Dressing up

Greetings once again from Hamburg! Time has been flying. In fact, I just realized my last day of class is one month from today. I don't return to the US for another two months, though, so I've still got quite a bit of time for sauerkraut and pretzels. And, of course, lots of time to spend with my lovely wife who, by the way, will be premiering an opera tomorrow night. I've got a spoiler for all of you; below is a picture of Brenda in one of her dresses. That's right. I said, "one of." Brenda will be doing a costume change during the show to get the maximum "swoon effect" out of the audience. The performance tomorrow night (of Maria Stuarda) is being done concert style, which means that the singers stand on stage with the orchestra and just sing the opera with their music scores in front of them. There won't be any staging or costumes, just beautiful music and well dressed people. Like this lady...

Knock 'em dead, Brenda!

I know that most of you don't get many opportunities to hear Brenda sing, so I thought I would let you know about three recordings she's on that have been released recently. I don't remember writing about these recordings in the past, but if I have, you'll have to forgive my forgetfulness. The first recording is actually a DVD of the opera Rinaldo which was made while Brenda was at Glyndebourne. The second is a CD of songs written by the modern composer Lowell Liebermann. The last is also a CD which Oper Frankfurt made of its concert version of Wagner's Die Feen. The following are links to the recordings on Amazon.com.

Rinaldo DVD from Glyndebourne (also available in Blu-ray)

Little Heaven CD by Lowell Liebermann

Wagner's Die Feen performed by Oper Frankfurt

As I mentioned last week, our friend Adelin came to Hamburg this weekend to visit and to see a new German city. We had a good time kicking around town, although I realized that everything I know about Hamburg I can show to someone in a day. The second day we ended up at a French restaurant that is owned by a friend of Adelin's family. The food was delicious, which I'm sure was partly due to the amount of butter they used in the dishes. Maybe I should go for a jog tomorrow to undo some of the damage. Anyway, I think I will call it a night here. Send good thoughts towards Germany tomorrow and Friday for Brenda's upcoming performances, and we'll be sure to tell you about them next Tuesday. Until then, have a great week!