First run with Yoshi in a month... getting ready for Matthauspassion

It's been very nice to be home after a week away.  Today I went for a 7km run plus a 2km walk with Yoshi, the first one with him in a month.  We didn't break any speed records but he was happy to log some kilometers.  I didn't realise that Maggie had already taken him for a 4,4km run early this morning before she went to work, so I expect that he will sleep rather well this evening.  Spoiled dog!

I spent the rest of my time today doing some banking, looking at used cars to replace our Volkswagen, and spending quite a bit of time on the phone.  Bruce is heading to Victoria in a week or so to start rehearsing for Countess Maritza, and so I read lines with him for a bit, and caught up with his news.  I also took a call from Meaghan Larios, a mezzo who I sang with in Toronto last season... she is going to Berlin for a couple of weeks, and so I put her in touch with Manuel, the tenor soloist from last weekend's Johannespassion, and also gave her the contact information for Peter Tomek, my coach who lives in Berlin.  He's the director of the opera studio at the Comic Opera in Berlin, so maybe he has some ideas about who she should audition for while she is there.

Then I had a talk with David Cunningham in Vancouver, before he started his workday.  I miss seeing him and his wife Greta, now that they live on the West Coast, and I wish that we were closer so that we could spend more time with their son Eoin as he grows up.  It's nice that we can chat via Skype, even for a short visit.

After that I got to work on the Matthauspassion.  I haven't done the arias + bass recitative characters for a couple of years, but did the Christus part just last year.  My performance this coming weekend with be the four arias and their introductory recitatives, and all of the other assorted bass recitatives.  It's quite a bit to remember but most of it seems to be there.  It will be really nice to sing it at the A=415 pitch, so everything is down a semi-tone.  I am not too worried about the Christus parts as I don't have to rehearse them until April 8th, and perform it on the 14th April just before our mini-vacation in the Canary Islands.  So I should have time to get those pieces into shape.

We went to talk to the Toyota people this evening after Maggie got home, and we'll be test-driving a car tomorrow evening at 17h.  So far I haven't received the bank payment from the Hungarian auto-wrecker who agreed to buy our old car; as soon as that money appears in my bank account then I can arrange to have the flatbed come and pick it up.  I will continue to drive the Volkswagen until then though, to get to Bruges and back... I hope that the weather is warm enough that I can put the roof down, for old times' sake...

A highly successful and satisfying Johannespassion

Saturday morning we were at the Musiekgebouw aan 't Ij to rehearse starting at 11:00.  There was no chance to get into the hall before that time, and we ended up more or less singing through the entire passion in rehearsal, stopping at 13h30, only to perform the whole thing again for the audience just 45 minutes later.  This long rehearsal on the day of a show is something that I have only experienced in Europe, as in Canada I have very almost never been asked to sing on the day of a show, but by now I am more or less used to it.

The Musiekgebouw was filled to capacity and the audience seemed deeply engaged with the material.  The performance went really very well and the artistic and staging directors were really very pleased.  The applause afterwards was overwhelming and seemed to go on a very long time... afterwards many audience members stopped me in the foyer of the theatre to share their enthusiasm for the staged performance and discuss the production.  It's great to see so many engaged, educated, intelligent concert-goers.

The performance was satisfying for me in a number of ways.  Firstly, it's great to sing Johannespassion.  Secondly, it was a debut for me of this work in Amsterdam, and indeed in the Netherlands, and while I performed in this theatre before back in 2011, that was a modern programme, and my role was not so important then; this time I was singing big solos with musicians from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the best orchestras in the world.

Thirdly, I was happy to perform the role from memory for the first time, and to have struck a good balance between immersion in the emotionality of the drama, and the detachment necessary to maintain artistic focus.  Last spring I went a little too far into the emotions of the piece, and so feel that I made appropriate corrections this time that kept me a bit more in control, so that I made no memory errors, and was able to execute all of the artistic decisions that I had made in rehearsal.  As well the staged performance meant that there was much more free playing back and forth with the chorus and the other soloists, which was nice.

Lastly, it is deeply satisfying to have made this performance happen, because of my sheer dogged stubborn pursuit of the gig.  It's a fishing expedition that started over four years ago, with meeting some Spanish musicians in Germany... based on that meeting I discovered that they were playing in the International Bach Festival in the Canary Islands, and so I hunted down the director.  My first contact with him was February 24th, 2015, and I requested an audition.

It took additional contacts with him to arrange that audition at his house near Amsterdam on April 15th, 2016, with a pianist that I had to find and hire myself.  After that audition, I sent four follow-up messages on May 25th, 2016, November 22nd, 2016, August 28th, 2017, and finally the 28th of August 2018 before he offered me this gig.  I guess that the Canadian fisherman in me is happy to have landed the musical equivalent of a nice big speckled trout after a lot of waiting with my fishing rod in hand.

Here are a few photos of the performance, taken by a friend of the choir.  There will be professional photos and perhaps an audio and video recording, so if and when I receive those I'll share them in another post.

a view from the backstage monitor:
Petrus is seen on the white platform, and Jesus is seated in white to his left.
The Evangelist is seen with a music stand at bottom right, and the chorus is at far left.

The Ij is the name of the bay of water that forms Amsterdam's waterfront.  So the "music hall on the bay" is called in Flemish the "Musiekgebouw aan 't Ij"

Yours truly with Manuel Gómez Ruiz (tenor),

Maartje Rammeloo (soprano), and Rosina Fabius (mezzosoprano)

here are the members of the youth choir to the far left,

Jan-Willem Schaafsma (Evangelist), Maartje and Rosina, 

and standing next to me in white, Bert van de Wetering (Christus)

I had a fairly early departure on Sunday morning, and was in Brussels shortly after 12h.  Maggie and Duncan were at church in the morning and they came and picked me up by car, and we all went home together.  It was a lovely reunion after a week away, and I was happy to see them, and to greet Bonnie and Clyde and of course Yoshi.  The magnolia trees are well advanced, and we have some beautiful tulips, daffodils, and white narcissus coming up in the front garden.
 

Clyde seems to think that the bannister is his personal observation point

The afternoon was clear and bright and so Maggie and I took Yoshi for a long walk on part of our usual running route, and spent a good interval throwing the ball for him at a big field.  I am thinking I might do a little bit of a run today, as it is sunny out, but the temperature is still cool, in the single digits, so perhaps I will just walk him instead.  I plan to run with Lawrence on Wednesday morning anyway, so maybe it's better to rest up.

The rest of this week will involve dealing with the car, and rehearsing the Matthäuspassion, which will be performed in Bruges this Saturday.  I can see by my records that the last time I sang the bass arias and the many recitatives of Petrus, Pilatus, Judas etc. was March of 2016, so it will take a little time to get everything back into my muscle memory again... fortunately I am already in "Bach mode", so that should help.

A lovely day yesterday but frustration today

Yesterday was a lovely day.  It started early... based on my experience I advised Manuel, the tenor with whom I am sharing this apartment, that we should try to get to the Rijksmuseum as early as possible.  Based on several prior visits I know that the Rembrandts are a big draw, but even bigger are the Vermeers, and as it was, we managed to get there just as the museum was opening at 9h, and so had a full five minutes in front of the Vermeers, particularly the famous "milkmaid". Invariably there are hordes of Japanese or British tourists hogging the space in front of it, as is reflected in this online photo:

Does that really look like a situation where one can peacefully contemplate a sublime work of art, that elevates a commonplace activity (the daily pouring out of milk by this milkmaid, a rugged figure characterised by her red, scrubbed hands, and powerful forearms) into one of the most celebrated images of all time?

I didn't think so either.  So it's great to get there as early as possible.  Really, when it comes to contemplating great art, to paraphrase Sartre, "Hell is other people".  Indeed after five minutes a plague of British locusts rather loudly descended on the Vermeers and so we beat a hasty retreat.

The main anchor of the Gallery of Honour on the second floor of the Rijksmuseum is the colossal painting now known as "The Night Watch".  I appreciate what a magnificent artist Rembrandt was, but I must confess from a personal taste point of view that the epic canvasses leave me rather cold.  Yes, I get that the famous "Night Watch" is an epic work, and should be worshipped, but it just doesn't interest me.  My taste is much for for the more human, lusty, earthy, engravings, and paintings such as the "tronie", or small painting of a person's head.  Indeed, the word tronie is from the french word tronche, which is slang for "mug" or "head".  So really Rembrandt's tronies are mug-shots.

Also a lot of my personal favourite paintings in the Rijksmuseum are actually from a little before Rembrandt, and include pieces from Flanders, and are visible in the galleries to the left of the Night Watch, and also on the lowest floor of the museum, so I spent much more time saying hello to these small, modest old friends than I did contemplating the epic canvasses.

As well I have the strong sense from visiting the Rembrandthuis, and seeing his many engravings, that while he may have painted heroic canvasses, this was a man with a strong sense of humour, and a realistic attitude when it came to humanity.  There are numerous small engravings that show people engaged in rather private activities: there are several engravings in the museum exhibition that show people "making water" as it is delicately described, as well as "making love".  Indeed Rembrandt had the artist's eye, and spared no one its acuity.  One of my favourite encapsulations of his complex personality is the engraving of the Good Samaritan:

I love the story of the good Samaritan, and this engraving shows the delivery of the injured man by the generous Samaritan to a hotel, where he can recover.  What is funny is the addition by Rembrandt of the defecating dog in the right foreground, and the expression of the man helping the injured person down from the horse.  To me this reveals a truth that every epic story is epic for those who are the central characters; other players in the scene may have a very different, rather less elevated point of view.

Fortunately for Manuel and I, were were able to convert our 16h30 tickets to see the special Rembrandt exhibition at the Rijksmuseum into tickets for 12:30.  This was particularly nice, as we had a short-notice rehearsal called for 14h.  This would have meant walking about 3km to get to the museum, walking back for the rehearsal, and then walking to the museum again for our 16h30 admission. Fortunately the attendant let us go in at 12h30 instead, so we managed to see everything in one go, prior to leaving to meet the artistic director.  As it was the rehearsal was a short one, and we are all feeling pretty well prepared for tomorrow.

Today was less successful from my point of view.  I slept in a bit, deciding against exerting myself too much today.  My leg muscles are still rather sore from running the 7km on cobblestones on Wednesday, and with all the walking yesterday I clocked around 15,000 steps, and I thought better of over-exerting myself on the day before a big performance.

After a late breakfast, I realised that the day would be sunny and 17 degrees, so thought I would go see the Keukenhof, a big garden about an hour from Amsterdam that opens every spring.

This proved to be a disaster.  I rather optimistically bought a combination ticket that included my transportation from Amsterdam, but the directions that were to lead me to the transit stop were highly confusing.  No one at any of the info points, save the very last one that I visited, had any clue how to help me.  Suffice it to say that after about 90 minutes of attempting to find the right bus to get to the Keukenhof I finally gave up, and went to have a beer and try to collect myself.  I've asked the Keukenhof to refund my online ticket and am hopeful that they will, but we will have to see.

Tonight will be an early night, and then it is an early start tomorrow, as we will have our rehearsal at 11h in the morning, and then the show at 14h15...

Break from rehearsals; getting some exercise

Yesterday we a very long rehersal in the evening that started at 18h and continued until around 22h, with a dinner break in the middle.  It was held not far from the apartment, so it was extremely convenient to get there.

I forgot to mention another one of our rehearsal spaces in the same neighbourhood; the evening rehearsal on Monday night was at a pub/concert hall complex called "Splendour".  Jan Willem, our Evangelist, told us the story of its creation.  Apparently this building complex fell into disrepair and was abandoned for decades.  Several years ago a group of about 100 musicians got together and approached the city of Amsterdam, and asked if they could have the building, and renovate it for use as a concert hall complex and artistic centre.  The City replied that if they could come up with 100,000 EUR, then the City would pay for the rest.  The artists each ponied up 1,000 EUR, and after the renovations were completed, this collective now enjoys a building with two concert halls, a bar and clubhouse.  The place is in use nearly all the time for rehearsals and concerts of all different types.  The only condition for artists in the collective is that they present a free concert once a year.  Quite a deal!

Here's a brief video with subtitles that explains Splendour...

The long evening rehearsal last night was held across the street from Splendour, in a large and beautiful synagogue.  The interior has a high barrel-vaulted ceiling and every surface is made of wood, so of course it was very loud and boomy, but good for voices.

The choir is excellently prepared and perform this music wonderfully from memory, but all of the solo singers are very nervous.  I realise that apart from Bert, who is singing Jesus for about the hundredth time, I am probably better prepared than most to sing it from memory.  What is particularly difficult is that there are so many interjections with Pilate and the choir and with Jesus, and then I have my three arias as well.  Jesus has only his recits; no arias.  The women have arias, but no recits.  The Evangelist has the most to sing, but then they have made an exception for him: he will have the score on a stand.  Really it makes sense, as the amount of recitative he has is huge.

Another difficulty that we are all dealing with is the modern instruments.  Of course the musicians are fantastic; most of them are from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the finest in the world.  But modern instruments at A=440 means that the orchestra is inevitably loud or at least bright, and for the singers everything is a half-step higher than it would be with a Bach orchestra, playing period instruments at A=415.  For me it's not such a big deal but for the high voices it's murder.

I've been enjoying some time to myself in between rehearsing.  Yesterday I treated myself to some Illy coffee and a quiet hour to write down some notes, at a cafe around the corner.

at the Optisport Sloterparkbad

I did some research earlier this week, and this morning got my running clothes on for the first time since March 23rd.  Since I was last staying in Amsterdam in 2013 they opened a new olympic sized pool complex to the west, a little past where my old apartment was at #42 Orteliuskade.  As it was around 10 degrees and overcast, I decided to run the 7km out to the pool.

I had no major problems but despite the flat terrain am sure that I broke no personal records.  Choking through the car exhaust, cigarette smoke, and dope fumes in the downtown was a challenge, as was avoiding getting run over my cyclists.  I saw no other runners at all; maybe it's not a big thing in Amsterdam?  Or maybe all the runners know a nicer location?

The pool is absolutely gorgeous, and I will go again, with a little more time; by the time I arrived there was only half an hour of lane swimming left.  But what a half an hour it was!  Eight lanes in a super clean 50m pool, with water of a nice cool temperature, not too many people, and best of all, designated speed lanes.  There were no more than two or three people in each lane, and so I was able to do my lengths without running into anyone.

I haven't swum since May of last year, and so with my injured shoulder I was worried that it wouldn't work.  But in fact, while a bit uncomfortable, front crawl was possible, and I got in a bit more than a kilometer, which makes me breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Now I know that I can go to the pool in Louvain-la-Neuve and start swimming again, and that I can do the same when I am back in Toronto. 

At #42 Orteliuskade

On the walk back into the town centre I stopped off at the old apartment, and asked the elderly Dutch neighbours if Michael Allan (the owner during my time in Amsterdam) still lived there.  Sadly, they told me that he had died suddenly in the past year.  The apartment is still occupied by someone, as there are plants in the window and various pieces of furniture visible through the window.

at De Brabantse Aap

My last stop on the way home was to have a beer at the Brabantse Aap, one of my favourite places near the city centre.  They had Chimay white on tap back in 2013, but this time it was La Trappe dubble, which was very delicious.  It's always nice to try these special beers usually found only in the bottle from the cask instead, as there seems to me to be a different taste.

Tonight I am heading out in a few minutes to stand in line at the national ballet; they are performing Swan Lake this evening and the tickets are already sold, but one can sometimes line up for returned or uncollected tickets.  I have to think about the price point though, as it isn't a flat cheap rate.  I think if a ticket is returned you pay the normal price, depending on where you sit...

Amsterdam is nice; first few rehearsals were good; Rembrandthuis

Report from Amsterdam

All seems ok.  I had an unremarkable train journey from Brussels to Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon, and was established in the apartment a few hours before the first rehearsal.  The location of this apartment that I am sharing with Miguel, one of the tenor soloists, is really ideal.  It is just steps away from the Opera House; if only I had lived here during the production of The Gambler back in 2013, it would have been fantastic.  It has been secured for me by the organisation; I can't imagine what it would cost to rent myself for another opera contract...

Speaking of opera contracts, I am remembering my time in Amsterdam back in December of 2013, and having a good time checking out a few old familiar haunts.  Today was quite a full day: in the morning Miguel and I went to see the Rembrandthuis museum around the corner from the opera.  It was much as I remember it although there are a number of changes.  Certainly it seems that the admission fee is being spent to upgrade the museum in a number of subtle ways.  This year is a Rembrandt year, and there are a number of famous paintings on display in several museums, including the Rijksmuseum, so I am hoping to go see that special exhibition while I am here.

Yesterday evening we had a quite long rehearsal, and I was very impressed by the choir.  They are the national youth choir of the Netherlands, I think, and they are maybe 16-25 years old?  They sing the entire Johannespassion from memory, and really do a fantastic job, with great intonation, text clarity, energy, and so forth.  I am amazed.

We had two rehearsals today; the first in the afternoon was the arias rehearsal, held in a newly renovated rehearsal hall of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, just a few metres away from the famous concert hall itself.  What a beautiful place to rehearse in, and I was thrilled to be shown to a gorgeous warm-up room, with its own Steinway piano...  I hope that it inspired me; by the reactions of the staging and musical director, I am well prepared, and delivering something good, so that is a credit to my coaches and to my diligence in my own rehearsals.  It's gratifying that they are pleased and I am looking forward to the performance this weekend and then again next month in the Canary Islands.

This evening was a long and tiring rehearsal, going over the recitative bits.  The Evangelist is unique in this production as he has the score in front of him, which is a bit of an advantage.  The rest of us have to have everything by heart.  I have worked hard to memorise all of the interjections of Pilatus; he really sets up a ton of what the choir has to react with, so it has to be clear, dramatic, and confident.  It's quite a big project, and I wish we had more time to prepare it, but I'm sure that it will be okay.  The staging director is a now-retired ballet dancer from the National Ballet here, and he knows what he is doing; his staging is not too difficult to remember.

Tomorrow will involve a long rehearsal in the evening starting at around 18h and carrying on until perhaps 22h30... it's the last chance before we do the "raccord" on Saturday, before the actual show.  I am dreading the fact that we will probably have to do the whole thing twice on that day: once in rehearsal and then again in the show.  I will have to "mark" my arias (that means sort of half-sing them), that is for sure.  It's a peculiarity that I have only discovered in Europe, that they rehearse the piece in its entirety earlier on the same day that they perform it.  In Canada no one has ever asked me to sing on the same day as a show.  I think it is a stupid idea to over-rehearse on the day of a show, as it tires out the singers.

I have also brought along some other pieces of music that I have to start thinking about... there will be a lot of things coming in quick succession over then next six weeks or so that I really have to have learned perfectly.  There is no shortage of materiel to work on while I am here.

mixed weather... rehearsing for bach, continuing to feel better

The weather here has been mixed; damp and cooler, but today there has been quite a bit of sun.  The weekend was extremely windy and the unsettled weather still continues.

As I wrote last time, I drove Malcolm up to Wilrijk Sunday morning, and when I drove home through a windstorm, it was astonishing how much debris there was on the road.  The debris was of the size and consistency of Ontario 401 snowdrifts, except in this case the drifts weren't made of snow, but rather were leaves, bits of twigs and pieces of bark.  So many trees were blown over that many long sections of the highway were blocked off, and there were countless chainsaw crews out cutting the fallen branches up and clearing the highways.  I've never seen that before in Belgium.

The Frankenstein opera was a pleasure.  Visually beautiful, it owed a lot to cinema, and the music also was cinematic in a very positive way.  Scott sang well and acted with committment; the other soloists were all quite good, although sometimes the orchestration was heavy, and I would have appreciated English subtitles as well as the French and Flemish ones; the chorus texts in particular were almost impossible to understand.  We didn't stay long afterwards but had a glass of beer and then came home.

The car is in the shop today as the back left tire has a slow leak.  Fortunately I have a spare tire of the same model so in the event that they can't fix the leak at least we won't be out a lot of money for a replacement.  We are considering buying a different car, as ours has a collection of minor damages (thank you parking garage) that don't affect its driveability, but are expensive enough that, based on the age of the car, and the cost of repair, the insurance company has decided there is no point in fixing them.  We have to choose now between giving up this car, and accepting a payout of the estimated value of the car before the damages, and using that on our next car, or keeping the car, and accepting a payout of the estimate of the repair cost instead, and doing partial or less expensive repairs.  I think we will do the first choice, as our car is a diesel, and although it is not too old, and the engine is small and efficient, it won't be too many more years before diesel cars of all types will be outlawed in large European cities.  We are thinking about electric cars, just to try to reduce our carbon footprint.  Belgium currently gets 55% of its electricity from nuclear power, and the rest comes from natural gas, so most probably a plug-in car will have the lowest carbon output.  As well the car is most often used by a single driver, or sometimes two people, so we don't need anything big.

I was able to sing through my Johannespassion twice yesterday and am feeling optimistic.  As it turns out I have two more days than I thought at home before I go to Amsterdam, so that is a relief.  I had originally planned to go on Friday, but the schedule has changed, and I see that my ticket is for Sunday.

I had a look at the other soloists in the Matthäuspassion that just came in for April 14th, and they are all indeed of a very high level, but the two tenor soloists are big names.  Belgian tenor Jan van Elsacker is a big deal in the early music community, with an international career.  But the other tenor is the Englishman Charles Daniels, who has a list of Bach recordings as long as your arm, and a huge career.  It's going to be amazing to sing Christus with these singers!

Frankenstein today at La Monnaie

No, not that Frahn-ken-steen!

This afternoon it will be Mark Grey's World Premiere of a new opera.  It's conducted by Bassem Akiki; our friend Scott Hendricks plays Victor, and Hendriekje Van Kerchove, Christopher Gillette, and Andrew Schroeder are also in the cast.  I know this conductor and these singers from Sweeney Todd a couple of years ago.  In fact, this Mark Grey Opera was to have premiered that year, but they decided to delay it until the repairs to the opera house had been completed, and so ran Sweeney in its place.  So I am sure that for the composer this is a wonderful experience, to finally see his work on the stage.

the stage design for Frankenstein

The Rossini concert yesterday went quite well, although I was quite tired by the end, having warmed up at home to get the voice moving, and then we had to sing through the whole thing (with a couple of small repeats) at 13h, before singing it at 16h.   The conductor was very pleased, and extremely complimentary, and the other soloists were very positive.  The pianists were great, and they were particularly effusive with their praise for my singing, so those are compliments that I somehow appreciate more, given what excellent musicians they were.  I am still a bit dependent on the little codeine pills two or three times a day to keep my coughing under control, but the fever is gone, and I slept better last night, so I am optimistic that I still have time to get in shape for Johannespassion rehearsals next weekend.

I have a little more information about the Thüringer Bachwochen, in case you are interested... that's quite exciting.  It's going to be a busy spring.  Getting lost in the whole hurried preparation for Johannespassion is of course two performances of the Matthäuspassion buried in the middle of my spring schedule, one as the arias singer and one as Christus, or so I believe... 

Today is the last day of the boys' holiday, so I am likely going to try to drive Malcolm up to this kot in Wilrijk this morning so that we can unload all of his stuff, before Maggie and I head off to the opera.  Along with Malcolm's new Dobro, he's also borrowed a 1900-1920 German harp guitar from our friend Ben; building one is going to be next year's project, and he will use this historical instrument to make detailed plans and templates for that new build.  He also has a bass amp, his clothes bag, a bunch of tools and some food to take back, so it makes sense to drive him.

Happy Sunday!

Hoping to be ok for my concert this afternoon

This afternoon is my concert in Ghent, of the Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle in Ghent, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will go well.  I have mustered up enough energy this past week to sing it through several times, and yesterday's rehearsal went reasonably well.

It's been tough going, as I am still recovering from this weird illness.  It's been over two weeks now, and I've had ECGs, chest x-rays; three blood tests for bacterial infections, and also to test for pulmonary embolisms; the doctor has listened to my lungs; everything serious seems to have been ruled out.  But this week I awoke with horrible sweating fits early on Thursday and Friday mornings, and on Thursday my fever started rising again, which is very strange.  Fortunately it now seems to have subsided to normal levels on its own, but the doctor is a bit stumped.

She just called to say that the most recent blood tests show lots of inflammation markers in the blood, which explains why I am so tired.  She also explained that it might be "atypique", not by which I think she means atypical pneumonia.  Atypical in this sense means that the infectious agent is not the normal type; she doesn't speak English and I don't have a lot of medical French vocabulary so I am not sure what she meant on the phone, but she is suspecting that the infectious agent isn't a virus or a bacterium, but something else.  She told me to rest as much as I possibly can, and after this afternoon I plan to do that.  But for this afternoon, I should be able to soldier through with coffee to sharpen my wits, ginger infusion to hydrate me, codeine to calm the cough, and ibuprofen to stop the ache in my chest.  That and a Ricola or two should do the trick.

Some very cool news just came in from the group that I sang the Luther Mass with in October of 2017.  The Thüringer Bachwochen is a week-long festival that takes place in the city or Erfurt, in the German province of Thuringia.  Luther was ordained in Erfurt in 1507, and Bach was born not far away, in Eisenach, in 1685.  Much of his early career was spent in this area.  Of course I have visited Leipzig before, with Bruce in the summer of 2015, so this will be a nice bookend to that trip.  Plus, not only is it music that I recently learned and performed, it is also pretty well paid, and quite prestigious.  As well, it will be televised.  Not bad for my debut in Germany!

What makes it especially gratifying is that it will just squeeze in between Johannespassion in Gran Canarias and my departure to Canada to sing Elijah...  the organisers are confident enough in me that they were willing to let me miss the first day of rehearsals, on the 19th; there are not many flights per day from the Canary Islands, and so there was no way for me to make it back in time to make that rehearsal.  But they are ok with me showing up on the 20th April instead.  Yippee!

Successful choral workshop; boys at home this week

I managed to muster up some energy yesterday, and with the help of coffee, ginger tea and codeine (to calm the cough and ease the tightness in my chest) I managed to lead the choral workshop at the European Commission.  It was quite an interesting challenge as I haven't worked with a choral group, apart from briefly back in my Sharbot Lake days (20+ years ago), and I was curious to see how it would go.

We did a long slow warm-up together, and I stopped them frequently to correct certain things, and emphasise technical things, like deep breathing, dropping the jaw to make more space, using the abdominal muscles to articulate notes, etc.  As well we did quite a bit of work on modifying certain sounds from spoken English so it sounds better when sung.  Also I asked them to look at the music a bit more deeply, and not just at their part, so they could see who was carrying the "solo" at any given time.  Often when one section had issues knowing when to come in, it was because they hadn't connected their entry with the musical line that was coming just before, so I had them sing along with the other part, and then switch to their own part at the right moment...

The big challenge for me was also to conduct; I haven't really had to conduct anyone but myself, when learning a piece, so I was pleasantly surprised at myself.  It was kind of cool to let my right hand go on its own, marking the beat pattern, and then cue with the left hand, and give little prompts with an indrawn breath, or a hard consonant sound to remind them that they had to pronounce a crisp consonant at their musical entry.  I have a lot of respect for conductors and I can see how it could be quite a rewarding thing.

Everyone was smiles and thank-yous afterwards, and the organiser was also quite happy, so that was satisfying.  I was knackered afterwards though, and am still feeling wiped out today.  I may try to sing a bit a little later this afternoon, if I have the energy; I am getting a little concerned about my upcoming performances, and realising how much work I have to get done before we start rehearsing together.

Both boys started their holidays today, and have had a pretty calm day so far.  Malcolm has set up his sharpening and work station upstairs in the attic, and will be doing some mandolin work up there.  Also he inherited an old wooden plane from a friend, that he's going to sharpen up and recondition.  Duncan went to the Comics Convention in Brussels yesterday with his friend Arthur, and came home with some artwork that he's busy framing.  It's good that both boys are here, as we have Yoshi and also Osa, Bryan and Kiana's dog, staying with us, and the two dogs need exercise, and I'm really not up to much of anything today.  It will also be nice to have a few family dinners with all four of us in attendance.  That's something that doesn't happen very often.

In other news, this past weekend Malcolm picked up his latest guitar acquisition, a two-year-old Dobro resonator guitar that someone was re-selling.  I haven't seen it yet but he's reasonably happy with it, and the price was right.

Like my metal-body guitar, it is a spider cone resonator, so they should have some tone colour in common.  His also has a built-in pickup so that he can amplify it easily, something that was always a bit finicky when I was using mine back in the day.

Kind of a sick week, but hopefully on the mend

Not a lot of photos for this blog post, but just a catch-up.  I've been battling what appears to have been a virus that hit me in the chest, then in the digestive system, and finally with nasal congestion, and it has really knocked me out.  I haven't really felt much like writing a blog as I've done little worth reporting...

On Monday Christophe came by and we took the kitchen fridge out of its enclosing cabinet, and then knocked out the bottom shelf, repositioned it at the correct height, and installed the new larger fridge.  It's not all that much bigger, but is new and also has a freezer compartment so we have ice cubes upstairs.  I felt pretty crappy that day, still with chest tightness and some discomfort when I breathed deeply, but we worked together for the morning.  When he left I was feeling pretty pooped out and went back to bed.

The digestive problems have kept me up frequently in the night all week, and the coughing and persistent soreness in my chest finally led me to the doctor today.  I was able to warm up and sing some today but I needed to get some answers after at least a week, because I just wasn't feeling like I was making progress.

I hadn't seen a general practitioner in Wavre since moving here, but today stopped off at one that the boys had visited.  She saw me after a bit of a wait, and listened to my lungs, took a blood pressure, did an ECG (no trouble), took blood (the results tomorrow) and sent me quickly to the nearby hospital emergency for a chest x-ray (all clear).  So no viral irritation of the pericardium (membrane around the heart), or of the pleura (membrane around the lungs), and no sign of pneumonia, so it's a bit of a mystery why I have this persistent chest discomfort.  I hope it clears up soon.

For the cough she suggested a small amount of codeine syrup or capsules to calm the cough, and for the intestinal issues she suggested that I avoid certain foods, and take a pro-biotic, "or camembert does the same thing".  Very Belgian.

On Sunday afternoon I hope to be in good enough shape to sing a bit, and be focussed enough to give a good choral workshop for that Choir at the European Commission.

Some other nice things happened this week: I received a nice note from the conductor of that group in Flanders that did the Mozart Requiem and the Nunes Garcia Missa Pastorale at the beginning of December: they have invited me to sing four performances of a Passion cantata written by one of Bach's foremost students, Gottfried August Homilius (1714 – 1785).  That will happen in March of 2020, so I am really excited to have that down on the books.  Happily there are already lots of things already down on the calendar for next season, which wasn't so much the case last year at this time... Here is 2019/2020 so far:

- chamber opera concert in Ghent in September

- Haydn Nelson Mass in Brasschaat in October

- Bach Mass in B-minor and Brahms Requiem in Brussels in November

- Messiah in St. John's and Charlottetown in December

- Bach Weihnachtsoratorium in Brussels in December

- Homilius passion cantata in March

That's a good start, and I'm hoping that more things will show up soon, to fill in the open spaces...