Naples Fauré Requiem

I've been here in Naples a few days, and it's seemed like ages! My
old friend Detlef Roth is the baritone soloist on this concert, so we
have had a lot of fun hanging out and catching up. Tullio joined us
this weekend, as well as our friend Matteo from Turin. We've had a
grand ole time! We made the mistake of booking a hotel way in
advance. This is usually a good thing, but the problem is, nobody
told us the concerts weren't at the opera house! So we spent a bunch
of time going back and forth to the venue (farther out of the center
of town) in taxis or metro. Luckily, our hotel was in the middle of
the center of town, so we got to see a bit of Napoli. Anything is
fun with Matteo, so our walks around the town have been more than
entertaining! We have eaten and walked and eaten and walked. Not bad.
The concerts went well - it's a nice piece. Nobody thought to tell me
that Jeffrey Tate had such bad scoliosis (or whatever it is he has!) I
didn't realize he was so misshapen, so I was a bit taken aback that
someone could do such a physical activity as conducting with such a
handicap. I suppose it's NOT a handicap for him, then. Kudos.
Pardon me being frank, but it surely was the 10ton elephant in the
room that nobody mentioned. Only problem for me was the choir, which
is unfortunately the heart of this piece. The tenors would tilt their
heads back and bawl - always under pitch. This kind of all-balls-out
singing really does not favor French music (or any kind of music, if
you ask me...) so I had to make sure I didn't cringe when the tenors
came in. Luckily, they were a bit better for the concert, but
still. Hm. At least the sopranos were good!! The orchestra was a
bit unruly but pulled through in the end. Nice people, nice hall,
nice concert. Merry Christmas.
We're going to go to Mount Vesuvius tomorrow with Matteo, drop him off
at the Naples airport and then continue on to spend the night with the
Cuomos in Salerno before heading on to Martina Franca. It will be
great to see them again.

LA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA!

Well, I got home to Turin from Brussels/Lille, turned around and
repacked my bags and then was off to LA for my concerts with LA
Chamber Orchestra. I was feeling a little puny, but thought I'd get
over it. Instead, I came down with a rip-roaring cold/sinus
infection. I arrived in shambles at my sister's place in Long Beach.
We rethought our rehearsal schedule, I went to my sister's GP, who
drugged me up on a ton of antibiotics, as he said it looked
bacterial. You don't want to know the colors coming out of my nose...
argh. He seemed desperate to put me on steriods, but I resisted.
So, I sort of marked my way through the rehearsals, trying to be as
careful as possible. The orchestra was very supportive, and the
conductor very nice, but in addition to my being sick, we simply
didn't have enough time to rehearse all the music! I had wanted to
cut the one thing that rendered the concert so hard - a Mozart concert
aria with piano that was too low for me, but that we'd put on so that
the conductor Jeffery Kahane could play with me on the keyboard. So
we kept that one and ended up cutting my favorite Mozart concert aria,
"Vorrei spiegarvi o Dio" with the excuse that I was sick. Crap. But
all ended well, despite my worries - I made it through both concerts
well. We made an announcement beforehand and I managed to sing well
despite all the crud in my nose and running down my throat. But it
was super-frustrating, as I felt like I had to be continually careful
and couldn't just let loose. Oh well. I think I will take the
Copland Emily Dickenson songs off my repertoire list. They're too
damn low. And the next time I do a chamber music recital, it will
actually be chamber music and not orchestral music done with a
somewhat smaller orchestra. There's way too much great chamber music
out there that is never done to waste an opportunity to do some of it
doing music I could do with a regular orchestra instead. You live
and you learn.
At least I got to see my sister a bit, and hang out with her. I miss
her!

BRUSSELS for Serge's Concert

Serge Kakudji planned a concert to thank all of the people who have
helped him over the past few years, and my ex-boyfriend Jan offered
the "box" of his theater for the venue, so Tullio and I trekked to
Brussels after my Lille concerts to see his concert.
We spent part of the day listening to his "sound check" - which was
almost a run-through of the entire program. I had to stop him so he
wouldn't sing himself out, but overall, the whole concert was in good
shape. We then went to hang out with my good friend Anait and her
family. Since I'm godmother to her littlest girl (Nina), we thought
it was fitting that we spend some time with them!!! Anait, as usual,
obliged my sometimes obsessive nature and played through some of the
Strauss with me for my concert in L.A.

Serge's concert went swimmingly, and we were SO proud of him!  We hung out in the bar afterwards with friends, and got to catch up with a bunch of people, and everyone got to meet my husband.  Even Jan and he had a chat, which was a little weird but nice. Of course they knew each other over the years, as Tullio and I have been friends forever, but it was strange for all of us to meet again with our relationships so changed.   But we got over it quickly, and it was so nice to be able to have so many dear people to me all together in one room.  Of course I didn't take any pictures, idiot that I am...

Next, HOME!  via Charleroi...   I'm so glad Tullio rented a car!

Lille

So, we travelled to Lille, where my fabulous husband and my dear friend Tamas met up with me. All was well and good, despite the cold,

as Lille looked magical! In the center of town (right outside the opera house), there was a carousel. Everyone was in Christmas shopping mode. 

Tullio and I had a beautiful walk in one of the parks in town, where there was even a little zoo!  Here he is with the kookaburra, and a picture of their red panda!


I was able to work on my music for my Los Angeles concerts with a pianist who took a train in from Brussels especially for me.   Yay!  We worked for hours and hours in the foyer of the opera house, until I decided I might not have any voice left to sing the Messiah that night if I didn't shut up!   But luckily, I finally felt like I had the Zerbinetta aria under my belt.  It's so weird to sing a different version of something you already know.   Since this version is even higher, it took a lot of adjusting - everything just felt weird for a while.  Now I think it'll be weird to go back to the "lower" version!   ha ha!   This version has a f# or two, a few f's, a bunch of high e's but it all makes the high d's passing tones, so they're all much easier, strangely enough!   Go figure.  I actually like it better, even if it does go on a bit...

Bad new is that Emmanuelle's little girl did NOT get any better (had pleurisy in her lungs and pneumonia!), and even though she desperately wanted to do the Messiahs with us, she needed to stay with her baby in the hospital until she got better.    So we rehearsed with Paul Agnew, and he did a great job with the concerts!   It was as if he's been doing this his whole life, not singing!   He did get on the tenor's nerves, though, understandably, as he brought him in for extra sessions, etc...  If the tenor had ASKED for that, it'd be one thing, but to bring him in as if he's remedial and try to teach him the way YOU used to sing the Messiah is another. John Tessier is a fine singer and artist and didn't need it.  Oh well.  We missed Emmanuelle, but the concerts were still a success, because of Paul's doing.  

I have come to conclude that I really don't like the Messiah that much for my voice.  It just never FITS.  I like pieces of it, but harumph.    Maybe I should just enjoy it from the audience.  Everyone always says "it was sooo nice" the way I sing it, but I really don't feel like anyone goes away CHANGED by my singing in it.  There are other pieces through which people say I truly touched them - maybe I should concentrate on those...    It probably didn't help that I felt I was not quite over my flu/cold from Frankfurt and/or coming down with another cold.    Grrr.      Since we flew back through Charleroi, we spent our last day in my old stomping grounds of  BRUSSELS, which is a hop, skip and a not even a jump from Lille by train.

Here's a picture after our concert.  Please do not comment on the cow patty on my head.  It was an unfortunate hairdo decision and it will not be repeated.  Ever.     ;-)

Parigi o Cara

I arrived by train today in Paris, just in time to jump in a cab and run to rehearsal.  Emmanuelle's back after a day's hiatus.   Her daughter (not even 3 yet) was still in the hospital with pneumonia, but she's now home and doing better.   Poor thing has been through the wringer.  Luckily, Paul Agnew jumped in for a day of orchestra rehearsals, and helped Emmanuelle out!   He's at the Garnier, singing the title role in Platée, but managed to conduct the rehearsal because it was his day off before the premiere.  Kudos to Paul!  Thank you!   My rehearsal went well, and we JUST finished all my music by 6pm.   Then a lovely dinner with Matthew White and John Tessier (see?  I wrote both your names so you'd know I was talking about you!!) followed at Terminus du Nord, one of my favorite brasseries for seafood platters here in Paris.  It's right across the street from the Gare du Nord.  I tried in vain to find Malinda and Jonathan, but they're not answering their French cellphone!!  I keep missing them when we're both in Paris.  Drat!  My consolation in one word: homard.  Well, maybe two:  homard and huitres:  lobster and oysters.  My sister is laughing right now as she reads this.  I was the brat who would order lobster whenever we went to a fish restaurant.  When I was eight!  In land-locked Texas. Some things never change.  Delicious!   Every now and then, you have to treat yourself.

I enjoyed my 5 hour train ride, and vowed to take more trains (even long ones) to get to my destinations this coming year.  So maybe I won't take a train to Houston, but European targets would be feasible.  I just end up feeling so much better when I step off the train, and I get so much good work done.  I think I may do the Copland songs by memory.   I must now be delirious...  Anyhow, I think planes aren't too good on my body.   Trains it will be!  

Tomorrow I'll work with Antoine Palloc on my LA program and then take the TRAIN to Lille.  Yahoo.  We have a rehearsal there at 2:30.   I think Paul Agnew will conduct again.   That should be fun, too!  

More Messiah madness soon...

Not such a great weekend...

Well, I just got back from Frankfurt, where I sang the Messiah with Emmanuelle Haim and the Hessischer Rundfunkorkester.   They were very good, and we had a great time, up to a certain point.   John Tessier was the tenor - a lovely Canadian, and Matthew White was the countertenor - another lovely Canadian with whom I sang Giulio Cesare (he sang a wonderful Nerone) years ago in Houston.  The bass was the hilarious Christopher Purves.  Emmanuelle was in fine form, and we put together a great Messiah, with much detail and attention.   She spent much time discussing the texts and the structure with a priest, so she had a LOT of insight about the structure of the piece, the meaning of the words, etc... that had never made sense to me until now ("...the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law..." from I Corinthians 15 : 55-56, for example!)

We enjoyed the pool and the steam room at the hotel, and I even had a massage.  Then, that night, I developed a rip-roaring sinus infection!   CRAP!  I woke up at 3am with a dried-out throat and a swollen nose.   The next day, Thanksgiving, we had our dress rehearsal in the morning and our first concert.  I could feel my sinuses drip drip dripping down the back of my throat, so after the rehearsal I went to an Ear-Nose-and-Throat doctor who works with many of the singers at the opera in Frankfurt.  She confirmed that it was a sinus infection - bacterial!  But of course I'm allergic to almost all antibiotics, so we went with a topical antibacterial nose spray, and a bunch of other holistic stuff.  Argh.

The concert went well.   Everyone sang well.   I finally relaxed a little in my last piece - "If God be for us."  I shouldn't have...   Mid-way through a coloratura line, I turned the page and looked down, horrified that what was there on the page (coloratura) didn't correspond to what I thought I should be singing.  So I brought my coloratura to some semblance of cadence, and waited for my next entrance.  And that didn't seem to make sense, either, so I didn't enter.  So I wasn't trusting either my memory nor what was on the page at this point.  Every singer's worst nightmare.  Finally, I heard my favorite part of the aria - - "Who is he that condemneth?" (which textually and harmonically only comes once in the whole song) and turned back one page, and VOILÀ - there I was!  I had not all of a sudden had a major lapse in my brain; I had turned TWO PAGES AT ONCE.   Argh.  If I'd just gone by my memory, I'd have been fine, but I was caught between the two and it confused my poor little infected head.  So at least I finished the rest of the aria with much conviction and a big trill and went back to my seat.  I probably missed a few bars of music, but it seemed like years of my life that I was standing there, not knowing where I was and nonchalantly looking like nothing was wrong.  (I didn't do all that acting coaching for nuthin'!)  At the end, we got rounds and rounds of applause, which was made more frustrating by the fact that I had drank about three bottles of water during the second half of the concert alone.  All I could think was that I needed to go to the bathroom!!   Ah, the glamourous life of an opera star.  The crowd loved the concert, and despite my lack of page-turning skills, the audience probably didn't notice, anyhow.  Emmanuelle had a wonderful first Messiah, which was what counted for me.   I've been with Emmanuelle for so many firsts in our lives (even first recording!), it was wonderful to be with her conducting debut for this piece.

After a run to the bathroom and a resolute blowing of my nose, I decided to let the organizers off the hook and just go ahead and cancel the next night's concert.  I had advised them that morning that I may not be able to sing the next day (depending on whether my sinuses got better or worse) and they had found a lovely replacement who could come the next day from England.  However, she had a 6-month-old baby and needed to organize her world in order to be able to come.   Not knowing if I'd be in shape to sing the next day until the next morning, I thought it'd be safer and more considerate to just go ahead and let them know the evening before, so everyone could organize things.   It was Emmanuelle's first Messiah, so even though she knew it inside and out, I didn't want her to have to scramble the next day to find someone, etc... and rehearse, when I could just make a decision the night before and everyone knew what to expect.  And good thing, as I woke up the next morning with an even stuffier head, and a groggy throat.  

I only found out later from some British sopranos in the choir that nobody does those two lines (that kill me) in "Rejoice" in one breath.  !   News to me!   I've never actually gone to a Messiah I didn't sing in as an adult, so I don't remember.   And I always thought I HAD to sing all the notes in the coloratura.  I've been killing myself for years, and all my colleagues take the easy way out and BREATHE!   I've just gone online and heard four or five people sing it (at a tediously slow speed) in one breath.  Hmmm.   Even Kathleen Battle fudges some of the coloratura to make the line.  Grr.  I need an extra lung.   But, as my sage friend Patrick Summers always tells me "nobody but YOU is impressed you made it through that line in one breath if it sounds like you're killing yourself to do it..."

I have now calculated that I have NEVER EVER sung a Messiah without a cold or some kind of sickness.  What is that?  I'm always fine for the rehearsals, but the night before, fall sick.  There must be something in the air.  or in my brain.   Am I the Anti-Messiah???   I really do like the music!  Although I must admit, what was Handel smoking when he wrote "I know that my Redeemer liveth"???   Did he not know that sopranos must breathe to live?   I don't know a piece that has more re-written lines by every singer known to man, to try and make sense of where to breathe in it.  It'd make a lovely oboe solo, I think.

So I went home a day early.  Luckily Lufthansa only made me pay 50Euros to change my ticket, and it was a lovely sunny day in Turin after rainy Frankfurt.

I futzed around the house, reorganizing all the crap in the bathroom, and decided to give my two turtles, who have been living in the whirlpool bathtub for over a year now, a break and let them enjoy the sun, too.  So I carted them in a clear plastic bin from Ikea which I use for this very purpose, onto the balcony.  It's a tall bin, I might add, as my turtles are bound and determined to wander no matter where you put them.   They've both tried to escape numerous times, climbing on one another to no avail to get over the rim of the bin, which is about 5 inches beyond their reach even stretched high on the back of the other turtle.

I specify all this, because after all my cleaning frenzy in the bathroom, etc...  I came outside to find only ONE turtle in the bin.  Cursing the missing turtle, whom I have not-so-charitably named A#^-hole (as he's aggressive and annoying to the other turtle, Houdini), I scoured the entire balcony in search of the missing turtle.  I hoped against hope that he had hidden himself under some plant, behind some piece of patio furniture, etc...  

I look down at the concrete courtyard, three flights down, and don't see anything.  I search again, on hands and knees in my nightie on the balcony.  I search INSIDE the house, in case he's wandered INSIDE instead of outside.   How can I lose a 1-pound turtle? He has the circumference of a cd - he is not small!  He likes to curl up under the bed or couch, wherever it's the hardest to find him and he can collect the most dustballs.  No dice.

So finally, I change out of my fuzzy slippers and bathrobe and go down to the courtyard.   To my horror, I see the shell of Asshole behind a plant that the ground floor inhabitant has outside her door.   I see one paw at a horrible angle and lots of blood.  I don't see a head.  So I decide to at least get rid of the body so I don't scare my poor neighbors, and start to imagine my neighbors as they discover a turtle head outside their front door....   As I pick up the shell, he moves!  He's still alive!   He had just retracted his head into his shell.  

I take him upstairs and call the vet immediately.   She asks me a few pertinent questions - is the shell totally cracked open?  No, just cracked around two big seams.  Is he still bleeding?  No.  Any other big wounds? No, just the shell and a knick on his chin.  Can he move all his legs?  Yes, he's actually trying to walk around still.  So she tells me to wash him off with hydrogen peroxide and keep him warm.   He makes it through the night, swathed in kitchen towels, in a lovely Ikea filing box (it's dark), on the shelf above the radiator.   The next day, same thing.  Monday, the vet was finally back in town and I was her first customer.  We did x-rays to see if he had horrific internal injuries (no) or other broken bones (maybe a hairline fracture in his shoulder?  Inconclusive... ) And she gave him a few shots and gave me prescriptions for injected antibiotics.  You can't just open a turtle's mouth and then stroke his neck with pills...  So I'm going to have to give the turtle a shot a day.  Already, he didn't like me; this is not going to help.  I put an antibiotic cream to help heal his shell, then put HONEY on the fractures, as well.   I figure, for good measure, I'll put some of my 20 dollar Manuka honey on it.   I'm one guilty turtle mommy, alright.  Poor Tullio will have to do all this when I leave for Lille and then again when I'm in Los Angeles.  Argh, I just realized he's joining me for the weekend in Lille.  Who will do the shots?   Poor little animal...  I've got to find someone before I leave town tomorrow, darn it!

So, back to work now on all my music for the concert in Los Angeles!   It's a kick-me-in-the-butt program of Aaron Copland's Emily Dickinson songs, two Mozart concert arias and the original version of Zerbinetta's aria.   Not easy.   Especially since the first two sections require low a's, and the last section requires multiple high E's and even a couple of F#'s!!!   I've been studying up on Emily Copland and trying to analyze these poems.  Also not easy.   But very cool.   I'm looking forward to L.A., but actually a bit mad at myself that I accepted to do some Fauré Requiems right afterwards in Napoli.   It means I'll have to rush back to Europe instead of being able to hang out AFTER the hard concerts and see friends and visit.  Oh well.   L.A. will have to invite me BACK!   Tell all your friends to come to my concerts!   I'm so happy I'll get to stay with my sister Lisa in Long Beach, but hoping that her bathroom remodel won't kill my allergies...  They just ripped out the walls today, and I arrive in a week.  Hmmm.  Cross your fingers for both of us!

All was not lost this weekend, as at least the turtle survived, I got the living room and bathroom organized, I'm feeling better (and the infection didn't give me pharyngitis),  I got to hang out with my beautiful husband, and we even went to a building expo at the Lingotto on Sunday for two hours, and followed it with a steak dinner at Eataly, right next door. (More on EATALY here - http://www.eatalytorino.it/eatalytorino/welcome_eng.lasso)  We saw lots of different ideas for a new house... and good news is, Monday we heard back from our realtor that our offer on a house here in Turin is probably going to be accepted (wayyyy below the listed price!)   It is Italy, so I'm not holding my breath til we have the keys in hand.   Keep your fingers crossed.   Then will come all the major remodeling...   I'm dreaming already of molding, tiles, kitchens, flooring and CLOSETS!   ahhhh.

But it's all very exciting.  Now that the garage, basement, living room, kitchen and bathroom are organized, Tullio's place here feels a heck of a lot more liveable.  Now if I can just get the closet and bedroom organized!   hee hee!   That's for my next week-long furlough at home... whenever that is.

Off to Paris tomorrow to rehearse the Messiah with Emmanuelle and her orchestra Le Concert D'Astrée. http://leconcertdastree.fr/   I can't wait - it'll be the same gang as Frankfurt, so things are a bit more relaxed now that we know what we want to do with the piece.  Emmanuelle has also been sick as a dog this weekend, so I hope she's gotten better.  Her daughter was in the hospital with the swine flu!   Argh.   Say a few prayers for them, as well.  

I'm hoping to be able to cross paths with one of my best friends, Malinda, and her husband Jonathan in Paris, as well!