headstone for his Great-Grandparents and Grand-Aunt.

Our last day in the UK involved a trip east in the direction of the Channel Tunnel, with a slight detour for lunch and a cathedral visit in Canterbury.  It's quite something, so large that it seems to have its own weather!  Here is the view from the nave...

... and here is Bruce quietly singing from the Quire...

... and here is the view from the Presbytery facing the altar.

The graves of King Henry IV (Prince Hal) and his second wife Joanna of Navarre were quite interesting, especially to fans of the Shakespeare histories.  There was also the grave of the Black Prince Edward (Son of Edward III), and a memorial to the assassination of Thomas Becket. 

I particularly enjoyed the paintings in St. Gabriel's Chapel down in the crypt.  These paintings are among the oldest religious wall paintings in England, and have survived only because the chapel was walled up in the 12th century, and stayed closed until 1879.

Then it was off to the Channel Tunnel train, and very soon we were in Calais, and on our way home to Brussels.  The autoroute passes quite close to Ypres, but as it was evening the museum there was closed, and we were too late for the Last Post ceremony, so we opted instead to make a quick stop at the Essex Farm cemetery nearby, where John McRae wrote "In Flanders Fields".  Bruce has read this poem often in Remembrance Day ceremonies in Canada and was very touched by the monument, and the rows of graves of commonwealth soldiers.

But then we were home, and after a bit of unpacking, and a good night's sleep, we attended Duncan's Dance recital, held at the theatre of the International School of Brussels.  He was very serious about it, and performed very ably; we all applauded very enthusiastically and were suitably proud.

Sunday was a quiet day for Bruce, as he stayed home to begin packing for his return flight, but the rest of us made it to church, and then returned home for a charcoal bbq of rotisserie lamb in the late afternoon, followed up with a walk down to place Keym for some artisanal ice cream.  It was almost as good as Bob's Big Scoop in Leslieville..

 

I spoke with Bruce this morning; his flight was uneventful and he's back home, with lots of souvenirs and many happy memories.  Until next visit!

As for me, I have a little bit of time to myself.  Maggie is doing physiotherapy each weekday for two hours, and as the boys are still in school I will be able to work on my upcoming projects.  The Duruflé Requiem is next, followed by the Bach BWV 88 at Minimes.  As well I will be singing some Mozart arias with David Miller for an operatic society that is planning some projects for 2014/2015, so that will require a fresh examination of those pieces.  Finally I have to meet with the Don Giovanni staging director Korneel Hamers this month before he leaves for Berlin for the summer, to chat about the October performances.  Masetto's aria is no problem but he has quite a few interjections and ensemble singing to get locked down, and I must have that learned this month, so that I can let it simmer over the summer.

One last thing, I was very happy to find a vintage shawl-collar dinner jacket at Armstrong's in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh.  I expect to have a chance to wear this soon to a formal dinner... interestingly enough it almost exactly matches the boys' Rose Hunting tartan tie... lucky!