Sunday, November 19, 2006
Sad Hotel #6
Just got back from Germany where I performed "Sad Hotel" again with Barbara Wachendorff and Jens Peter. In case you don't remember, Sad Hotel is the program on poetry by Anne Sexton. Jens plays the piano and composed the songs I sing, and Barbara recites other poems with Jens quasi-improvising accompaniment. It's a very powerful program and we always get good feed-back. Thursdays performance wasn't any different. The audience was made up mostly of psycho-therapists, I think, since the concert was sponsored by the IGST-Forum and part of their seminar on Fear. They appreciated the choice of poems and the program itself. It was recorded this time by the technician on the premises. I hope it turns out good. However, a terrible thing happened on my first note: The technician had forgotten to turn the volume down and at the last minute I had decided to stand directly behind the microphone, albeit a good distance back, because he said the recording was only through those microphones. No ambient mics. Anyway, the first note is good and solid and scared me half to death! So much so that my voice cracked and I jumped away from the mic. I wish I had stopped and started again, but oh well. I'm quite satisfied with the rest and am glad to have made a recording if only for posterity's sake. We agreed that I would try to sell the program in England, which would mean Barbara reciting everything in English. She'll do a wonderful job, I'm sure.
Ten days in the States
I'm just about to end my tour of the US. Just kidding, I was only in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City. I had a concert with the Voices Found Singers (formerly known as the Lady Chapel Singers) at Bryn Mawr college in Pennsylvania yesterday. It went extremely well, especially given that it was a completely new program. But it's a wonderful program, full of fun music from all over the Americas - Cuba, Mexico, Canada, the US (folk songs, spirituals and modern compositions). I had a great time.
Last Tuesday Lisa Thomas and I gave a presentation on Voices Found and a bit about Hildegard von Bingen at Rowan College. Another member of VFS, Lourin Plant, teaches voice there and is co-teaching a class entitled "Songs of Protest, Songs of Praise", for which we gave the presentation.
From there I went to New York City for lessons with Cornelius Reid. He looked well, but complained a bit about disintegrating - he turns 96 later this month!!!! My lessons were great and restored my confidence greatly. I also went to Patelson's Music Store and bought the last remaining book of Cornelius', his Dictionary of Vocal Terminology. Now my collection is complete!
While in NYC I spent a lot of time with Anna Levenstein, a member of Elysium. We had some stuff to do to prepare for our concert in Salem, OR in March. It was lovely to spend time with her. I also took advantage of Tower Records' closing sale and bought several DVDs ("Good Night and Good Luck", "The Big Sleep" and Peter Sellars' opera production "Cosi fan tutte") and CDs ("The Magic Flute", Mozart; "Don Pasquale", Donizetti and "The Cries of London").
So, that was that.
Monday, October 23, 2006
World Nuclear Association Gala Dinner
OK, this is pretty old news now, for me at least! But since I haven't posted it here, it's possible no ones heard anything about it!
Magnus and I left the next day (Sept. 9) on our honeymoon and continued to travel nearly non-stop for the next few weeks, so no time to blog, even though I made a resolution to blog on a weekly basis!
Anyway, on September 8, 2006 I performed a program of English songs about London (in the greater sense) for the World Nuclear Association. It was at the Grosvenor Hotel where the WNA held their Gala Dinner at the end of their yearly symposium. It was the weirdest thing, the idea of singing for a bunch of "nuclear nerds" as the General Director John Ritch put it, was strangely daunting. I wanted to impress John, since he had hired me to entertain them without ever hearing me sing!
I found an excellent accompanist, Nigel Foster, who was recommended to me by Paul Martyn-West. We worked very well together. We performed:
If Music Be the Food of Love, Henry Purcell arr. Benjamin Britten
On the Brow of Richmond Hill, Henry Purcell
Bedlam, Traditional arr. Cecil P. Sharp
Sweet Polly Oliver, Traditional arr. Benjamin Britten
The Bells of the Cheap, Charles Ancliffe
No. 6 Rhyme, from "A Song for my Lord Mayor's Table", William Walton
The program was 15 minutes long and I spoke a few words about each piece to give a bit of context. Since the theme of the evening was London (according to the administrator the people who come to this symposium don't have much time to explore London, so he wanted to give them a bit at the Dinner), I chose songs which each mention London or a part of London. Except for the first one, of course, which I thought was a good opener the audience having just finished dinner!
It was a great success! Just the right length and I didn't make a fool out of myself speaking between songs! In fact, people said they really appreciated the guidance. Also, the person I wanted to impress, John Ritch, was duly pleased! I'm very happy with the way the performance went, and would welcome such performing opportunities in the future!
Magnus and I left the next day (Sept. 9) on our honeymoon and continued to travel nearly non-stop for the next few weeks, so no time to blog, even though I made a resolution to blog on a weekly basis!
Anyway, on September 8, 2006 I performed a program of English songs about London (in the greater sense) for the World Nuclear Association. It was at the Grosvenor Hotel where the WNA held their Gala Dinner at the end of their yearly symposium. It was the weirdest thing, the idea of singing for a bunch of "nuclear nerds" as the General Director John Ritch put it, was strangely daunting. I wanted to impress John, since he had hired me to entertain them without ever hearing me sing!
I found an excellent accompanist, Nigel Foster, who was recommended to me by Paul Martyn-West. We worked very well together. We performed:
If Music Be the Food of Love, Henry Purcell arr. Benjamin Britten
On the Brow of Richmond Hill, Henry Purcell
Bedlam, Traditional arr. Cecil P. Sharp
Sweet Polly Oliver, Traditional arr. Benjamin Britten
The Bells of the Cheap, Charles Ancliffe
No. 6 Rhyme, from "A Song for my Lord Mayor's Table", William Walton
The program was 15 minutes long and I spoke a few words about each piece to give a bit of context. Since the theme of the evening was London (according to the administrator the people who come to this symposium don't have much time to explore London, so he wanted to give them a bit at the Dinner), I chose songs which each mention London or a part of London. Except for the first one, of course, which I thought was a good opener the audience having just finished dinner!
It was a great success! Just the right length and I didn't make a fool out of myself speaking between songs! In fact, people said they really appreciated the guidance. Also, the person I wanted to impress, John Ritch, was duly pleased! I'm very happy with the way the performance went, and would welcome such performing opportunities in the future!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Greetings from Vienna - the wedding saga continues
It's almost all completely behind me! In a couple of days I'll be flying back to London to "resume" my "normal" life... We are in Vienna this week - Magnus is at a conference here.
Hmmm. Where did I leave off? Ah yes, my mother arrived in London on Wednesday. We spent about 2 days at home, she rested and Magnus and continued getting ready for the wedding. Namely, we had the program to make. Mom helped me get ready for the WNA gala dinner performance by accompanying me on my piano. I wanted to memorize the songs, but memorizing text has never been my forte!
My brother, Tom and his wife, Barbara arrived on Friday. I let them fend for themselves getting to the Tooting train station on their own. They made it! They settled in a bit and then we all went out to have a drink and dinner at a pub in town. Magnus met us there. Tom, Barb and my mom loved it. I'd forgotten it was Friday and so it was VERY lively at the pub, with the clientel spilling out onto the street of course.
Saturday Tom and Barb went sight-seeing and were out carousing for a very long time! They met some real characters in their pub trawlings - a lesbian bachlorette (hen) party and a local man at a pub near Tooting Broadway Tube station named Bill. Magnus and I managed to finish the programs and started printing them. We ordered Indian and ate in - yum!
Sunday we managed to get our act together and get downtown to St. Paul's Cathedral and to the Eucharist. It's the 2nd time I've been there and the Cathedral Choir hasn't sung either time. The music was great though! We had lunch in a local pub and Tom and Barb went off again on their own. We had a steak and potato dinner which T & B had conceived.
They left at about 4am to catch their plane to Pisa. I couldn't fall back asleep of course, because we had to get up only an hour or so later to catch our own plane to Brescia with Mom.
To be continued...
Hmmm. Where did I leave off? Ah yes, my mother arrived in London on Wednesday. We spent about 2 days at home, she rested and Magnus and continued getting ready for the wedding. Namely, we had the program to make. Mom helped me get ready for the WNA gala dinner performance by accompanying me on my piano. I wanted to memorize the songs, but memorizing text has never been my forte!
My brother, Tom and his wife, Barbara arrived on Friday. I let them fend for themselves getting to the Tooting train station on their own. They made it! They settled in a bit and then we all went out to have a drink and dinner at a pub in town. Magnus met us there. Tom, Barb and my mom loved it. I'd forgotten it was Friday and so it was VERY lively at the pub, with the clientel spilling out onto the street of course.
Saturday Tom and Barb went sight-seeing and were out carousing for a very long time! They met some real characters in their pub trawlings - a lesbian bachlorette (hen) party and a local man at a pub near Tooting Broadway Tube station named Bill. Magnus and I managed to finish the programs and started printing them. We ordered Indian and ate in - yum!
Sunday we managed to get our act together and get downtown to St. Paul's Cathedral and to the Eucharist. It's the 2nd time I've been there and the Cathedral Choir hasn't sung either time. The music was great though! We had lunch in a local pub and Tom and Barb went off again on their own. We had a steak and potato dinner which T & B had conceived.
They left at about 4am to catch their plane to Pisa. I couldn't fall back asleep of course, because we had to get up only an hour or so later to catch our own plane to Brescia with Mom.
To be continued...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
It's getting serious!
OK, so we have almost everything organized - EXCEPT the program booklet! And now, even I am starting to get nervous about it!!
My mother is arriving this afternoon. Poor thing her flight is delayed 3 1/2 hours! I'll go there to pick her up. She called very early this morning to tell us that she'd be later than expected. She said it was something with the plane, nothing to do with the recent terrorist scare, so that's a good thing!
Magnus' mother and Manon are busy stressing out about how to organize the wedding day with all the appointments for doing hair and make-up and what-not. It seems to be especially difficult because Magnus and I shouldn't see eachother at any point after we've started getting ready! At any rate, it seems like my mom, Barb and I will go to the hairdresser and make-up lady as a group and Manon, Franca and Magnus as another group.
So, here we go! 9 days and counting!
My mother is arriving this afternoon. Poor thing her flight is delayed 3 1/2 hours! I'll go there to pick her up. She called very early this morning to tell us that she'd be later than expected. She said it was something with the plane, nothing to do with the recent terrorist scare, so that's a good thing!
Magnus' mother and Manon are busy stressing out about how to organize the wedding day with all the appointments for doing hair and make-up and what-not. It seems to be especially difficult because Magnus and I shouldn't see eachother at any point after we've started getting ready! At any rate, it seems like my mom, Barb and I will go to the hairdresser and make-up lady as a group and Manon, Franca and Magnus as another group.
So, here we go! 9 days and counting!
Rehearsal for the Gala Dinner
I finally had a rehearsal with the accompanist for the WNA Gala Dinner I'll be performing at on Sept. 8. His name is Nigel Foster and he seems to be a pretty well-known accompanist. Paul Martyn-West recommended him and since then I've seen his advertisment in a few places. It was very synchronistic because on the day I asked Paul if he could recommend anyone, I was at his house and he'd given me Nigel's phone numbers and we'd moved on to other things and the phone rang - it was Nigel Foster! So I spoke with him right then and there and he agreed to do it!
I went to his house in Wimbledon and we went through all the songs. They all went well except the Warlock song "The Cricketers of Hambledon" so we tossed it. It didn't go so well in the program and the key doesn't suit my voice very well. Oh well! We decided to do another Purcell song - If Music be the Food of Love, First Version in the arrangement by Benjamin Britten. It goes well with the rest of the program and is a link to the other Britten song we're doing. This is the program:
1. If Music be the Food of Love, H. Purcell, arr. Britten
2. On the Brow of Richmond Hill, H. Purcell
3. Sweet Polly Oliver, arr. Britten
4. Bedlam, arr. Cecil Sharp
5. The Bells of the Chepe (from Old Ludgate), Charles Ancliff
6. Rhyme (from A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table), William Walton
My mother is going to help me memorize the text to these songs. If we can just repeat them over and over, I think that will help a lot! Memorizing strophs is not my forte. Sigh.
I went to his house in Wimbledon and we went through all the songs. They all went well except the Warlock song "The Cricketers of Hambledon" so we tossed it. It didn't go so well in the program and the key doesn't suit my voice very well. Oh well! We decided to do another Purcell song - If Music be the Food of Love, First Version in the arrangement by Benjamin Britten. It goes well with the rest of the program and is a link to the other Britten song we're doing. This is the program:
1. If Music be the Food of Love, H. Purcell, arr. Britten
2. On the Brow of Richmond Hill, H. Purcell
3. Sweet Polly Oliver, arr. Britten
4. Bedlam, arr. Cecil Sharp
5. The Bells of the Chepe (from Old Ludgate), Charles Ancliff
6. Rhyme (from A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table), William Walton
My mother is going to help me memorize the text to these songs. If we can just repeat them over and over, I think that will help a lot! Memorizing strophs is not my forte. Sigh.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The Final Countdown
I suppose you could say we're on the home stretch to our wedding day - September 1st, 2006. We made our final trip to Italy this last weekend in order to make "final" pre-preparations. On Wednesday I traveled to Frankfurt mostly for play and Prosperity. I taught about 8 lessons as well. Thursday evening, with a mysterious air, Pamela took me out. She said I should dress as though I were going out for a night on the town in London. So, basically I dressed up. She took me to my favorite restaurant that serves Frankfurter Kueche (Frankfurt Cuisine) and we were joined by Caroline, Kelly, Sue, Sabine, Andrea and Alison. It was a Bachelorette Party!!!! Thank you, Pamela, for organizing thatgirliey night out! It was fabulous! And girls, thank you all for coming to celebrate with me! I felt very loved and honored! And I had tons of fun! I just love the "outfit" you got me for my wedding night! I got some lovely items to go with it while I was in Italy. :-)
Friday evening Pamela, Caroline and I had a Prosperity session. It was really good, way too long since the last time. I don't want to even think about the time I might have to stop coming. :-( Pamela and Caroline brought jewelry and stoles for me to try with my dress as things old/new/borrowed/blue.
Saturday, in the middle of the night, I flew to Italy. Magnus' father came to pick me up in Bergamo because Magnus was still sleeping off his Stag night! I went to the Bridal shop with Manon and Magnus' mother for the "final" fitting. There are still adjustments which have to be made. Unfortunately none of the jewelry Pam and Caroline gave me goes with the dress. But I do now have something borrowed, blue and old to carry with me (Pamela's handkerchief). And I think I will keep Caroline's pink stole in case it is cold!
Later we went to the Castello di Bevilacqua (www.castellodibevilacqua.com) to meet with the florist and work out what and where and how we want the flowers arranged. I don't even want to think about how much it's going to cost! But the florist seemed very competent and down to earth and willing to do whatever we (Franca!) wanted.
That evening we went to dinner in La Bortegha (I think) at the restaurant San Marco. There we had the most spectacular pasta I've ever had!!!! Tortellini, which were so delicate and Tortelli alla Zucca (with Pumpkin filling) which was sweet and flavorful. Mmmmmmmh. Magnus' mother presented me with a gift to go with my wedding dress - a pearl and silver choker and small pearl earrings to go with it! I was speechless. I didn't know what to say to thank them for such a precious gift.
Sunday we went for a bike ride and visited Aunt Rita. She lives in the old family farm complex. All the farmland was sold off long ago, though. I must take my mom there to see what a typical Italian farm house looks like. Later, Magnus and I took the MG convertible out with Simone and Claudia for an aperitive and dinner. Anna L. joined us for dinner and we went to a restaurant she had tried to take us to another time but it had been closed. The food was good, but pretty expensive. And compared to San Marco the cost/value ratio wasn't nearly as good! We made it home just before the heavens opened up and a deluge came.
Monday, Manon and I went to a lingerie store to exchange something for her and to find some nice undies for me. We found something just perfect!
Later we flew back to London. With all the turmoil around flying to/from London it wasn't too bad. They were letting people take small bags onto the airplane (I was allowed to take my purse, but had to pack my keys and my London Oyster card!). Our flight was delayed slightly, and we arrived in London just fine. We waited forever for our bags though, which is abnormal. It was around 8pm when we arrived home.
17 days and counting!
Friday evening Pamela, Caroline and I had a Prosperity session. It was really good, way too long since the last time. I don't want to even think about the time I might have to stop coming. :-( Pamela and Caroline brought jewelry and stoles for me to try with my dress as things old/new/borrowed/blue.
Saturday, in the middle of the night, I flew to Italy. Magnus' father came to pick me up in Bergamo because Magnus was still sleeping off his Stag night! I went to the Bridal shop with Manon and Magnus' mother for the "final" fitting. There are still adjustments which have to be made. Unfortunately none of the jewelry Pam and Caroline gave me goes with the dress. But I do now have something borrowed, blue and old to carry with me (Pamela's handkerchief). And I think I will keep Caroline's pink stole in case it is cold!
Later we went to the Castello di Bevilacqua (www.castellodibevilacqua.com) to meet with the florist and work out what and where and how we want the flowers arranged. I don't even want to think about how much it's going to cost! But the florist seemed very competent and down to earth and willing to do whatever we (Franca!) wanted.
That evening we went to dinner in La Bortegha (I think) at the restaurant San Marco. There we had the most spectacular pasta I've ever had!!!! Tortellini, which were so delicate and Tortelli alla Zucca (with Pumpkin filling) which was sweet and flavorful. Mmmmmmmh. Magnus' mother presented me with a gift to go with my wedding dress - a pearl and silver choker and small pearl earrings to go with it! I was speechless. I didn't know what to say to thank them for such a precious gift.
Sunday we went for a bike ride and visited Aunt Rita. She lives in the old family farm complex. All the farmland was sold off long ago, though. I must take my mom there to see what a typical Italian farm house looks like. Later, Magnus and I took the MG convertible out with Simone and Claudia for an aperitive and dinner. Anna L. joined us for dinner and we went to a restaurant she had tried to take us to another time but it had been closed. The food was good, but pretty expensive. And compared to San Marco the cost/value ratio wasn't nearly as good! We made it home just before the heavens opened up and a deluge came.
Monday, Manon and I went to a lingerie store to exchange something for her and to find some nice undies for me. We found something just perfect!
Later we flew back to London. With all the turmoil around flying to/from London it wasn't too bad. They were letting people take small bags onto the airplane (I was allowed to take my purse, but had to pack my keys and my London Oyster card!). Our flight was delayed slightly, and we arrived in London just fine. We waited forever for our bags though, which is abnormal. It was around 8pm when we arrived home.
17 days and counting!
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