Busy week

Well I've certainly had a busy week.

The kids are on a new schedule: we leave in the morning around 8h to walk to school; I'm usually home by 8h45. Then I have another cup of coffee and spend the next three hours or so warming up the voice in stages, researching houses and agents, composing emails and calling around, while rehearsing and listening to the music I'm learning. Twice a week the schedule is a little delayed, as I swim first, and once a week I go grocery shopping by car to stock up on heavy items with our friend Florence.

The same routine holds after a break for lunch and a little reading or part of a movie... the kids are home with Maggie around 17h, which means I have longer in the afternoon than I had last year, to continue working and to make calls to Canadian places... it's working out very well. Malcolm doesn't seem to have a problem with staying for study hall, and walking home on his own with Duncan, and is doing very well academically. He's also found a friend, another boy in his class, so he's not the lone Y-chromosome. Duncan is progressing and doing well at his work, but I think he was derailed a bit by the illness of his teacher, and the supply teacher is having some discipline problems in class in general. We've linked his tv privileges to his behaviour at school and so he's lost tv twice this week... it's mostly not listening properly, and having to be told more than once to do something that he's got to work on.

I've got quite a bit of auditioning on the plate for when I get back to Canada, as well as another gig or two that are shaping up during that time... as well there is a Schubert lieder concert that I'd like to present again, here and in Canada. Nothing else is signed/sealed yet but I'll keep you posted.

I'm really feeling energized now that I can get back at regular singing, learning my pieces for the next six months, and the audition hunt. I have some German audition leads that I'm tracking down, and an Austrian one. Interestingly our friend Keith is moving from Hof, Germany where he was been living, to Leipzig, where there are more opportunities, and I hope to visit him and try to audition there. By a strange coincidence the director in Leipzig is Udo Zimmerman, the composer of Die Weisse Rose, the opera that Marta Matulewicz and I performed in Toronto a few years back. I had spoken with him by email at the time, and want to renew that connection and audition for him. How cool would that be?!

We bought our tickets for the whole gang to fly back to Brussels from Canada on the 31st of December, and will be back in Canada at the end of June 2010 for the summer. Sabena Airlines operates a direct flight in partnership with Jet Airways, and the fares are quite reasonable (for those people reading this who'd like to visit us in Brussels I would heartily recommend their direct flight).

Ok, that's it. The boys are asleep and Maggie and I are going to have a little cheese, grapes and wine for dessert.

Have a good weekend!

Fidelio

Last night I had a great opportunity to hear Beethoven's immortal music brought to life again on the stage... Canadian tenor John MacMaster was singing the Florestan in Rotterdam, and when we met this summer, had offered some tickets to the dress rehearsal. Of course I was eager to accept; it was my first time in Rotterdam, first time hearing John in performance, and the first time I saw Valery Gergiev conduct.

The orchestra was the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and they were really fabulous... this was their first rehearsal with Gergiev, and the singers were mostly marking (although John sang out brilliantly). The assistant had really done a fabulous job, and he was earning his money as well, sitting on the edge of the orchestra pit, and singing the parts of those singers who needed to save their voices for opening night.

There were all sorts of blockages on the highway coming back, so the night was a very late one, and I had little rest, as I rushed off to drop off the car at the rental desk, and then met Wayne, our neighbor from Toronto, who had a few hours in Brussels before catching his flight to Marseille. We had a great time visiting the Grand Place together, as well as sampling some great Trappist beer and catching up on the family news on both sides...

As for our family, the school week seems to have gone smoothly... Malcolm has done very well on his mathematics tests so far, and Duncan is integrating well into the primary section. Maggie is tired from her first week with students so went to bed early this evening, but by all accounts she is looking at another fulfilling year.

My guest at the Fidelio was Peter Tomek, my opera coach, and we had lots of time in the car to discuss the coming year. I'm hoping to do some new piano-voice recordings of my audition arias, and also work on a chamber music project with Peter here in Brussels if I can. More on that later,

Have a good weekend!

Off to school

 

It's eleven o'clock and all's well.  I've already got some singing in, and am just taking a break.  Here's a picture of some gladiolus blossoms that have been gracing our dining room for the last week, I thought they deserved mention.

 

Last night Malcolm was the chef and he decided to make Salade Liegois, which is a warm potato salad with green beans, pieces of bacon and shallots, with a sauce made from deglazing the bacon pan with red wine vinegar.  He read the recipe, chopped the ingredients, boiled the water for the potatoes, and combined everything, with a little help from the rest of the kitchen staff.  We're going to have the kids make a dinner of their choice one night each week from now on, and Maggie and I will take turns the other two nights.  On weekends we'll play it by ear or cook together.

We were all up early and off to school ahead of time.  It was lovely to see the other students and parents after our vacations, and we were pleased to discover that there might actually be another boy in Malcolm's class; there is a new student on the list, but the gender isn't clear from the name; we shall see.  Duncan was very excited to see his old friends, and is really looking forward to being a big boy in the primary section!