Sick days

Its going around.  Last week a member of the opera company got sick, then his wife and then Brenda.  She felt it coming last Thursday and ended up staying home Friday and Saturday.  Symptoms include headache, soar throat and fatigue.  You know, the usual.  Brenda started feeling a little better yesterday and decided to go to work today in spite of it being one of those rainy days when you don't want to leave the house.  So far I have managed to elude the illness (knock on wood).

Unfortunately we had to skip the premier of Lucia di Lammermoor yesterday.  I did perform in the final Lear on Saturday which went very well.  During the curtain call we were greeted with many a "Bravo!" but we also received one very prominent "BOOOO".  I think a funny part of working as a performer is when you get done with your job people let you know how they felt about it.  I wrote lots of e-mails last year when I worked in an office and I was never once applauded for or booed at.  If I had been, however, it might have helped me do a better job.  At least I would have known without a doubt how people felt about my work.

The rain seems to have let up a bit so I may venture out for a jog around the neighborhood.  I hope you had a nice weekend.  Talk to you soon!

Two months

Hello dear friends.  I just noticed the date and subsequently realized that we hit the two month mark a couple of days ago.  We've definitely learned a lot in our first couple months and we're continuing to feel more and more comfortable.  Life here is very enjoyable with built in time everyday for oneself.  When a singer in the opera house is rehearsing a show, as Brenda is now, they generally have a rehearsal in the morning from 10-1 and a rehearsal in the evening from 6-9.  They are not to exceed 6 hours of rehearsal a day or they will get paid overtime.  Its really quite nice since Brenda has the ability to come home after her morning rehearsal, eat lunch, work on music, take a nap, run errands, etc.

My schedule is even more open at the moment as I approach my final performance of Lear.  I have a meeting with the Intendant (General Director) of Oper Frankfurt scheduled for October 30th.  I'm not sure what we're going to discuss but keep your fingers crossed for me.  We're approaching the big audition season in Germany so I plan on contacting agents and opera companies to request auditions.

This may sound silly but we have really been missing Mexican food.  We haven't come across any Mexican restaurants in Frankfurt and even the grocery stores don't have much.  We have been able to buy beans (Bohnen) but forget about refried beans or plain old pinto beans.  The pinto beans we have found are usually bottled in some mysterious sauce.  Cheese isn't hard to come by, especially brie and gouda, but cheddar cheese is a rare find.  And then there is salsa.  Salsa here tastes nothing like salsa in the US.  It tastes kind of like runny ketchup with tiny chunks of peppers in it.  There are avocados in the grocery stores but you wont find cilantro anywhere.  On the plus side, every grocery store we've been to has had basil plants and fresh mozzarella (for only 59 cents one place).  Also, pesto is commonplace so we're really covered on the Italian front.  I guess that makes sense since we're a heck of a lot closer to Italy than we used to be.

This upcoming weekend should prove to be a nice one.  This Saturday is the last Lear and on Sunday we are attending the premier of Lucia di Lammermoor.  We hope that you have a wonderful weekend!  Ciao!

Beautiful morning

The sun is shining.  The coffee is made.  My day is off to a good start.

Today our guest Chris and I get to see Brenda in her final performance of Die Zauberflöte this season.  At least we think its her final performance.  There will be other performances of the opera just not with Brenda.  If, however, one of the other Paminas gets sick or if schedules need to be changed then there is a chance that she will be sent on again.  I think that's one of the cool things about a repertory theater like Frankfurt.  In many cases there are multiple people in the company who do each role.

Speaking of Chris, this is Chris's second stay at our humble abode.  He is on a big european audition tour.  He has sung for a bunch of different opera companies and managers and has picked up three managers so far!  (Over here it is common for a singer to have multiple managers.)  I asked him how he set all of these auditions up and he said he took the advice of the book "What the fach?".  For those of you non-singers who don't know, the word fach, which can be translated several ways, means type or specialty.  In Germany, singers fit into one type (fach) like tenor, soprano, baritone, etc.  Beyond the big categories of voice type there are further distinctions based on what repertoire you specialize in.  For instance, there are lyric tenors, helden tenors, spiel tenors...you get the picture.  The book "What the fach?" is a guide to getting work as an opera singer in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.  Chris highly recommends it and, based on what I've read so far, so do I.

Yesterday I had my house audition for Oper Frankfurt.  I sang for the Intendant (General Director), the head musical coach and a person in charge of casting.  The audition went well.  I will let you know if anything comes of it.

On my way home I stopped by the McCown's place (our American friends who live down the street) to give them a full report of how the audition went.  As I entered their apartment I was trying to keep the front door from slamming shut and in the process got the tip of my index finger crushed between the door and the frame.  I didn't think too much of it until I looked down at my hand and saw the nail was turning blue and purple.  Now I've seen such injuries on other people but they usually have stories that involve hitting themselves with a hammer or having some heavy object fall on their hand.  I, being a sissy-opera-boy who barely knows how to work a hammer and nail, never thought I would sustain such an injury.  Alas, my inability to properly shut doors has left me with a visible mark that will beg the question "What happened?".  I'm taking suggestions for stories I can tell that are better than "I can't move my hand fast enough to get it out of the way of a closing door."  I'd like my story to involve saving the life of a child or something like that.

Have a great weekend!

Bet you didn't know...

Last Thursday I got a letter.  Why it was addressed only to me I still don't know.  At the time I was really excited since we only get letters from Deutsche Bank (our bank) and Mainova (the electricity company).  I tore it open and saw that it was an official letter from the Gebühreneinzugszentrale or the GEZ.  It came with a page to be filled out and a return envelope.

I knew that I'd be going to the opera house that night so I thought I would take the letter to my friend, Michael McCown.  He is kind enough to serve as my human cheat-sheet for all things German.  After we stab one another at the beginning of the second act we have the whole rest of the act to wait until the curtain call.  We call that time Bier Uhr (Beer Hour).  Last Thursday this mysterious letter from the GEZ was our Bier Uhr topic of conversation.

Michael looked at the letter and then asked me if Brenda and I had a TV and radio.  I told him that our apartment does have a TV that we use exclusively for watching DVDs and we have an alarm clock that has a built-in radio.  He then proceeded to tell me that in Germany people have to pay for the usage of TV and radio waves and the organization that monitors it is called the GEZ.  

At first I didn't believe him.  He said it would cost 17 euros per month.  I asked him how they could possibly know if we used our TV or not.  He said "They have their ways."  I asked what would happen if someone claimed they didn't have a TV or Radio and didn't pay the fee but then were caught using one.  He said they could get a 1,000 euro fine.

This warranted further investigation.  Michael asked some native Germans that walked by what they knew about the GEZ.  They had a pretty light-hearted nature about the whole thing and said they hadn't heard of anyone getting fined.  They also said if the GEZ comes to your door, don't let them in.  Sound advice.

In other news, we have been doing quite well.  I have a company audition for Oper Frankfurt on Thursday.  I'm excited to have the opportunity to sing for them.  We have a return guest coming into town tomorrow and we are looking forward to Brenda's parents coming to visit next month.

We hope you're having a great week!

We're still here!

Hello all!  Many apologies for the long gap since my last post.  We have been preoccupied with this, that and the other.  But we're back and in full force.

Since I last posted I have had two performances of Lear which went very well.  Brenda has had a few more coachings on The Turn of the Screw and will begin staging rehearsals next Thursday.

Our friend Kathrine Whyte stayed with us for a week and took off this past Monday.  It was wonderful having her here.  She got a glimpse into our boring, internet-addicted lives and didn't even judge us (at least not out loud).  That's a sign of a true friend.

Last night we had the pleasure of attending a recital by Anne Sofie von Otter at the opera house.  For those of you who don't know, she is a highly acclaimed Swedish mezzo-soprano who has as big of a career as any classical singer can hope to have.  If you're interested in learning more about her, click here to go to her website.

Another interesting event took place since I last wrote.  We experienced our first German holiday, or at least the first German holiday we are aware of.  October 3rd was the Tag der Deutschen Einheit or the Day of German Unity which, to quote wikipedia, "commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990."  There weren't any fireworks or dancing in the street that I saw.  Really we only knew it was a holiday because stores were closed.  That said, it is definitely a day worth celebrating.

Well, that gets you caught up with us.  Not to bring up a sore subject but we have been following the goings on with the US economy and we hope that it isn't affecting any of you too badly. Just so you know, we only have one futon so if any of you decide to abandon ship and start anew in Germany our futon is available on a first-come, first-served basis.  And we have to be paid in Euros.  What can I say, we've grown to like the Monopoly money.

Talk to you soon!