Yodeling Legato

Wow. Just wow. I must admit I went into last week’s production of Elixir a little jaded, thinking, how could this be any better than what I saw with Juan Diego Florez and Diana Damrau? It wasn’t better, because it was a different. It was equally as wonderful. I remember the very first time I heard Anna Netrebko sing I was moved to tears, back when I saw her in Romeo et Juliette. Subsequently, hearing her in various recordings I’ve thought, what’s the big deal. Then I heard her again on Saturday. And BOOM! Tears.

Backing up, as usual, to the pre-opera activities... Realizing that it would cost approximately the same for the 2 of us to take the train as it would to drive, the Husband and I decided to take the car in. Plus then we wouldn’t be at the mercy of the train schedule. Those late night trains are all locals… putt putt putt between every.single.station.



So here I am, with the angry birds stickers apparently flying out of my head?



And you know, it's a good thing we drove, or we wouldn’t have been able to listen to the cowboy yodeling radio station we picked up somewhere near Newark Airport. I can’t make this stuff up. Well I probably could, but I’m not! We yodeled our way up the New Jersey Turnpike.

We went to the box office as soon as we got there. They had the tickets but “we don’t keep gifts here.” I even showed them the email from the rep saying that the gift and tickets would be at the box office. They had no idea. They took my phone into their little room, it was like handing my baby to a stranger. They returned it and suggested that I check at the shop. The shop people were like, that's not our department. Everyone was very nice, but they had no idea what I was talking about. So the mystery gift remained a mystery! I did email my contact and he said he’d mail the gift out.

Anyway the seats were in the orchestra ROW R!! Right smack dab in the middle. Like, $300 tickets. That is enough of a gift!

For dinner we went, where else, to Café Fiorello. I really need to start going somewhere else for dinner. We were seated on the opposite side as when I was there last week, but somehow we got the same waiter. I kept forgetting to take pictures of the food because I was having too much fun. But here's a picture of my drink, a vodka something-or-other, off their cocktail list.  It had red grapes and I think half a lime in it.

 

Here's what remained of the antipasto plate before I remembered to snap a pic. Still on the plate I see zucchini parmesean, eggplant caponata, shrimp and white beans, grilled sepia (which is like calamari) and potato pie. It was all very yummy.

We also got the fried ravioli, which was ok but I wouldn't get again, and for dessert, the lemon tart, which was fa-bu-lous. No picture but you can imagine. The top was coated with sugar and then burned, to give it a hard crust like creme brulee. Fresh whipped cream on the side. Yum I'm actually drooling while typing this.

And I even had a “star” sighting! Half-way though dinner, Pretty Yende, who had performed in the matinee, walked by with her entourage on their way out, carrying several beautiful bouquets of flowers.



Back to the Met we went, to our seats in row R. Check out this view!



The opera was SO MUCH FUN! Matthew Polenzani was Nemorino. I think he should change his name to Matthew PoLEGATOnzani. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard such beautiful legato, ever. This coming from the person who could listen to the legato pour out of Juan Diego Florez all day… so you know it’s a big deal. Wow. And Anna Netrebko. Her voice had a timbre to it that went right to my insides. Perfect resonance. Together they sounded heavenly.


The other singers were, Mariusz Kwiecien as Belcore, the conceited army sergeant who wanted to marry Adina, and Erwin Schrott, who, by the way, is Anna’s husband! That must be fun… anyway he played Dulcamara, the maker of the magic elixir, which, as we all know, is actually a nice bordeaux. He was so funny!! In last year’s production, the character of Dulcamara was an older, more grandfatherly type guy. This time, he was more like a Barber of Seville guy – he had everything to cure anything, and he always had a woman nearby. Mariusz K was adorable, as usual.

It was weird… I was a little distracted at first. My mind kept wandering to other things… and then suddenly they began singing and that was it. All other things left my mind and I was just there, feeling the music. Maybe it was the seat location, I don’t know. But the singing just resonated through me. It was like a drug. It's why I love live opera. Because when it hits you like that, you want more, more more. But unless I win the $25 ticket drawing again this season, I won't be going again until next season. Technically that could be this calendar year, I suppose. I imagine they'll announce the next season schedule soon.

Meanwhile, I'll announce what at the Special Gift is once I receive it.

Vintage Cherry Rewards

Remember a few months ago when I begged everyone I knew, and many people I didn’t know, to vote daily for my entry in the Met Opera’s “Elixir of Love” contest? And remember how I won!

Not because my drink was the best, but because I nagged the most people to vote. The prize was, two tickets to see Elixir of Love at the Met, plus a “special gift” from the Metropolitan Opera. Well, finally, this coming Saturday, Husband and I will be seeing the opera. It’ll be interesting to see this new production, especially since I saw the other production TWICE last year. This one stars Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani.

So the tickets will be waiting for us at the box office, along with the “special gift.” We have no idea where the seats are, or what the gift is. I will, of course, post again afterwards with all the boring details. Stay tuned!

Magic Flute & Armida - Two Operas in 24 Hours!

Two adventures to write about - the short version: Both operas were FABULOUS!!

And now to the nitty-gritty details.



Thursday evening was Magic Flute!!! Wow wow and WOW! Ann and I made our way to Lincoln Center and got the requisite photos in front of the fountain and the poster.


Fountain:


Posing with a larger-than-life Papageno:


You can't really tell from the photo but I had my hair in a bun, of all things. I had forgotten my sparkly barrette and it was hot, so I temporarily twisted it up, then decided to leave it. It came out later but I had it up for most of the evening.

The weather was so nice, we canceled our reservation at the Fancy Restaurant and grabbed a take-out dinner from a nearby deli. We had a picnic supper on a low wall with a view of both the front of the Met and the fountain. So here is the photo of my dinner - pesto pasta with chicken. It was quite yummy.



And the front of the Met with the Armida advertisement:




Eventually we made our way in to the Grand Tier Rear. View from the seats:



The music... ahhhh it's just beautiful. To hear it at the Met is like a dream come true. The sound in the Grand Tier is great. Matthew Polenzani was Tamino. His voice is like silk. Just gorgeous. Pamina's voice was so beautiful - beyond words. I fell in love with her as soon as she sang. And Nathan Gunn as Papageno. WOW. He is truly the Best Papageno Ever. He gets the comedy, the music, the timing, all of it. I've seen him in several different roles now and this was by far the best performance of his I've ever seen. The fact that I love the character of Papageno (who doesn't?) doesn't hurt. But he was WOW and there was no problem hearing him (as prior critics have complained) and he was just fab. And oh-so-adorable, especially when his hat was off. The duet he sang with Pamina - yes, I know I seem to cry easily at operas, but that duet did bring tears to my eyes - the beauty of the music, the singing and the words. I just can't help it. I am my mother's daughter. Luckily I was wearing waterproof mascara.

Queen of the Night, Sarastro and everyone - everyone blended together so beautifully. It was a package and it was great. The scenery - holy cow!!! Seeing Julie Taymor's production live, the entire stage, was amazing. It added so much magic to the Magic Flute. The puppetry - WOW!!! The scenery - amazing!! There was one scene with these giant puppet statue people with flaming heads. I mean, giant, like, 30 feet tall. They flanked the door to the temple I think before Tamino and Pamina entered for their trials. Their arms moved and did I mention that their heads were flame? I think it was done with orange cloth and a fan. It looked like real fire!!

What a difference to see the entire stage at once rather than the sections they show in the English TV version. The staging is meant to be seen all at once.

Everyone walked out of there smiling.

Very few tattles to tell:

A couple times there were these crashing sounds from the stage as if things were falling over... oops! Didn't see anything out of place.

Queen of the Night's sails clicked at one point as they were coming down during the aria. If that makes no sense, look here and here. (same production but in English) The costuming was a bit different, just a little. I could swear she was in bright red the whole time instead of the blue. And then audience applauded in the MIDDLE of her 2nd aria, after the first set of amazingly perfect runs up to that high f.

Also, after they unlocked Papageno's mouth, his tumblings caused the pipes to get tangled in the bamboo. Yeah I see that makes no sense either when you read it. Scroll up to the photo or look here. That English version has a section cut ... and the whole time they were singing that cut section, he was trying to untangle the string of the pipes from the piece that pokes up from his left shoulder. All without breaking character and while continuing to sing.

When Papageno ran up the circles (look in about the middle here) he fell and crashed HARD. It looked OUCH painful. His hat flew off. He didn't miss a beat but I bet he's sporting some new bruises.

The woman one seat over from me was worrying a cellophane wrapper during the entire first scene. I'm sure she didn't realize it - Finally I asked her to stop and she did.

And the best part - my own tattle - that morning I had checked the Met website and saw that a section of the front row in front of us in the Grand Tier was unsold. The seats were indeed empty so we moved down during intermission. Great view from the front row of the Grand Tier! Plus you get this little shelf to put your program down, put your feet up (!!!) or whatever.

After the performance Ann and I went back to our hotel and polished off a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I think it's a pattern - we go together to see NG and then eat ice cream in the hotel room. Didn't we do that last year after Rape of Lucretia? And speaking of Lucretia, Tamara Mumford, who was Lucretia, was one of the Three Ladies.

The next day, less than 24 hours later, I jammed myself into an over-packed Path train and went back into the city. I had 40 minutes to make my way to the Met for Armida. Decisions... figure out what subway to take, or hop in a cab? I decided that since my time was short, I was hot and uncomfortable from the crowded train AND I was schlepping my backpack with my overnight stuff that I should treat myself to the cab ride. I'm so glad I did! I opened the window, sat back and relaxed. It was exactly what I needed to relax and enjoy the day. I even thanked the cab driver for the relaxing ride. He said I was the third person that shift to thank him. I think it made his day!

I wove in and out of the various groups of schoolchildren and picked up my ticket at the box office. Look!!




Do you see? Orchestra Row E!! Like, right smack in the middle of the fifth row!! HOLY COW! I sat with John's talented and beautiful wife and adorable daughter. And then during intermission before Act 3, when John's wife and daughter were away from the seats, this other woman joined the row and immediately asked, "Are you friends with Renee? We're all friends with Renee. This entire section." Um... ok. "No, I'm friends with John Osborn." She replied, "Who's that?" I told her he was one of the tenors - the guy in the first act. She brushed that off with, "Oh, I got here late. Better late than never!" and she laughed. Um... ok. She was tall and expensive looking - long, gorgeous hair, designer head-to-toe, your typical NYC upper east side wife who was late probably because she was either out planning for a charity, having a private pilates session or possibly both. I complimented her earrings and she said that the woman in charge of the children's chorus made them. Turns out her that her teenage daughter, who was there for the entire performance, is in the children's chorus. She was very nice but also amusingly stereotypical. But enough about her.

I was next to a herd of photographers.



The constant clicking didn't bother me at all - I found it interesting - whenever the action changed, whenever the characters moved or interacted, there'd be a flurry of shutter clicks. Combined they must have taken over a thousand photos. I, personally, took about 10. Here's one looking straight up at the ceiling:



And a view of the curtain from my seat:


And the performance itself:

I had never heard of this opera before so I was going in fresh. So what I could figure out from the sort of mushy plot was, Armida is a sorceress out to prevent the army from their goal of capturing Zion. She's a soprano and there are 6 tenors!! The performance opened with a dancer suspended from a ribbon and spinning down to the stage. It was beautiful. She looked about 10 but I learned later that she's actually 25. She was Armida's niece and she represented love. Armida also had a sprite or spirit who represented vengeance. Onto the plot - the army is burying their guy-in-charge when Armida shows up and pretends to be a princess in distress. She begs the general (John Osborn) to give her ten soldiers to help her regain her kingdom. She charms the army and everyone falls for it except for the general himself, but he goes against his instinct and agrees to help her because everyone else wants to. The men then promote Rinaldo (Lawrence Brownlee) as their new captain. Of course Rinaldo and Armida have met before when she saved him, they fell in love and then he had to leave. Somehow her uncle holds some sort of grudge against him. The mean spirit or sprite "infects" the soldiers and then this other guy who thought that he himself should have been chosen to lead gets all huffy and acts like a big bad loser. He's busy badmouthing Rinaldo, who overhears and fights the dude for his own honor. Of course he kills him, then the general comes back and is all mad, and then I'm not quite sure what happens except that Rinaldo is charmed by Armida and they run off.

Act two is a reenactment of the story in ballet, presented to Rinaldo and Armida as entertainment. These demons come out and create a beautiful palace and garden, then these nymphs come out and in the ballet they all seduce the dancer Rinaldo. I have never been so close to professional ballet dancers. These men jump 5 feet into the air and land silently. They are all muscle. It was amazing. The women were great too. The demons and the nymphs included the chorus as well as dancers. The demons were in these wacky costumes with horns and tails. I took one blurry photo of them during the curtain call, using one hand and no flash, so it's hard to see, but you get the idea:




That guy to the left wearing what looks like knee pads had a very form-fitting costume. As in, I think everyone in the room was looking at his ... manliness. It was outlined in great detail. Had to avert my eyes to keep from staring. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. He was I think the main demon or devil from the underworld. The dancers interacted with him a lot - they carried him around, and he climbed on them to sing, so his outlined bits were displayed prominently. Not like me to go on and on about some guy's privates but there they were, pretty much in everyone's face!!

So anyway during the dance there's a part where they tempt Rinaldo with fruit, and then the nymph dancers are teasing the dancer Rinaldo and playing a sort of monkey-in-the-middle with him, throwing the fruit back and forth over him while he tries in vain to catch it. At some point the dancer is replaced with the real Rinaldo. There is a gorgeous love-duet in there somewhere. You see the little girl in red in that blurry photo? That's the 25 year old dancer. Anyway back to the opera...

Scene three, two of the soldiers (and the final two tenors) find their way into the enchanted forest and find Rinaldo. They help him realize that he has been charmed by magic and lead him back to battle, bravery, courage and so on. Armida tries in vain to keep him there with her. Then the demon/vengeance spirit and the love spirit battle (via ballet of course) around her and the bad spirit wins. Armida vows that she will seek vengeance and the curtain drops.

The music was full of Rossini's coloratura runs and vocal gymnastics. It was really really pretty.

John Osborn was absolutely awesome. Rossini coloratura is his friend. It seems to come effortlessly for him. The singing, the acting, etc - he was the character and the music flowed out of him.

Lawrence Brownlee has the most unbelievable voice. Except of course I was there so I do believe it. Like John, the coloratura just flows out. It was like beauty flowing out over the audience.

One of the other tenors stood out for me too, it was one of the two soldiers who saved Rinaldo in Act 3, but I don't remember who it was. It was hard to keep track of who was who.

Renee Fleming was Armida. She is so beautiful. She didn't really sing out in the first two acts. Her voice was very pretty but I was like, what's the big deal? Until the third act, when she SANG. And then I was like, Oh, I get it now. At first I was star-struck that I was seeing her, but she was such a good actor that I got totally into it and forgot it was her. If that makes sense. I guess that's the point!

After the performance I wanted to hang out but even more I wanted to get back to my boys - over 24 hours away from them and my arms ached to hug Alex! All the moms out there will understand what I mean!! So I trekked down to Penn Station (remind me NEVER to do that in my little boots again, ever!!) and hopped on the express train to get home to my boys.

Today I listened to the Saturday Afternoon Broadcast of Magic Flute. It was great to hear it all again so soon after seeing it. At one point I put on the English version video and tried to match it up for Alex to see and hear. It worked pretty well for some parts, like when the three ladies find Tamino, but then I had to pause the video for the cut parts and was too much trouble and he got bored with it so I turned off the video.

Now my little spot on the shelf where I keep all my tickets is empty. It looks so sad, all empty. But I'm sure it won't be empty for long.

Merry Merry!

It's Christmas Eve and here I am blogging. Why? Because I'm Jewish, that's why! Well, really because I'm finally not too tired or busy to sit at the computer and attempt to string two words together.

Last week my voice lesson was canceled due to SNOW!!!! Big piles of fun fluffy snow. I spoke with my teacher and she said we'll have enough time to get Batti Batti into shape before the recital at the end of January. And I have been practicing! I have been singing it without consonants. I have been singing it while consciously dropping my jaw down, down, down. I have been forcing my shoulders down. I sang it in the yoga tree pose. I've sung it while bent over and hanging down to touch my toes. I have been employing the Julia Child technique to keep the resonance. I want to be ready, I want to nail it.

I've also been trying to teach myself La ci darem la mano. The duet starts about 3 min into that video. You can also see it here, although they need to work on their diction. Ahem.

If only I knew a baritone to sing it with... For now I sing along with whatever recording I have handy - one in the car, one in the house, etc. Perhaps I can slowly teach myself all of Zerlina, wouldn't that be interesting. Hm. I have no idea how to learn or perform recits. I never even thought about it, really. I once had a friend who was a teaching assistant for a Mozart Recit class in a University in the Midwest, that's the closest I've come to it. An entire semester on just recits. So is that something I can teach myself? I doubt it... But I'm not ready for that yet anyway. This recit thing is just a train of thought here.

Work chorus thing happened. It was the same as last year. They asked me to get in front of the microphone. It didn't always work out that way. It didn't matter. We all had fun and even got a free lunch at a swanky restaurant out of it.

My final thought of the evening: I've been offered a free ticket to see Don Pasquale at the Dallas Opera on Feb 24. A free ticket to see Nathan Gunn sing some pretty music. This ticket possibly comes with a post-performance trip backstage. But either way... I have enough frequent flyer miles to do it. I've found a reasonably-priced hotel within a mile of the opera house. The problem is, I'm going to see La Fille at the Met on Feb 22. Husband teaches on the evening of Feb 23 so we'd run into the same old childcare issue. So if I went, it'd have to be the day of. We all know how snow can interfere with travel plans. I'd much rather get a flight for the day before. Plus it'd be exhausting to run to NYC and then fly to TX the next day. I've pretty much told the kind and generous person/friend that I don't think I can swing it. But wow I wish I could! I can't leave him hanging, though, if he wants to offer the ticket to someone else. Ah well. I guess I'll have to resign myself to seeing Mr. Baritone in March and in April.

Damn I'm spoiled. And I like it that way.

Free Bloody Lucia!

I want to start off today's post with a huge THANK YOU to Scott R. for hooking me up with tickets for tonight's performance of Lucia di Lammermoor!

Where to begin. Oh I know, how about with the two embarrassing moments. It's ok, only one of them was mine. It was a simple one, really. I thought I recognized this guy outside and started talking to him, and then I realized that no, he wasn't who I thought he was... he didn't seem to mind. I, of course, was embarrassed and ran off to hide at the other side of the building. And here's where embarrassing moment no. 2 takes place. I was walking past the front of the theater. There was just 1 person out there, a fancily-dressed woman, on the phone. Her back was to me. As I approached, she let out this huge whopper of ... well, she passed gas. She immediately spun around with a look of horror on her face to see if anyone was in the vicinity. Hi, it's just me. I didn't look at her and didn't react - just kept going in my own mortification to escape from the case of mistaken identity. So that was her embarrassing moment. Maybe the tables are turning - yesterday I experienced my neighbor's embarrassing moment, today, this. Could it be I've had my quota of embarrassing opera moments? Oh wouldn't that be nice...

Ok so I went in to get the tickets and I didn't seem to be on the list. The Guy in Charge of the comp tickets was holding a wad of them about 2 inches thick though. I'm not sure if he ever found my name, but he scribbled it down and peeled two tickets off the stack... and they were in the 2nd row, off to the side. Then a super-tall person sat right in front of me. For the entire first act he kept moving his head, which meant I had to too, so we moved to the center section for the rest of it.

The opera itself was awesome!! Lisette Oropesa was Lucia. Wow. What a voice - like honey. She didn't quite have that gorgeous timbre that Elizabeth Caballero has, but she was close. In Act 2, when Lucia's fighting with her brother, she really seemed like a young teenager. And the mad scene - WOW. She caressed the notes up and down and all over the scale, made it sound easy. All this while covered in blood of course, lots of it. And I must confess, I liked her Lucia better than Anna Netrebko's. She just seemed to fit the role better.

Everyone in the cast was great. The role of Raimondo, the priest, was sung by a different person than what's printed in the program. That slip of paper fell out... we were treated to someone named Rubin Casas. I don't know when the change was made, but it looked to me like he had rehearsed it with them from the beginning.

Edgardo and Arturo were great too, but I want to especially mention Eric Dubin. When I was reading the cast list yesterday I kept thinking, his name sounds so familiar. Why? Oh yeah, I remember. He was Junius in Rape of Lucretia. Junius is the one who says that all women are whores after his wife is discovered, what was it, getting a massage? Well today he sang Enrico, the mean brother who lies to Lucia about Edgardo and forces her to marry Arturo. He was amazing. I almost want to say he stole the show, but with a part like Lucia it's impossible. Act 2 was his, though. It was an incredibly intense act, the "discussion" between Enrico and Lucia when he does the whole lying-and-convincing thing that sets her off. He was amazing. He scared the crap out of me, the way he was tossing Lucia around like a rag doll.

So I've seen him perform twice, one month apart, from the 2nd row each time, and in each opera the female lead for whom the opera is named kills herself. Different reasons, same result.

I realize now that I absolutely have to go see Abduction. I had budgeted only 1 opera this summer, and while I've seen two, I've paid for none, so my Summer Opera Allowance is still available. I'll probably be a bit blue about the supering thing, but I'll get over it. I've decided that it was probably my own fault I didn't get chosen - in the choice of photos. They wanted a full-body shot, and instead of posing for it specifically, I found a few casual ones I had on hand. I wonder if a purposefully posed shot would have been better. So I don't know if that's the reason or not, but either way, I'll be more professional about the photos I choose to send in the future.

Dressed for the Dress

I want to start off this post with a huge THANK YOU to Divavixxen for generously offering me her two free passes to the final orchestra dress rehearsal of the Mikado. I went last night and it was FABULOUS! Divavixxen was great. What a voice! Beautiful full mezzo, the kind of sound that gives me that Why can't I be a Mezzo-itis bug. She has great comic timing and drew many many laughs from the audience. She owns comedy. I’d love to see her in a dramatic role one day.

But let's back up for a moment. The adventure begins, of course, in the preparations. I narrowed down my shirt options to two. They were both in the basement, freshly washed. One was in a super-heavy laundry basket of clean clothes in the basement. The other was “lay flat to dry” and was doing so on the drying rack. I knew it wouldn’t be dry in time so I took a chance and tossed it into the dryer on fluff. I brought the other shirt upstairs and put it on the dining room table. The rest of the afternoon passed with its normal craziness. Then it was time to get ready. I put on my skirt and thought, hm, both shirts are downstairs. I know we have windows all around and the front door is open to the screen door, but what are the chances that someone will come by if I dash down in my bra? Mind you, I’ve lived there 10 years and this would be the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve ever come downstairs scantily clad. I dash to the basement and the one shirt is still wet. “Fine,” I thought, “I’ll wear the other.” Back up I go... and I can’t find the other shirt. I knew I brought it up, but where the heck did I leave it? About 10 seconds later I hear a “Hello?” And look up to see my next-door neighbor at the door. He’s in his 60s and is one of the most socially awkward people I know. I looked up just as he saw me. He covered his eyes and turned away in embarrassment, stammering that he just wants to drop something off. Meanwhile, I had forgotten that I wasn’t wearing a shirt...I look down, realize, and crouch behind a chair. He was so embarrassed. I’m such a terrible person, I was just trying not to laugh. Poor guy. Husband came to the rescue and I moved a few papers on the table to find my shirt buried underneath. So I was already in a giggly mood before I even left the house.

The performance was great - SO FUNNY!!! What a talented cast. The music and lyrics are so much fun, and they rewrote some of the words to make it relevant. It was HILARIOUS. As I said, Divavixxen ROCKED. She later informed me that it was the guy who played the Lord High Executioner who rewrote the lyrics. Apparently he’s done the role like 30 times so he’s got a flair for keeping it up to date.

Afterwards I ran into the guy who sang Romeo when I supered in it. He’s the lead in Abduction this year. He’s so sweet. The first words out of his mouth: We miss you! Argh! I know! He said that the opera is so funny that he has to keep himself from laughing so he can sing. So of course I said I’d come see it. Then he said he has a few free tickets for Lucia for tonight, am I interested? Hell yeah! Free opera tickets! Of course I can’t find anyone who wants to or is able to come. Story of my life. Well I’ve gone alone to the opera more than I’ve gone with others so, off I go tonight, alone to the opera. Thanks “Romeo!”

Now I all I have to do is figure out what to wear... and remember to get fully dressed before coming downstairs.

July is Coming

Voice lessons start up again this week! I'm so happy. I wonder where, though? I mean, I know where, generally, but have no idea what room. I guess I should find out before I get in the car on Thursday.

Other July Things:

• A cast member was generous and nice enough to offer me free final dress rehearsal tickets (or just one ticket? I should find out... how does one ask? Oh I know, one waits for that person to read this entry...) for The Mikado on July 9. I wonder if I should see if said cast member has any other as-yet unspoken for final dress tickets for the other performance she was almost in until they realized how overworked she was and let her off the chorus hook. There are only so many costumes a person can sweat in in the course of a week.

• NYC July 17th? Free concert in Central Park. Depends on the weather and my motivation. I'm spoiled by my up-close-and-personal seats for the past few performances - 14th row, 3rd row, 4th row, 2nd row - yeah ok and upper balcony very near family circle before that- and this could be even farther than those balcony seats. And crowded. And hot. With no where to pee. Since it's free, I'll wait and see. Funny, in March I was all annoyed that snow kept me away. Now I'm like, oh, it might be too hot, better not plan on going. You can probably tell that Florida is not on my list of retirement destinations.

• That other opportunity I've mentioned might take place in July. Not sure the etiquette about when to call back, but I feel that right now it's too soon. Maybe next month if I haven't heard anything. The person with whom I spoke was distracted about something unrelated to our conversation. I'm thinking it might be best to wait for that situation to pass before attempting further contact.

And that's July.

It's Fun to Have Fun!

The Cat in the Hat says, "It's fun to have fun BUT you have to know how."

So rather than sit here all mopey because I know that the Summer season at my local opera company is starting next week and I won't be a part of it... ok well in addition to sitting here all mopey... I'm suddenly getting very excited about my June adventures!

First - Studio recital - me and the teenagers! I love it! I never know if I should hang out with them since we're all students, or with their moms since we're the same age. Ok, yes, I end up with the moms, mostly because I don't know any of the pop-culture references so important to my fellow students. Actually the adventure starts the day before the recital. The day before the recital is Alex's 5th birthday and of course we're having a party. It'll be small. A few people are coming from about 90 minutes away so I'll drag a friend and possibly my sis-in-law to the run-through which happens to be smack dab in the middle of the birthday afternoon. My teacher is letting me go first for the run-through so I can arrive, sing and then run home to catch up with the gin-and-tonic crowd in my backyard. It's really mainly an opportunity to practice with the accompanist. So she handed out a permission slip (ha!) that said that only parents are allowed to attend the run-through. Since my parents live in Florida and I can sign my own permission slip, thankyouverymuch, I'll have my girlfriends be my substitute parents. Then the recital is the next evening. I think my teacher said I'm near the end. Of course I'll get Husband to record it. Heck I'll get my surrogate parent (who happens to be younger than me!!) to record the run-through the day before. If it's halfway decent I'll post it!

Then the following week I'm meeting regular reader and commenter, Banawoman, in the flesh!!!! I am so excited! Now what's totally cool about that is, not only are we meeting, but we are going to Rape of Lucretia together. Banawoman and I "met" when she joined Nathan Gunn's Yahoo fan page. I'm one of the moderators there so the membership approval emails come to me. (And just to clarify, my blog is in no way, shape or form affiliated with that group. Totally... Separate...Entity.) So she made some silly comment in her approval request and I replied with an email directly to her, which is odd because most of the time I just approve the memberships without emailing the person, or maybe I'll email a short, "You're approved" note. But I sent her a real reply, and she replied, and suddenly we were emailing and chatting every day. After she went to see Pearl Fishers we started talking on the phone regularly. No, we don't discuss Mr. Gunn. I mean, occasionally, but he is not the main topic of our conversations. Anymore. He was the catalyst and then BOOM it all took off without him. She and I are great friends - we talk about everything. We support each other through annoyances, tough times, joys, happy times and so on, and trust me, both our lives have been full of all of that in the past several months. So I'm super-excited to finally meet her in person, and then to go with her to see the guy who, if it weren't for him, we never would have become friends. I have a few friends thanks to him, actually. So maybe, just maybe, if Banawoman and I do hang out at the stage door afterwards ... unless by some freak of circumstance we get onto the backstage list! That's June 12, in case anyone with the Power to do that checks in... Just leave me an anon comment and I won't approve it, or email me luindriel@gmail.com! Yes, this is me NOT asking to get backstage. Right. So where was I? Yeah so if we do hang out at the stage door, I suppose we could thank the man for "introducing" us. And don't worry, Dear Readers, I won't disappoint you - no doubt I'll say/do something stupid and embarrassing for you all to laugh over and be thankful that it wasn't you. And if asked, I will pose for a photo. Maybe it'll have all of everyone's heads. Wouldn't that be novel?

So let's see... I haven't really looked beyond the Philadelphia Opera Nathan Gunn thing, since that would mean thinking about how I'm not supering and wondering how the rehearsals are going. However, a very talented, nice, considerate opera singer/blogger/all-around-wild-and-crazy-gal whose life should one day be portrayed as a comedy series on HBO (but who ever would play her???) and who I think I now owe about 36 drinks has graciously and generously offered me a comp (that means FREE!))) ticket to the final dress of one of the summer's operas because she's IN IT!!! So of course I'll go.

Hmm maybe I can get comps for the other final dresses. I mean, seriously, I was ready and willing to volunteer my time and sweat again this summer. Ok that's totally unrelated to me getting free dress rehearsal tickets but it sounds so dramatic, doesn't it? Anyway, I do know at least one of the supers who DID get in, as well as a few of the singers. I'd gladly donate money to the opera co if I had it. However, I don't have it, so I'm limited to volunteering...even if they don't need me... and of course I'd gladly accept free tickets to the other two final dress rehearsals. Ohh wait a sec can I go to the dress for the production I didn't get into? Hmm... Have to think about that one.

Ah once again opera and it's accouterments are keeping me awake.

Breaking News!

Husband has agreed to come with me to Baltimore to the free Nathan Gunn thing. His exact words: Sure, why not?
Then I said, "You could meet him and shake his hand."
His response: Ew. (this is in reference to the "Just think, I shook hands with him later," comment, found here.)

So there you have it. Husband and I are going on a date to see Nathan Gunn. I wonder if Husband will thank him for ... nah, let's not even go down that road.

So... who wants to babysit?

Oh, The Laughter

My next Opera Outing is to the HD transmission of Lucia. Husband doesn't want to go. He was pretty clear about having absolutely No Interest. So I've started asking my friends.

The first friend I asked told me she'd rather see an opera live than HD in the movies. Ok but... she's NOT seeing any operas live, and the HD transmissions are AWESOME! Plus I was offering the ticket for free. Gratis. Still no go. I thought she was a sure thing, but ok.

So I moved on and asked another friend who I thought would jump at the chance. She laughed. Seriously. She LAUGHED. She thought I was JOKING. I told her about the story. I told her about the glass harmonica. She kept LAUGHING and saying things like, "Are you KIDDING?" "No, REALLY? Opera?" Gee I might as well have told her that I was going on a root canal vacation or something.

I have a couple other people I can ask. I can't wait to see how they react. More laughter? More disdain?

So first I have free tickets to see Nathan Gunn perform. The only interested parties live a plane right away. Now I have a free ticket to see Lucia, live in HD. Anna Netrebko people!!!! Live from the Met!! That's the Metropolitan OPERA, not the Museum!!!! Nope. Nada. Nadie. Hm. Maybe they're trying to tell me something... perhaps I should switch my brand of deodorant.

It's Not What You Think

Before I really begin this post I want to say that I'm not really as obsessed as my blog would lead you to believe. Seriously. It's more like... a habit. I'm very loyal. Like a dog. Woof.

Ok so first off I just want to remind everyone that the Gunnster will be on TV tomorrow night in the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS here in the States. For those of you who are unable to view it, no doubt it'll show up on YouTube and/or MySpace soon after, and possibly even here on the blog, providing all my connections are able to connect, so to speak.

The other fun news is, The Gunnster (yes, him again, but no, I'm not obsessed) is doing a FREE, yes you saw it here, FREE recital lecture thingee at Gaucher College in Baltimore, Maryland on March 1st. That's about a 3 hour drive from here. I got myself a pair of tickets and now just have to decide... to drive or not to drive? Of course the weather might make that decision for me.

So... anyone in the Phila/NJ/NYC area want to join me on a little opera adventure road trip to Maryland to see Nathan Gunn for FREE? Add a comment with your email - I won't approve it but I'll reply via email.