Last post of January

I only have a day or two to get in my last blog post for January, and so I thought I'd take the opportunity this evening while the house is quiet.  It will be a relatively early night for me, as I have to coach my Handel and Haydn pieces tomorrow quite early in the morning.

A lot has been going on since the 22nd of January, not least notable of which was the Burns Supper, held this year on the 25th of January, Robert Burns' actual birthday.  John Macdonald was the toastmaster, and Jim Fulton gave the "Immortal Memory" speech, with a little help from yours truly.  I was quite happy to quietly sing a few phrases from three different Burns songs, interjected into his text.

But it was also a nice warm-up to my own speech; I was asked to give the Toast to the Lassies this year.  After my humourous take on "Hail Caledonia" last year I felt that I had to be more sedate, but I needn't have worried about disappointing the audience as Maggie was asked to give the Reply to the Laddies, and she didn't disappoint.  Her labours in the kitchen only served to whet the knife of her wit, and trust me, the attendees didn't leave disappointed.  Perhaps it was peeling all of those potatoes and turnips that bolstered her courage; I don't think that I would have had the cojones to tell a joke about Highlands witchcraft viagra, but Maggie did.  Good on her, she quite showed me up.  Here is my speech, and here is hers, in case you'd like to have a listen.

The afternoon preceeding the Burns supper may have involved peeling potatoes for Maggie but for me it meant rehearsing at the Minimes.  We prepared two cantatas, BWV 16, and BWV 65, and together this program involved I think a recit and aria for each of the male voices, but only a single recit for contralto, and no soprano parts at all.  A fellow Canadian, David Menzies was performing the tenor solos, and it was really a Canuck invasion!

I love to sing in the Minimes, partly because after four or five concerts I have become friendly and relaxed with the orchestra, the choir and the different conductors who share the musical direction of this long-term project.  This was the first time to perform with Jacques Vanherenthals, who is a well-respected conductor in Belgium, and after our first rehearsal together he offered me the bass solos in the Haydn Creation, to be performed in Brussels twice this October.  Much of my concert work has been elsewhere, either in Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, or in Canada, so I am very happy to sing something that I know well, in my home town.

Speaking of "home towns" that sense of home can be flexible, and as you know I was resident in Amsterdam for almost three months last year.  This week I went back for an overnight, to see the famous American baritone Thomas Hampson, in a programme of works arranged for baritone and string orchestra.  Some of them were premieres of the arrangement, and while I had a fairly cheap seat, there were a number of more favourably positioned ones, so I took advantage of them to hear the concert from several different positions within the hall.
 

The Concertgebouw is famous, and very striking in its design.  For the Messiah concert that Bruce and I saw together, we sat stage right, behind the stage; you can see our seats on the far left hand side of this photo above.  This time I sat on the floor of the concert hall, and had a much more typical experience of the concert.

It was quite lovely, and as I am exploring new arrangements myself, for use with that string quartet that I wrote about earlier, quite inspiring, both for repertoire and also for performance practice.  I hung about afterwards, and had a chance to meet Mr. Hampson himself, and as he is a bit of a devotée of Mahler, and as I will present this work at least twice this spring, I also got his autograph on my score of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, or the songs of a wayfarer.

It's really an important thing to go and hear famous singers live; you get a different sense of how they are on the stage, and get to make some important decisions about where you wish to emulate them and where you have a different aesthetic in mind.

That's it for now.  I have been reading about the heavy snowfalls in Canada, and am planning my trip back there, which begins in less than three weeks.  I doubt that I will see any of these daffodils for a long time after my arrival, but I am hoping for some snowdrops...

Say "Cheese!"... (and Haggis)...

setup is important (dead plumb "by eye", I thank you)

the first "pull" of molten cheese

even a child can do it

Maggie brought home a half-wheel of raclette cheese from her trip to Switzerland this week, and we took it and our new racelette machine out to Bryan and Kiana's on Saturday afternoon.  It was a beautiful cold day in the country south of Brussels, and after a cigar together and a pint or two of Chimay Bleu around the outdoor fireplace, we headed inside for bubbly cheese scraped onto boiled potatoes, with various charcuterie and pickles on the side, lots of white wine and some kirsch afterwards.  There were ten very hungry people, and to our amazement the entire half wheel of cheese was consumed!  It was stupendously delicious, especially so on a cold winter day, and there was much groaning with pleasure heard, followed by a few more of discomfort emitted by over-enthusiastic turophiles who regretted their last "pull" from the wheel.  After a brief repose we ended the hours-long meal with some impromptu guitar lessons and the launching of sky lanterns into the clear night sky.  With all the kirsch and oily cheese, by the next morning I was sure that if I had taken a liver function test I would have got a C-minus!

This weekend we are gearing up for another big social dinner; the Burns Supper at St. Andrew's on Saturday night, January 25th.  I have been asked to speak again this year, this time to do the "Toast to the Lassies", and interestingly Maggie is doing "The Lassies' Reply", as well as helping in the kitchen in the preparation of the haggis, bashed neeps and tatties, etc.  It will be very nice to take part in the festivities again this year and even better to do so while Maggie does the same.  We are looking forward to many entertaining speeches as well as poems, pipes and music sung to Burns texts.  One of the other speakers has asked me to sing the first phrase or two from some well-known Burns songs to help him out a bit during his speech on Burns' "Immortal Memory', so I have been paging through my songbooks a bit and doodling about on the piano to try to learn some of them for Saturday.  If you haven't bought your own haggis yet, there's still time, and I know you know where to get a dram of single malt.  Here's a little something else to help get you in the mood, sung by the rather famous Scottish tenor Kenneth McKellar, the lovely "Afton Water".

I have to be disciplined though, and not have too much single malt with the haggis that evening, nor should I speak too long or too loudly as I have a rehearsal at 9:00 the next day for the two Bach Cantatas that we present at the Minimes a bit later that same morning.  These are lovely, but quite challenging so I would prefer to have a clear head when I sing them.  The performance will be conducted by Jacques Vanherenthals, a rather famous conductor in Brussels; after our preliminary rehearsal on Monday night he seemed sufficiently happy with my work to offer me two performances of the Haydn Die Schöpfung in the grand hall of the Conservatory here in Brussels in October.  This will round out the autumn concert season rather nicely, with these concerts plus four Carmina Buranas in October, November and December, and I will be happy to have another crack or two at the Haydn again, this time in Brussels, after doing it a couple of years ago in Kingston and Antwerp.

As well I just accepted a little-known mass by Hanssens to be presented in June with a choir and orchestra in Antwerp.   I really can't complain, as I am lucky enough to have at least one concert to occupy me almost every month of the 2014, with the exception of July, August and I think September.  As our boys will be in Canada visiting with their grandparents from late June until the second half of August, and neither Maggie nor I have any work planned, it would seem that we will have a nice summer to ourselves.  What shall we do?  Perhaps a trip north to Finland to sample a little bit of the feeling of evergreen forests, still freshwater lakes and quiet cabins?  Or maybe, finally, a trip to Paris together?  Or a cycling tour of Holland, or a trip to the western islands of northern Scotland?  It's hard to decide, and we'll keep you posted.

But before that we need to go through a ton of work to get our house in Toronto squared away.  I won't bore you with the details but trust me, it's going to be a long while before everything is settled.  I'm already calling around to all the services to get a final amount, and schedule their disconnection.  The hold music is driving me crazy...

Many changes in the new year

It has been such a very busy few months, and indeed 2013 was such a whirlwind of a year artistically that I am really enjoying a little bit of breathing room to relax, get to know Maggie and the children again, and reacquaint myself with the rhythms of life here in our Brussels neighbourhood.  It's a little bit crazy keeping things organized as an itinerant singer, so I welcome a chance to plan the year ahead.

 

I had such a long blog post last time, making an summary of our Christmas activities, that I departed from my usual writing structure and posted the photos all at once, then quickly brainstormed the topics.  I liked this new structure and so am using it again this time.  Parenthetically Malcolm had to write (and memorize!) a four minute speech on his favourite season of the year (surprise: it's Canadian winter) for his English class at school, and we used the brainstorming of key words method to create an outline, so perhaps that is also why I am tempted to use the same method today.

 

Le roi boit! (Duncan finds the fève in the Galette des Rois)

 Alpine pathway

Swiss glacier

seared scallops

warm day in january

pacific northwest at the cinquantenaire

A big head

 moules frites chez Rosado

Raclette machine to warp factor seven!

 

melting a handprint in a glacier

beef fat in blocks

Switzerland

Maggie has been off in Switzerland all week.  I don't think that she was skiing much, given that she had knee surgery earlier this year, but I know she was enjoying herself and getting lots done on her marking, lesson planning and I hope her embroidery project.  I am jealous that she has had a third visit to the alps in winter, while I have never visited them to ski, and we haven't had any snow here at all; it's been very mild.  Last week it got up into the teens, and I took advantage of that warmth to put the roof down on our car for a little drive.

The lack of a proper winter seems like a small price to pay I know, for all of you who live in Eastern Canada and have been suffering under extreme cold, but the fact is that even with the rare warm day for top-down motoring in January, dark and damp winters here are a bit unsatisfying to me.  I happen to enjoy the more dramatic seasons that we enjoy in Canada, and find the Belgian weather to be a bit too levelled out for my taste.  It is strange though that the aloe vera plants on the window sill that I had no room for inside are still doing fine, as we haven't had a hard frost yet.  I am sure though that I will get my share of cold weather in one month; I fly to Canada one month from today.
 

Maggie has sent a few photos home, so I can see what she is up to; here are some photos from a tour inside a glacier!  Very cool, in both senses of the word.

cheesiness
 

One of the items that Maggie has been instructed to buy while in Switzerland is a half-wheel of raclette cheese, and that is because we bit the bullet this year and actually purchased something that we have had on the list since before we moved to Belgium almost seven years ago: a big wheel-o-cheese raclette machine.  Phil and Sue Kaegi had us over for raclette one night in Toronto in maybe 2005 or so, and I think we set a new record for the number of fantastic white wines we worked our way through over the course of the evening.  (There are benefits to dining on raclette when your host is a) swiss foodie and b) a wine importer, and neither Maggie nor I have forgotten what a great night that was).  The little raclette machines made by Tefal and others, with the heating element underneath a grill and little trays that you can put slices of cheese into work just fine, and we have one in Canada; we have improvised a raclette set with a small le creuset iron pan and fondue stand for several years, but this weekend we are going to get serious, and break in the big machine…  Interestingly this model also lets you order the heating element and cable separately so it will work with 110 volts as well as the european 220, in case we want to bring it with us to Toronto if and when we decide to come back.

house sale

To the topic of coming back to Canada.  we had some news yesterday that have to do with our plans to return, or our lack thereof… I've already written about our decision to list our house.  We contacted Kimball Sarin, a family friend and a realtor for Bosley, put our Toronto house on the market a week or so ago, and received a few offers; we accepted one last weekend, and tuesday their inspection was conducted without incident.  The rest is for the lawyers to deal with, but failing any major complication, come March 18th, it looks like we will no longer be Toronto taxpayers.  It is a great relief, given some of the headaches that we have dealt with over the last couple of years, to have our financial resources in something that cannot be burgled, flooded or burned up.  We have no plans to buy a house in Europe at this point, but it is nice to have that option should we decide to do so.  A lot of people have expressed both congratulations at the successful sale and regrets that we have "left", but this decision was more out of financial necessity than a desire to cut ties with Toronto.  Indeed we share these mixed feelings ourselves but are happy with the decision.  For me, the July we spent in Toronto in 2012 on a house exchange was a great example of how it is still our Canadian home town, despite the fact that we haven't lived in the house on Endean Avenue for almost seven years, and I am looking forward to staying in Bruce's house during my next working trip to Canada.

 

Many of the items that furnish our house are portable and will go into storage, but much of the large furniture like the boys' bunk beds, our dining room table and chairs, our leather couch, the IKEA PS couch/bed, various chests of drawers and so forth will be sold or donated.  I am planning to hold a contents sale on the first or second weekend of March, and will be posting a few items on Kijiji or craigslist, and will share that link here.

social time in Brussels: new year's day +1 dinner
 

On the second of January, after the dust had settled and everyone's livers had had a chance to relax a bit, we went to Andrew and Julia's for a great dinner and an evening of socializing with the Gardner and Simpson-Hall families.  Each family has two children so that made an even dozen at dinner.
 

I was responsible for the appetizer, and Maggie and I usually have seafood at this time of the year, so we chose to do pan-seared scallops in a white wine and shallots reduction, and my goodness they were fantastic.  I will definitely make this one again.  Here's the recipe I used.

After dinner we had several games of Loup-Garou or Wherwolf; if you've never played it, you should as it is absolutely amazing and a lot of fun…  I must recommend it to my Aunt Lorraine for the next big Zadow family gathering, if they haven't played it already, as it works best with a large group of people.

visit to the Cinquantenaire
 

On Wednesdays the boys have the afternoons off.  Duncan has a quick lunch at home and then goes to karate class, so Malcolm is usually on his own for a bit in the afternoon, drawing or catching up on his homework and studying before he has a solfège class in the evening.  The first Wednesday back I met him at school and we took the Metro up to the Merode stop, bought a sandwich at the kiosk, then walked through the park of the Cinquantenaire to go to the Museum there, where I wanted to see the temporary exhibition of Henry Van de Velde before it closed.
 

Henry Van de Velde was a pivotal figure in the Art Nouveau scene at the end of the 19th century, and although he was born in Antwerp spent much of his life in Weimar, Germany, where he established a school of arts and crafts which was the precursor of the highly influential interbellum Bauhaus movement.  He was just as influential as Hankar and Horta, but his artistic expression was all-encompassing, and extended through painting, architecture, furniture design, textiles, wallpaper, jewelry, china, cutlery, sculpture, bookbinding; all aspects of functional and decorative art.  The exhibition was really fascinating, and I was glad that Malcolm also enjoyed it.
 

I am really ashamed to say that I have never been to the Cinquantenaire Museum before, and as our tickets granted us access to the permanent collection, we had a brief tour of the rest of the building.  The museum is huge, with multiple display areas, and according to the website includes "archaeological artefacts from prehistory to the age of the Merovingians, as well as finds from Egypt, the Near East, Iran and Classical Antiquity."  Sounds pretty good?
 

We walked through the atrium to the permanent exhibits, and were initially greeted by a North American first nations section, dramatically arranged under a large oval rotunda.  I was really happy to see some beautiful Pacific Northwest Coast carvings from British Columbia, and to show Malcolm the exhibits on the different first nations clothing, tools, and artifacts.  There were even a number of video screens showing several National Film Board of Canada classics documenting the Inuit practices of building igloos, making lamps from whale or seal blubber (from the 1970s), Mohawk healing dance ceremonies (1950s), birchbark canoe building (1960s) and so on.  I remember these films very well, from my own childhood, and it was a very pleasant surprise to see these films here in Brussels, and to share them with Malcolm.
 

I hope to return another time to see the many other pieces that are stored there, and to take Duncan also; there is a travelling exhibition on Ferdinand Porsche that closes on Sunday; maybe we can make a trip together on Saturday early afternoon?

string quartet plus one, or two
 

Ann Engels is a cellist that I first worked with on the Johannespassion of Bach back in 2009, and since then we have been trying to find some other opportunities to do some concerts for baritone and string quartet, or piano quintet.  This has meant exploring the repertoire to see what kinds of pieces are already set for this instrumentation, and also looking for other arrangements that could work.  I fondly remember singing the Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs in Kingston with piano quintet, and it was in my opinion preferable to the orchestral version because of the tight ensemble and clarity of the individual parts.  As well, Dover Beach (Barber) is a great piece for baritone and quintet, and I've only done it once, in Toronto at Eastsminster United Church, and always wanted another crack at it.  I am looking forward to building a good programme of pieces that suit this ensemble… this weekend Ann and her quartet we will try a few of arrangements out as part of a funeral service for a musician from Leuven as a precursor to building a larger programme.

thomas hampson concert
 

I was to go see the famous American lyric baritone Thomas Hampson at the BOZAR this past week, but he cancelled his concert due to illness.  I had seen that he was also planning a performance with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and have booked a ticket.  It is a happy accident that they will be premiering new arrangements of pieces like the Brahms Four Serious Songs, which I have done a few times before in Canada and Belgium with a piano accompaniment, but arranged for strings, and the Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer which I will debut this spring in Canada with Dina, so I will be listening and watching very carefully.  It will also be the first time I hear this very talented artist perform in recital, so I am looking forward to it very much.
 

We seem to have an embarrassment of international baritones in Brussels this winter, as Bryn Terfel will be performing with the Belgian National Orchestra at the BOZAR in early February, in music of Wagner, Verdi and Berlioz.  He's another famous baritone that I've never heard live, so that's something I'll definitely do, and perhaps if I'm very lucky I'll get a chance to add a Bryn and Matthew photo to my collection.

home with the family
 

It's been great to be home with the family so far this month, even despite the fact that Maggie has been away this week.  The chance to reconnect with the kids is great, and I value every moment that we get together.  They are certainly happy when they get some of their favourite "dad" dishes, like moules frites, liver, bacon and onions, and so forth.  Last year Maggie had french class on Wednesdays so they are used to getting these dishes that she doesn't particularly like to prepare on those nights when dad is home and mom isn't.  This week the pommes de terre farineuses looked absolutely great, and so I decided to buy some blocks of beef fat, and we made homemade frites, and moules steamed in their own juices along with a little celery and leek.  Fantastic.
 

Frying in a small dutch oven worked ok; I am thinking that a friteuse would be a good idea, but only if I used it outside on the terrace…  The apartment doesn't smell like a friterie because of the good range fan and the small amount of frites we made, but I can only imagine what regular use would do to the atmosphere in our european-capital-sized apartment… and it would likely also have a negative effect on my attempting-to-be-european-sized waistline… 
 

I don't mean to only write about food, but I am happy to be back in my kitchen again after so long away, and with Maggie gone it has been a parade of "dad's greatest hits".  Last night the boys tucked into a big tagliatelle bolognese, and at the same time I put a "bio" rabbit into a marinade of celery, carrots, onions, juniper berries, thyme, bay leaf, wine vinegar and two bottles of Westvleteren trippel, to rest for a day or three.  Perhaps I will make it for tonight for her return?

... à bientôt!

Closing out the year in Amsterdam

Ballet - Sleeping Beauty

Rembrandt House

 At the Ballet

 

 Indonesian food

 At the opera

 Shopping, first day in Amsterdam

Christmas morning, in the Rembrandtpark across from our apartment

Christmas dinner with the McGinleys

 Chillaxin'

Duncan as Santa Claus

Goodbye to Het Musiektheatre Amsterdam

Cramped quarters: Duncan in the closet

 

Malcolm's vintage clothing store Levi jeans and waistcoat

 *  *  *

I am again bending my rule, that blog posts should be brief and frequent, and piling everything from the last couple of weeks together in one post.  The main issue is that when I have loved ones with me, and we are doing things together, the lowest priority item on the agenda is spending time alone on a computer; I would rather focus my attention directly on the people I am with, in the moment.  So you see that means that blogging has had to wait…

- things in Amsterdam -

After my last blog post I took the train back to Amsterdam in time for the next performance of The Gambler, but also managed to get in another rehearsal with the pianist before I sang my audition on the 17th.  I had learned a new German aria for this audition, which was satisfying to try out, and I opened with the Count's aria from le Nozze di Figaro which is a role I have done a lot, and which is my usual opener.  But what was really nice was to sing the french "Valentin" aria (from Faust) in an audition in such a way that I felt very contented about it.  I've been working on this aria for maybe fifteen years, and cannot tell you how great it feels to get it in a good place, finally!

After the 17th performance I came home via Antwerp, where we had the general rehearsal for the Bach Christmas Oratorio on the 18th, and then enjoyed a day off before the next show of the Gambler on the 20th.  Then the Bach performance took place on the 22nd, and it was really a lot of fun; I love the satisfaction that comes from being well-prepared and singing a piece you can connect with, with an excellent orchestra, in a suitable space… Everyone enjoyed themselves and it put us all in an excellent Christmas mood.  Vera the flautist from the orchestra let Malcolm have a go at her ebony and silver flute; the mouthpiece alone was 20,000 Euros.  He also had a chance to try a few notes on a gold flute.  Very high quality instruments; I wonder if he notices a big difference from his sterling silver flute?

The next morning we loaded up our car and headed north for a week in Amsterdam.  If you ever drive there I strongly suggest that you leave your car at one of the eight Park and Ride locations scattered around the outer ring road.  The Amsterdam city government actively discourages cars in the city proper, and it cost us about 25 euros to park in front of our apartment - itself quite close to the western edge of the city - for 24 hours, versus only 8 euros for the same period at a P + R only two kilometers distant.  The other nice thing is that the Park and Ride locations give each person a free hour transit pass to get into the city centre, so that provides an additional savings; each pass costs 2,80 if you buy it on the tram.

We settled into the house rather quickly; Malcolm and Maggie went shopping and returned with supplies and a little Christmas tree.  Duncan had made a few ornaments and we knew there would be ribbons from packages on Christmas morning so we weren't too sad to leave our many regular Christmas decorations at home, and made it festive on a modest scale.

We made the most of our time together in this very pedestrian-friendly city, seeing three museums together; the Rembrandt House, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank House.  The first we visited on the morning of Christmas Eve, and it was fantastic.  There were very few people, and so we we given an excellent demonstration of the different techniques that Rembrandt used to produce engravings, and even had the chance to use a wooden printing press to make a print.

The house was Rembrandt's own residence and gallery for many years, and he used it as a studio, engraving factory (his engravings brought him far more fame in his own time than his paintings ever did) and a workshop for his apprentices.  He also lived there with his wife and then later on, his mistress(es).  Quite a rum fellow, it would seem; certainly many of his engravings show a keen and sometimes rather earthy sense of humour.  Despite his earnings from vending art and engravings he had to declare bankruptcy 1656 and the contents of the house were sold and dispersed.

In the apprentices' studio upstairs we also had a chance to try out Rembrandt's drypoint technique, using sheets of transparent plastic instead of copper plates.  We each had a go, and printed several versions from our plate; I forgot that everything would be reversed and so had to scratch out and rewrite my initials backwards before trying the print again.  Duncan and Malcolm were very lucky; they were even given one of the demonstration prints from the big wooden press to take home.  There is an element of artistry to the application of ink, and the cleaning of the plate, which produces a slightly different image each time.  Interestingly enough printer's ink is made the same way today as it was four hundred years ago, by boiling linseed oil to a paste and adding bone charcoal… I am trying to convince Malcolm to buy it ready-made but we will see if he will be convinced...

While Maggie and the boys were looking at the exhibition of finished engravings I walked over to the opera house, showed my employee card, and lo! we were able to get four tickets, two at a very cheap discount, and sat all together with beautiful sight lines for the Christmas Eve matinee of Tschaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.  It was absolutely magical!  The National Ballet did a revival of the 1981 version by Englishman Peter Wright, after the original choreography of Petipas… every aspect of the production, the set, the lighting, the costumes, the music, the athleticism of the dancers, the choreography; all was for the purposes of magnifying beauty, and it completely refreshed us.  I saw this same ballet with the Nureyev production, also after Petipas, in the Four Seasons Centre the last time I was in Toronto, and I must say that it is a fabulous spectacle, full of psychological depths and complexities that go well beyond its fairy-tale surface, and well worth seeing on many levels.  For people who have never seen ballet live I must encourage you to go; it is visually and musically exciting minute by minute and there are usually plenty of breaks for refreshment, so that the whole time flies by very quickly… there is none of this four-hours straight Wagner type stuff in Sleeping Beauty, I can tell you.  Here is a trailer for the production if you are interested.

We finished off our Christmas Eve at a nice Indonesian restaurant in the Flower Markt, and went home well satisfied to a good rest.

The next morning we drove the twenty minutes to Haarlem, where we were to spend the next four nights, at the home of the McGinley's, friends we met this past summer in Croatia.  They have a nice big house there, and we enjoyed many good conversations with them, and good drinks, and fabulous food; the turkey was prepared in the Julia Child technique - where it is cut up and partially deboned, brined, stuffed with herbs and so on and then sewn back together for the roasting - and the cranberry stuffing was delicious.  They left for Paris on the 27th and so we spent those days in town exploring Amsterdam further, with our evenings spent in Haarlem, relaxing by the wood fire...

One rainy morning we passed the Anne Frank house, but as the weather was miserable and the queue incredibly long we decided instead to head for the Rijksmuseum.  It was little better, so packed full of families; the museumcard is very affordable for adults, and admission is free for the under-18s, so everyone and their dog who hadn't already decided to line up for Anne Frank appeared to have opted for the Rijksmuseum instead.  But the wait was only 40 minutes or so, and when inside we had the chance to see lots of different things.  Most of our time was spend in the 17-century gallery, but the really famous paintings (The Night Watch, the Vermeer pieces) were mobbed by the crowds and so we concentrated on less popular things.

We resolved to get up earlier the next morning and try again for Anne Frank, and so braved a cold but dry hour and a quarter to get in.  The museum is very simple, and the existing house has had a large extension added to allow for coatrooms, washrooms, a cafe, bookstore and so on.  Very little of the original decor persists; it was the wish of Otto Frank, Anne's father, and the only survivor of the eight people hiding in "the Annex", that the house be left in a symbolically empty condition, but reconstructions were made and photographs taken when the museum was first established, so one has a sense of how it had been arranged.

If you haven't read the diary, some new editions have recently been published that include even more of Anne's writings, and if you have never visited the museum, it really is a must-see.  The horrors of the second world war were on a scale frankly unimaginable to us today, and there is an incredible personal resonance found in the story of these eight people who tragically very nearly managed to escape.  Their almost-escape is echoed again and again in the histories of so many families… As a father of two myself I can try to imagine how hard Otto Frank and his wife must have struggled to keep their family safe, and I cannot imagine how he felt, as the only survivor of the Annex.  I am sure that I am not the only father to have found something in his eye by the end of the tour.

We left Haarlem before the McGinleys returned from Paris, spending one more night in the Rembrantpark apartment before heading home on the morning of the 30th.  It was really a great holiday together, and after our separation of ten weeks I was very thankful that we had the time to do it.

- things coming up -

- two Bach Cantatas at Minimes Brussels on January 26th
- Brahms Requiem with Geert Hendrix and Orkest La Passione in Antwerp on February 15th

In Canada:
- George Frideric Handel: DETTINGEN TE DEUM, Joseph Haydn: MASS IN THE TIME OF WAR, with Jurgen Petrenko and the Toronto Classical Singers, March 2nd, 16:00, Christ Church Deer Park, Toronto
- A Night in Vienna with Kerry Stratton and the Toronto Concert Orchestra, April 2nd, 20:00 at the Markham Theatre
- "Mid-Atlantic: a voyage of Canadian and European song” with Dina Namer, piano, April 25th, 19:00 at the Canadian Music Centre, Toronto
- A Night in Vienna with Kerry Stratton and the Toronto Concert Orchestra, May 3rd, 20:00 in Barrie
- "Mid-Atlantic: a voyage of Canadian and European song” with Dina Namer, piano, May 8th, 19:00 at Temple Israel, Ottawa

As you can see I have a plethora of performances in the spring in Canada, that will necessitate my being away from the family from mid-February until mid-May.  I will be flying very soon after my Brahms concert, but not only to prepare for these performances… I also have some auditions in the Western part of Canada.  More personally, I also have to organize the now almost certain clearing-out of our Endean Avenue house.

We have rented it out for the past six years and a bit, and while that has been a success, the increasing demands on my time and attention that have come with a growing singing career and the time constraints of Maggie's teaching career have made it a challenge to organize things.  When we add to that the mental effort and stress required to manage it, on top of our home here in Brussels, it really has gotten to be too much.  We plan to put it on the market in the next week or so, and have asked family friends Kimball and Marilyn Sarin to handle the details.  Here's a virtual look around the place; it looks so nice we almost want to reconsider selling!

- Looking forward to the coming year -

It's nice to be home and to have some relaxation time.  The last couple of evenings were great; we had shrimps and noodles for new year's eve, and then this evening had a leg of lamb with oven roasted potatoes and green beans with toasted almonds.  But it wasn't all cooking; I also used some free time today to listen to several recording of the Bach Cantatas that are coming shortly, and to start emailing a number of different companies to try lining up auditions over the next six weeks.  I am hoping that the recent debuts in other opera houses will encourage the other companies to give me a listen, and it is always good to make use of the little burst of energy that always accompanies the completion of a successful project to propel me forward into the next one...

Wishing all of you a Happy New Year with many successes in 2014!