Have a good slide into the New Year!

Hey all! I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season! Even though life has been extra busy lately (which I'm sure you can relate to), we've had a great couple of weeks. My parents' trip to Germany went by in a flash, but we managed to squeeze a lot in during their stay. In addition to seeing two performances of Brenda's opera, we visited eight different Christmas markets (Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and five in Munich), and ate a whole bunch of holiday goodies. We were sad to see them go but so happy that they decided to spend Christmas with us in Germany this year!

 Brenda and I posing for a picture in Heidelberg with the castle in the background.

 The quantity and variety of holiday treats in Germany is unreal. We tried the dark chocolate version of that white ball on the left and it was delicious.

 Our train rides to and from Munich were great and quite fast (254 kmh equals about 158 mph).

 My parents at Marienplatz in Munich in front of the New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus). There is a Christmas market at Marienplatz every year as well as numerous others scattered all over Munich.

 While in Munich we took a day trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small mountain town in the Alps that was home to the 1936 winter olympics.

We enjoyed a lot of sunshine during our brief stay in Bavaria and got to see this gorgeous sunset.

On top of performances of La Sonnambula, Brenda has been working on her next role, Semele in Handel's Semele. We've also got a short trip coming up that was a Christmas present from Brenda to me. The trip includes two tickets to a musical in London! I'm really looking forward to it.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year, and we'll talk to you in 2015!

Happy Holidays!

Hey all! Brenda, my parents and I just got back to Frankfurt after a few great days in Munich. It's too late to write a full blog entry tonight, so I'll fill you in on our recent activities after Christmas. I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!

My parents and me at the Christmas market in Heidelberg.

holiday guests

Hey All! As of this morning Brenda and I are happy hosts of two holiday guests. My parents arrived today, and they will be staying with us until after Christmas. This is their first trip to Germany during the Christmas season, and we're really excited to celebrate the holiday with them this year. We've already taken them to Frankfurt's Christmas market where we introduced them to some of the holiday shops and traditional cuisine. It was a good start to their trip, and we're looking forward to a lot more of the same in the coming days.

Brenda's artistic abilities are not limited to music.

Brenda and my parents at the Weihnachtsmarkt.

We passed a shop that sold marzipan shaped in various ways. We were particularly impressed by the marzipan pig heads.

I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share with you next Tuesday. Until then, have a great week!

Christmas markets around the globe...

Hello all! Chad and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to NYC and are hoping to not feel the effects of jet lag too badly, since we were only there for 4 nights! I went to have lessons with my voice teacher, and was lucky enough that Chad felt like joining me. We haven't gotten too much time together in NYC since we lived there, so it was great to visit some of our old haunts. We didn't get to see too many friends since it was such a short trip and we didn't want to wear ourselves out (well, especially me, since I am in the middle of shows!) so if you're reading this and you're in New York and we didn't contact you: we're sorry!! But my voice lessons were great and we had no travel problems so all in all it was a great trip! We also got to stay at Chad's aunt and uncle's place again, which is always wonderful.

We found a little piece of Germany in New Jersey! I'm sure Chad was tempted to buy this, since we haven't even had Stollen in Germany yet this season!

Apparently German things are really "in" right now in New Jersey. The little blue flags are for Munich's Hofbräuhaus beer. 

It's always fun looking at all the decorations up for Christmas in NYC. This is the lobby of the Shops at Columbus Circle, and if you look through the windows, you can see an outdoor Christmas market set up!

Standing outside in New Jersey with a view of lower Manhattan behind us. The big skyscraper is One World Trade Center. 

To help us stay awake today, we met with our friends Barb and Michael at the Weihnachtsmarkt. Today instead of drinking Glühwein, we had some Feuerzangenbowle, which we've talked about in previous years. We even have our own set to make it at home! 

Before I end this blog post, I should mention some rather exciting news. In April of 2013 I was part of a project that culminated in the first full recording of Milhaud's L'Orestie d'Eschyle and that recording was just nominated for a Grammy! The awards ceremony is on my birthday, so maybe I'll get a really good present this year! 

Well, one week from today, Chad's parents will be joining us in Germany for Christmas, so we look forward to sharing all the fun we have with them! Have a great week!

Brenda on the radio tomorrow!

Hi all! I'm sorry I forgot to mention this earlier, but Brenda's first performance of La Sonnambula, which was recorded on November 30th, will be broadcast on the radio tomorrow (Hessischer Rundfunk) at 8:05 PM German time (1:05 PM US Central). If you'd care to tune in, you can find more information on the Hessischer Rundfunk website, although it's in German. I'm sure all you need to do is follow the link and click "Livestream" at the appropriate time. Enjoy!

that sleepwalker can sing

Hey all! Let's get right down to it. Brenda's opera opened on Sunday and she was fantastic. I know I always say that, but it is no less true this time. In fact, she was exceptionally fantastic on Sunday, and based on their deafening applause, the other fourteen hundred people in the audience agreed with me. The critics also agree, but don't tell Brenda. She has no interest in reading reviews or hearing about them until after her performances are over. Her next performance is tomorrow night in case you want to come check it out.

As I mentioned in our last blog entry, the Weihnachtsmarkt opened last week and I've already been a few times. The first time was with a few classmates who had never been there before. I enjoyed showing them the shops and telling them about the various holiday foods. Brenda and I went again today and met up with a friend. As we were leaving it started to snow, which was somewhat unexpected because it hasn't been that cold lately. I'll be headed back to the market again tomorrow because my German class is going on a field trip. You might think that I'd get sick of going, but I'm not too worried about that happening. I have an exceptional amount of Christmas cheer.

Brenda at the Weihnachtsmarkt yesterday enjoying her first cup of Glühwein this year.

After telling you about how much I've been standing out in the cold lately, it may not come as a surprise to you that I've come down with a cold. Shortly after Brenda started feeling normal again, I started sniffling. I'm not saying that she gave me her cold, but I kind of hope that she did so I can't get her sick. This role she's singing at the moment isn't the easiest part to sing, and I'm sure Brenda doesn't want to cancel a performance almost as much as the opera house doesn't want her to.

To cure my illness, Brenda is currently making a delicious smelling soup. I'd better go see if I can lend a hand. I hope you're all having a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!