And so the Daddy Tomato said...

Props to anyone who gets the Pulp Fiction reference.

Um...hi there. Remember me? I think the last thing I wrote here had to do with slow and steady work. Well, nearly a month has gone by, filled with said work, certainly steady but rarely slow. Let me try to catch you all up on some of it! Opening night of our season is past, our second production is set to fly, and THE REFUGE advances (seriously, Mahler 8 seems like an afternoon runout gig in a cafetorium compared to this piece)...well, take your shoes off, stay a while.

Back around that last post, we had just started rehearsing Verdi's UN BALLO IN MASCHERA. Fabulous mid-Verdi goodness: betrayal, loyalty, misunderstanding, amor, more amor, death, forgiveness. Big choruses, glorious orchestra, glamorous and amazing soloists. But now I'm speaking of opening night, and in this blog we're not there yet. You see under the green hat in the picture the grin of our leading lady. Tammy wears Ryan's chapeau in one moment, but in a few weeks that hat will be worn by a conspirator who wants to take the life of that same lady's lover, and we'll all be drawn into that tragedy. I never get tired of this transformation.

The last week in September sees our BALLO cast rehearsing together, while elsewhere in the opera house...

-the High School voice students begin their lessons, and Opera To Go gets going.

-the Studio singers have voice lessons and coach; a few are in BALLO, others prepare for FILLE, one is preparing a New York City debut recital, another prepares a huge all-Russian program for Houston, and two others are away on important jobs.

-A recital program featuring Studio singers happens at an art museum in Houston.

-Our REFUGE coach and I are working with the Studio soloists on this oratorio, but also attending Congolese and Spanish church services and working with a group of singers from The University of Houston as we prepare this piece. Sue Elliot, our Special Projects Coordinator, is also talking to specialists in Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese, and Russian music and securing their participation in this piece.

-and...writing this several weeks down the pike? None of us have ANY idea of what lies ahead.

KK