I have kept a handwritten journal intermittently as far back as 1990, and have done so continuously since my first trip to Europe in 2004. It’s illuminating to look over my thoughts from past years, but there are good reasons to write as a contemplative practice, taking an opportunity for reflection, the externalisation and clarification of one’s thoughts, “venting” negative emotions, and so forth. As well, there is an satisfying feeling that comes in the simple discipline of actively improving one’s clarity of expression, and even one's handwriting through practice.
Speaking of discipline, there is also a motivational benefit that accompanies writing down one’s intentions and plans and prioritisations… I have found that I am much more likely to make those phone calls, rehearse those arias, and run those training runs if I have added those plans to my notebook, almost as if I have told my plans to another person.
My blog posts serve much the same purpose. It reveals much about the state of my recent schedule that I have had neither the time to make a journal entry nor a blog post since leaving for Canada on the 15th of February! But now that I’m home in Brussels and on my own again, I have time and space to summarise the events of the last month…
Quinte Curling Club
After arriving in Toronto, I made a quick trip to Belleville to see my parents, and watched the end of their curling game. There were a great many of their friends there whom I hadn’t seen in almost thirty years, so it was nice to shake hands and share a beer with the players when they were off the ice. After a lunch together and a nice visit, it was back to Toronto for me to sing the rehearsal and performance with Jurgen Petrenko and the Toronto Classical Singers of the Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, with a team of soloists that I had worked with before.
It’s always nice to catch up with the extended musical family! The concert was the third project I have done with Jurgen; it went very well, and I do hope that we work together again in the future.
It’s always nice to catch up with the extended musical family! The concert was the third project I have done with Jurgen; it went very well, and I do hope that we work together again in the future.
I had very little time to hang around in Toronto, although I managed a brief visit for lunch with Eric Wilding and his two daughters.
Eric, Lily, and Hope
Kareena was unfortunately at work so I missed seeing her; I wanted to thank her for thinking of me, and purchasing for me one of the last hand-painted signs from Honest Ed’s Grocery, a Toronto landmark that finally closed at the end of last year.
I hope her choice of sign isn’t a comment on my acting ability!
Ham
I also managed to squeeze in a brief dinner visit after the Sunday afternoon concert with Ronda and Adrian Franco and their daughter Amelia. Adrian cooked a fantastic leg of lamb and we caught up a little... it was great to see them as always.
Adrian with the leg of lamb
The next week began with a flight out to Victoria to meet Bruce and the cast of Die Zauberflöte. I only had a day free in Victoria on Tuesday, but managed to get in my fastest ever 5km run, with an average pace of 4:55 per km, followed by another 7km at a more easy pace. It's pretty flat there, and I couldn't find any place where there was dirt, but ran straight east to Willows Beach on Oak Bay, and then south and around the penisula to Terry Fox monument at the western end of the Trans-Canada Highway.
fastest 5K
at "mile zero" of the Trans-Canada in Victoria, saying hello to Terry Fox
The next day I flew to Calgary to sing an audition with Taras Kulich, the new artistic head of the Calgary Opera. It was a great opportunity while in town to visit with my cousin Thom Pardoe, his wife Krista, and their two youngest daughters, and to stay at their beautiful home.
Cousin Thom and daughters
Thom works at the Telus Spark centre, which he described as a kind of science discovery centre. There was a temporary exhibition of a ton of Star Trek memorabilia including real props and costumes from the various television series and movies. It was closed by the time my audition had finished but Thom gave me a private tour!
Make it so!
Afterwards we had a lovely dinner together and had lots of fun goofing around with the girls, and with Thom, Krista, and Krista’s mom.
Thom wielding the snow brush
But it was all too short a visit: the next morning Thom gave me a lift to the airport, and I flew to Edmonton to sing for Tim Yakimec and the Edmonton opera. One aspect of Edmonton that horrified me was the lack of public transportation: the airport in Edmonton for example might as well be in another city altogether, as it is about 30km away from City Hall, and about 50 km away from the opera; the only bus travels once every two hours, and there is no train at all; the cab ride into town costs 150 CAD return. It’s unfortunately the only game in town. I realised then how lucky I had been in Victoria to have the hotel shuttle, and in Calgary to have Thom pick me up. Vancouver has its sky train, which I would use the next week, and in Toronto one can use the subway/Kipling bus to get to Pearson, or choose the Island Airport as I did, with a shuttle bus to Union Station.
propeller travel
That audition went quite well also... afterwards I flew immediately back to Calgary and then to Victoria, where the next day I sang my third audition in three days, this time for Timothy Vernon. I was very happy with how all three auditions went, and then was able to relax for a bit, enjoying a nice Cohiba cigar with Bruce on the quay.
The next day was more health-orientated, and included a 10,5 km trail run on Saturday (on genuine dirt trails, around Beaver Lake in Saanich) with conductor Joey Petraroia, prior to the closing performance of Die Zauberflöte on Sunday.
Before the opera I managed a brief visit with the luthier Scot Tremblay, a Victoria-based builder who focusses on 19th-century guitars. My friend Benoit Meule-Stef of Brussels (a harp guitar builder who has been mentoring Malcolm in guitar construction recently) suggested that I look him up, and we had a great little visit. He has some lovely Aussie Shepherd / Border Collie dogs, and a well-organised shop that was a pleasure to see. His guitars are beautiful, and can be seen here:
http://scottremblayguitars.com/
I hope that we'll get together the next time he pops over to Brussels.
Then I was off to the opera. Bruce sang particularly well and the cast was uniformly excellent. Interestingly Alexander Neef of the Canadian Opera Company was on hand, and I had a chance to speak with him. He agreed to having me audition for the COC when we can find an opportunity, so that is encouraging… scheduling it will be harder than it sounds, however, but I might be able to catch him when he is next in Europe.
a cigar on the pier
The next day was more health-orientated, and included a 10,5 km trail run on Saturday (on genuine dirt trails, around Beaver Lake in Saanich) with conductor Joey Petraroia, prior to the closing performance of Die Zauberflöte on Sunday.
a trail run with Joey
Before the opera I managed a brief visit with the luthier Scot Tremblay, a Victoria-based builder who focusses on 19th-century guitars. My friend Benoit Meule-Stef of Brussels (a harp guitar builder who has been mentoring Malcolm in guitar construction recently) suggested that I look him up, and we had a great little visit. He has some lovely Aussie Shepherd / Border Collie dogs, and a well-organised shop that was a pleasure to see. His guitars are beautiful, and can be seen here:
http://scottremblayguitars.com/
I hope that we'll get together the next time he pops over to Brussels.
Victoria luthier Scot Tremblay
Then I was off to the opera. Bruce sang particularly well and the cast was uniformly excellent. Interestingly Alexander Neef of the Canadian Opera Company was on hand, and I had a chance to speak with him. He agreed to having me audition for the COC when we can find an opportunity, so that is encouraging… scheduling it will be harder than it sounds, however, but I might be able to catch him when he is next in Europe.
reunion with David
On Monday I headed to Vancouver, where I met my very old friend David Cunningham (a.k.a. Lazarus Brown from the Moses Gillespie Redemption), and spent the afternoon with him and his class of English-as-a-second-language students, visiting from Japan.
Then we went home to see his wife Greta and their son Eoin.
Eoin is a wonderful two-year-old, very talkative, sociable, and physically strong and healthy, busy with his toys, asking many questions and very interested in books. We got along beautifully, and I am very happy to see their little family doing so well. It’s hard to stay in touch because of the long distances and time difference involved, but I am going to try to make more of an effort to stay more connected via facetime/skype with the three of them. David had a very close relationship with our boys when they were very young and so I was thrilled to have similar moments of connection with their beautiful son...
Then we went home to see his wife Greta and their son Eoin.
Eoin is a wonderful two-year-old, very talkative, sociable, and physically strong and healthy, busy with his toys, asking many questions and very interested in books. We got along beautifully, and I am very happy to see their little family doing so well. It’s hard to stay in touch because of the long distances and time difference involved, but I am going to try to make more of an effort to stay more connected via facetime/skype with the three of them. David had a very close relationship with our boys when they were very young and so I was thrilled to have similar moments of connection with their beautiful son...
Bruce was originally planning to return to Toronto and his teaching job in Kingston immediately following the final Pacific Opera Victoria performance on Sunday, but he received some news while in Victoria that he was needed to participate in a concert workshop of a new chamber opera that is being developed, on the topic of the “disappeared” native women who have vanished along the “Highway of Tears” in British Columbia. The name of this new production is Missing, and it is currently still in the compositional stage, but the composer Brian Current and librettist Marie Clements did have enough material ready to present a sampling of it for audiences in Vancouver. I knew a number of the singers tasked with bringing this new work to life, and so it was nice to see them again, and I look forward to hearing more about this production as it unfolds later on in 2017. More information is available here: http://www.pov.bc.ca/missing.html
The next day while David and Greta were at work and Eoin in daycare I ran around the Vancouver seawall that surrounds Stanley Park, and then continued my run within the interior of the park, and then along the downtown streets that led to David’s workplace, before heading home for some family time. Vancouver is a stunning place and I love the way the air smells: a beautiful combination of cedar smoke and clean iodic ocean water...
Then the next day started quietly, and I rested up for my audition for Opera Vancouver in the early afternoon. It went very well, much as the previous three had done. Fortunately David and Greta and Eoin live a short walk from the opera so it was an easy thing to get to the opera’s rehearsal hall/offices and back again. After the audition I packed up my things and met David and Bruce at the performance of the Missing opera, at the Carnegie Native Education Centre at Hastings and Main on Vancouver’s downtown east side. This beautiful old building was built in 1903 as a public library, but now serves as a community centre for the high risk populations that live there.
Then the next day started quietly, and I rested up for my audition for Opera Vancouver in the early afternoon. It went very well, much as the previous three had done. Fortunately David and Greta and Eoin live a short walk from the opera so it was an easy thing to get to the opera’s rehearsal hall/offices and back again. After the audition I packed up my things and met David and Bruce at the performance of the Missing opera, at the Carnegie Native Education Centre at Hastings and Main on Vancouver’s downtown east side. This beautiful old building was built in 1903 as a public library, but now serves as a community centre for the high risk populations that live there.
the staircase of the Carnegie Centre Vancouver
Hastings and Main is a pretty grotty area… it was quite unnerving to see the obvious signs of drug and alcohol abuse among the people milling about the neighbourhood. The whole atmosphere reminded me a little of the chaotic outdoor street markets in some of the Chinese cities I visited while on tour there, with clothing and junk and broken people scattered around, like a permanent flea market, or something out of Blade Runner, or a Terry Gilliam film set. It’s really tragic.
One of the cast members from the Missing opera was also singing with the Vancouver Symphony during the same period, so they had put her up at a very posh hotel a short distance away; to celebrate and unwind a bit following the very intense performance we met there for a drink and nibblies, but the contrast between this high-class hotel and the desolate conditions at street level at Hastings and Main was stark.
One of the cast members from the Missing opera was also singing with the Vancouver Symphony during the same period, so they had put her up at a very posh hotel a short distance away; to celebrate and unwind a bit following the very intense performance we met there for a drink and nibblies, but the contrast between this high-class hotel and the desolate conditions at street level at Hastings and Main was stark.
After a short visit with the other singers, it was back to the hotel near the airport to pack up and get ready for our departure the next morning.
The airport shuttle took us to the airport without incident, and we flew back to Toronto. We unpacked, did laundry, and decompressed a little over dinner and cigars, and enjoyed a nice fire in the wood stove. As well we managed to attend the memorial service for Stuart Hamilton, the late pianist, musician, conductor, opera coach, and radio personality, held on Sunday in the Jane Mallet Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre downtown. Stuart was a fixture on the Canadian opera scene, and had given Bruce many early performance opportunities. He had also been the narrator at some of my first operatic performances, and I had appreciated his encouragement.
It was a moving and funny memorial, filled with many photographs, witty stories compiled from Stuart’s memoirs, and a few recordings of his piano performances, songs, and his many spoken word appearances. Everyone who was anyone in the Toronto music scene was there, and it was amazing to see so many old friends and colleagues all in one place.
It was a moving and funny memorial, filled with many photographs, witty stories compiled from Stuart’s memoirs, and a few recordings of his piano performances, songs, and his many spoken word appearances. Everyone who was anyone in the Toronto music scene was there, and it was amazing to see so many old friends and colleagues all in one place.
We got into the car on the following Monday morning and made our way to Kingston where Bruce resumed his teaching duties at Queen’s University. I was lucky to get in a couple of visits with family in the Kingston area: first was an afternoon cup of tea with my cousin David, who is enjoying continuing acting opportunities in live theatre, cinema, and spoken word acting. I also got in a great visit with his sister Christine, and we enjoyed an afternoon tasting of some Belgian beer, opened courtesy of her latest acquisition, a Hard Rock Café Nice bottle opener that a certain cousin *ahem* bought for her while he was auditioning in the south of France…
I was very happy during my brief stay in Kingston to also have dinner with Bruce, Dina Namer, and our mutual friends Gill Fisher and Mary-Liz Best. Gill invited us all in for a bang-up meal (I wish I had her touch with meat-pie pastry) and a charming evening of conversation. As well I had lunch the next day with Dina and Bruce and an old friend, the pianist Ireneus Zuk, the deputy head, and got caught up on all the news happening at new (Aubrey) Dan School of Music and Drama.
I also took the opportunity to have a great run on the trails at the Little Cataraqui Conservation Area. Dirt at last! Actually, it wasn’t all dirt: much of the trail was still covered with ice, as the different loops are used for cross-country skiing for most of the winter, and so I had to skitter like Bambi across many sections that were still covered, but it was still a fun time.
I also took the opportunity to have a great run on the trails at the Little Cataraqui Conservation Area. Dirt at last! Actually, it wasn’t all dirt: much of the trail was still covered with ice, as the different loops are used for cross-country skiing for most of the winter, and so I had to skitter like Bambi across many sections that were still covered, but it was still a fun time.
Then it was off to Ottawa to spend an overnight with Hugh and Sheila; Maggie visited them for a week in October, but I hadn’t seen them for over a year. We had a nice lunch and afternoon together, catching up on everyone’s news, and even managed to have a facetime call with Maggie and the boys in Brussels via Hugh’s iPad. Then I went for a short run on the snowpacked trails around the Rideau Canal (not something I would advise; my shins got scratched by the icy crust on the snowpack) before we went out that evening. They treated me to a lovely pizza quattro stagione at their favourite local restaurant before heading home. Our time together lasted until early afternoon the next day, when I left for Kingston to pick up Bruce and continue on to Toronto.
401 sunset
My final few days in Toronto were capped off with a final audition of the tour, this time with Leslie Dala, a frequent conductor of Vancouver Opera and the director of the Vancouver Bach Choir. He proved to be a very nice fellow and we sang through quite a bit of my repertoire from both opera and oratorio before having dinner together. He had already made plans to stay at Bruce’s house while in town to conduct the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School opera production, and moved in the day before I was to leave, so it was very relaxed and we talked a lot about art and opera together. Because of his moving-in day, I had already packed everything up into my suitcases before he arrived, and so my last day or two in Toronto were very calm and stress-free, and I could just relax and spend the time with him and with Bruce.
The flight home left from the Billy Bishop airport for Montreal, and then I had a single stop-over before landing early monday morning in Brussels. Fortunately I didn’t need to collect and re-check my bags, or pass security a second time… I had been a little bit nervous about this return flight as I was taking Ophelia, my 1934 M-14 “Leader” Regal Dobro guitar with me as carry-on. As it happened there was no problem at all. I loved seeing the x-ray of the resonator as it passed through the scanners, and Ophelia made it home to Brussels safe and sound… now if I can only pry it out of my son's hands...
Primus playing Ophelia in Ben's Guitar Repair Shop
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