still on break

It's spring break week two here in Frankfurt, and things seem to have settled down for the time being. Brenda began rehearsals for Don Giovanni yesterday, and so far she's been having a good time. Her castmates are friendly (she knew most of them already but the new ones have also been very nice) and she's already enjoying working with the director. The production rehearses for seven weeks before it opens, so we'll be sure to give you regular updates on how the rehearsal process is going.

It's been twelve days since my last class before spring break, and I've almost completely forgotten that I'm still in school. Don't get me wrong, I've been spending a good chunk of time everyday getting work done (i.e. writing papers), but for some reason I haven't been associating that work with school. When I write to you next week, however, break will be over and I will be back in class.

Just to make sure you don't get the impression that we're shut-ins (I actually am a bit of a shut-in) who only study music (or law), I've included a couple of pictures from trips last week that took us outside of our apartment. The first is from our trip to Ikea. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, as you can see, and we enjoyed spending it indoors looking at inexpensive yet stylish furniture. Our visits to Ikea have traditionally included a long train ride followed by an endless, nausea inducing bus ride. A friend of ours, however, recently told us about a mythical road to Ikea that didn't involve a bus. Instead, you simply take the train a couple stops further and then walk. Our friend was right, and we had the best trip to Ikea that we've ever had (the weather helped).

Is it an oasis or is it actually Ikea?

 On our way back from Ikea we met up with our friends Barb and Michael and enjoyed a delicious dinner at a vegan restaurant in Frankfurt.

When Brenda is not working on Don Giovanni, she is studying music for an upcoming recital with her friend and colleague, Paula. It's not a high-profile gig (even though it has top notch singers), so Brenda and Paula were surprised to see their pictures on a poster advertising the concert.

 Whoever put the poster together chose a picture from Così fan tutte. Brenda and Paula both wish they had picked a different one. Here is one possible alternative:

This picture would not only have advertised Paula and Brenda but would also have served as a public service announcement that encouraged people to do more squats. 

Well, that's all I've got for this week. I hope you are having a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

a little sightseeing

Hey All! After a few weeks of bouncing around, we're both back in Frankfurt - at least for the next couple of weeks. I'm on spring break at the moment, which would feel more like a break if I didn't have so many papers to write. I'm very grateful, however, that I get to write them while being in the same town as Brenda. Speaking of which, she had her second performance of Così fan tutte on Sunday. Since Brenda wrote the blog entry last week, I didn't get the opportunity to tell you how wonderful her first performance was. Individually, each member of the cast was excellent, but what made the performance even more impressive was how well they all blended together. It was a great night at the opera. If you'd like to see a few pictures of the production you can do so here. 

As you know from last week's post, Brenda was with me in London last week. On Wednesday, our friend Andreas also came to London for a visit. If you've memorized all of our blog entries, which I'm sure you have, you'll no doubt remember that Andreas appeared in the blog in June when Brenda sang at the Schubertiade Festival in Schwarzenberg, Austria and also when Brenda visited him in his home town of Biedenkopf. Anyway, he's a good friend of ours and it was great hanging out with him in London for a few days.

 Brenda, Andreas, and me in London.

 On Friday, the three of us went to the Royal Opera House to see Die Frau ohne Schatten. None of us had been there before, and I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed the experience thoroughly. (Don't worry, this wasn't our opera attire. We were just picking up our tickets.)

 Yep, we were in the cheap seats. To tell you the truth, they weren't cheap.

 Andreas led us to parts of London we had never been to before, including the London Eye. In case you don't know, it's a giant ferris wheel in the middle of London.

 As you might have guessed, we got some great views of London including Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, which you can see in this picture.

We also met up with a new friend. Brenda's twin, Drew, has a friend that moved to London in September. Her name is Bree and she and I have plenty to talk about because she is a lawyer. The four of us had a great time having dinner at one of London's fine vegetarian establishments.

Brenda is hard at work studying her role in Don Giovanni, which begins rehearsals on Monday. She seems to be quite pleased that she has less music to learn for this role than she did for the last one (although she's quick to point out it's still a lot of music). Well, I should call it a night. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

7 year something or other

Hello all! Chenda is together once again! Chad is sitting next to me on our couch in London, and he's hard at work studying, so I'm on blog duty this week. Don't get me wrong, just because "Così fan tutte" has opened doesn't mean I'm done working, but I think our neighbors would revolt if I kept practicing "Don Giovanni"! That's the next opera I start rehearsing (in less than 2 weeks! Ack!), and it's also by Mozart! It's fun to be working on two operas by the same composer in such close succession. Obviously the music is very similar in style, but the two pieces have such different moods! The opening of Così on Friday went really well, and was also very enjoyable! It's very much an ensemble show, with all characters being of basically the same importance, so it helps that the whole cast is friendly. I'm looking forward to the next show on Sunday!

I did take some time off of studying during the weekend and Chad and I got to enjoy some beautiful weather in Frankfurt and London. We took a walk to the Stadtwald, one of our favorite places in Frankfurt, and I for one was very excited to see all the flowers and trees in bloom! Europe in general has had a much milder winter than the US, and temperatures have been in the 50s for quite a few weeks already. We left for London on Sunday, but before doing so, we had our friends Barb and Michael over to our place for a vegan brunch! They have recently gone vegan, which is even more strict than my plain ol' ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, but I had fun cooking a delicious vegan meal for us! Plus, mimosas are completely vegan, so how bad could it be? We arrived in London to more beautiful weather, and decided to walk to a movie theater to see "The Grand Budapest Hotel", which we would highly recommend! We actually went to another movie on Monday night, "The Lego Movie", and haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a very long time! Perhaps we were just exceptionally giddy, because we were celebrating seven years of marriage that day! Yep, seven years ago I somehow tricked Chad into marrying me. How happy and fortunate I am to have such a wonderful partner in this crazy wandering life!

On the way to the Stadtwald in Frankfurt! Pretty little flowers on the tree!

Our sunny kitchen where we hosted brunch! Of course I forgot to actually take pictures during brunch… Details, details...

Chad just wants to rub this weather in the Midwest's face.

Magnolia trees in bloom in London! 

I am not happy that there aren't pictures of Chad for the blog, but the picture I took of him last night at the gastro-pub in our neighborhood where we had dinner is much too dark. Even Rembrandt would have added more light… Maybe I can catch the elusive Chad on film for next week's blog! Until then, have a great week!

practice makes perfect

Hello all! Thank you for taking a break from your post-Oscars recovery to check in on us. Brenda and I had a nice weekend in Frankfurt after being apart for a few weeks. She had to go to work for several hours on Saturday, which gave me the opportunity to sit in on one of her rehearsals and see how Così fan tutte is coming along. It turns out it's coming along very nicely. The cast is excellent and, in spite of a short rehearsal process, they are managing to learn the detailed staging. I'm very excited to see the first performance on Friday.

 You can see a giant blue euro symbol reflected in this sign. The European Central Bank is very close to the opera house (that is until they move into their new building on the other side of the river).

 The costume department provides rehearsal costumes so the singers can get used to performing in outfits that will, hopefully, be similar to the real ones.

 Brenda in the rehearsal room. For the most part, the singers don't get to rehearse with the real set, especially for revivals of old productions. They will, however, get one rehearsal on the main stage tomorrow night with performance conditions (i.e. the actual set, costumes, orchestra, etc.).

After her first performance on Friday, Brenda has a week between performances so she's coming back to London with me. To tell you the truth, I think she's coming to London just to use the piano in our flat. Whatever the reason, I can't wait for her to be here.

By the way, do you remember the law dinner I was telling you about last week? Well, one of my classmates and I posed for a picture shortly before we sat down to dinner and he just sent it to me today. Here we are in our robes:

The robes definitely work better with black suits.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!