On the move

Hello from Frankfurt! Brenda and I are back in our German city, although we're not in our German home. One of Brenda's singer friends is staying at our apartment at the moment, and we have imposed ourselves on our generous friends, the McCowns. Since our arrival yesterday, Brenda and I have been busy meeting up with friends, getting ready for an appointment at the foreigner's office, and going to the opera. Because of all of that, we still haven't found time to tell you about our trip to Arcachon and to share a few pictures. We will do our best to write that post tomorrow.

Our next couple of weeks will be quite busy. On Saturday we will be going to Austria where Brenda will perform in a chamber music concert as a part of the Schubertiade Festival. After that we are headed back to Frankfurt for a night and then to New York City for a few days so Brenda can have a few lessons with her voice teacher. Finally, we will fly to Santa Fe where we will remain for the rest of the summer. We are very excited to be in one place for two months!

Chenda back in Deutschland

Hey all! Brenda and I spent the day packing and traveling and are once again in Frankfurt. I'm afraid we weren't able to find time to write the blog today, but we will write a post tomorrow that includes plenty of photos from our trip to Arcachon. Until then, have a great night!

si le temps le permet (weather permitting)

Hello all! I hope you're having a lovely June so far. Personally I've got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the weather in Bordeaux has been fantastic over the past few days, and we've actually been able to leave the house without wearing coats. On the other hand, Iowa City is experiencing some flooding that could possibly reach our ground-floor apartment. The good news is that things appear to be drying up. Soon I should be able to stop worrying about what I will do if Brenda's bean bag chair gets ruined.

Brenda and I plan on taking advantage of the good weather by going to the beach tomorrow. Specifically, we'll be going to Arcachon, a town about an hour away from Bordeaux on the western coast of France. Oddly enough, the University of Iowa has a month-long program in Arcachon for law students who want to study abroad. That program is happening right now, and I would like to track down my fellow law students who are there and rub it in that I'm on vacation while they have to study. I think Brenda would rather just go to the beach, so that's probably what we'll do. 

Brenda and I took a walk one sunny day to the public garden. 

We found palm trees!

And speaking of Brenda, she's at work right now doing her third performance of The Magic Flute. Her premiere last Wednesday was great, and she was greeted with hearty applause at the end of the night. I would say that the show went off without a hitch but the audience was quite distracted for about ten minutes during the second act. While Brenda was singing her second aria, a woman a few rows ahead of me apparently started to feel ill. Several people stood up to tend to her while others hurried in and out of the theater presumably in search of a doctor. In spite of the commotion, the show did not stop. Brenda later told me that she had no idea anything was going on in the audience because of how dark it was, and the conductor also appeared not to know even though it was happening only a few feet behind him. Eventually the ill woman was escorted out of the theater. By that time, Brenda's aria had ended and we were well into the next scene. I'm afraid I have no idea what became of the women who wasn't feeling well, but I'm almost positive that her episode had nothing to do with Brenda's singing. 

Brenda and I have a week left in France. We will miss the baguettes, but we're both eager to get to Santa Fe. We have some bouncing around to do before we land in New Mexico, but I can tell you more about that next week. I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!

La Flûte enchantée

Hello again from rainy Bordeaux! We've been enjoying another relaxing week since I wrote to you last.  Brenda was only needed for two rehearsals since last blog day, one of which was her final dress rehearsal last night. The show looks great, by the way, and the audience loved it (there was an audience because opera companies often give tickets to performers to give to their friends and family for the final rehearsal). They particularly enjoyed the scene where the tenor is singing a difficult aria while being upstaged by people dancing around with animal masks over their heads. I have to admit, the bear on roller blades was rather funny.

During the intermission I was able to sneak past an usher to get up to Brenda's dressing room. On my way back to my seat, however, the usher wanted to have a word with me about going backstage. He said something to me in French, and I responded in French with a phrase Brenda taught me, "My wife is Brenda." It was clear to the usher that my French wasn't adequate to understand what he was saying, and it was clear to me that he didn't know who Brenda was. He managed to tell me in broken English, which was miles beyond my French, that I wasn't allowed to go backstage. Oh well, I guess I'll have to drink a glass of wine during the intermission tomorrow night instead of going backstage. Or maybe Brenda should come join me in the lobby in her costume. I'm sure the audience would enjoy that!

Brenda in one of her costumes for The Magic Flute.

A festival began on Friday along the Garonne river. Brenda and I mostly avoided it over the weekend due to the throngs of people, but we did take a picture of this pirate-like boat. And we ate a Nutella crèpe.

We also took a picture of this impressive fountain. If you look closely, you can see that the water is actually coming out of the horses' nostrils. 

Another day we took a long walk along the river and ended up stopping for a drink at the halfway point. 

Brenda's drink was clearly healthier than mine - it had fruit in it! The pretty orange colored fruit is called a Physalis (aka groundcherry).

Brenda and I stumbled across a burrito place that proved to be a more than adequate Chipotle substitute. You may not know this but Brenda's singing is burrito powered. It's kind of like Popeye's relationship to spinach but much tastier and not as healthy.

While I write this, Brenda is hard at work preparing the premiere gifts she bought for her cast-mates for their first performance tomorrow night. She got a bunch of flute-shaped bars of soap at a cute soap shop around the corner from our apartment, and she is attaching notes wishing everyone good luck for the performance. She's giving gifts to 28 people, so she's going to be at this for a while. By the way, Brenda did a fantastic job speaking in French to the owner of the soap shop. The owner even complimented Brenda on her French skills and was especially impressed by her pronunciation. Brenda went on to tell the owner that she was singing with the opera, which caused the owner to give us a free, non-flute-shaped bar of soap. So if you ever find yourself in Bordeaux, we can recommend a great soap shop.

I am constantly amazed by Brenda's language skills. She's conversational in French and Italian and excellent in German. I've studied French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Latin and I can only say "My wife is Brenda" in two of those languages. Either Brenda is a genius or I've got a hole in my head that leaks foreign language knowledge.

That does it for this week. I'll let you know next time how Brenda's first two performances go. Until then, I hope you all have a great week!

a freezer full of snails

Hey All! As difficult as it is for me to believe, I've been in Bordeaux for over a week. The past week has been quite relaxing for Brenda and me both. Brenda had some rehearsals but was not needed every day. On top of that, yesterday was a French holiday so Brenda was able to enjoy a three day weekend. We've been trying to enjoy as much time outside as possible, but the weather hasn't been very cooperative. It's been raining almost everyday, but we've managed to find a few dry moments to venture out.

 Brenda and I took a nice walk along the Garonne River.

As you can see, there is a wide walkway along the river, which is very popular on the weekends.

 We stopped to take a panoramic picture of the beautiful Place de la Bourse and the reflective pool in front of it.

I've been able to meet several of Brenda's cast-mates, and they've all seemed really nice. Most of them are French and, in spite of two French classes, I have no French language skills to speak of. Luckily, French is a beautiful language, and I enjoy hearing people speak it around me even if I have no idea what they're saying.

Over the weekend Brenda and I went to Iron Man 3 (in English with French subtitles) and then went grocery shopping afterwards. The grocery store was huge. It had to be at least as big as your average American grocery store. And by French standards, that's big! As far as we could tell, French people eat pretty much the same things that we do. Although, we found one thing that I've never seen in a grocery store before...

 Chilled escargot. I think I'll stick to frozen pizza.

A beautiful church we saw on the walk home from the movie theater.

Brenda is reading a popular fantasy book right now (think wizards and dragons) and she came across a familiar name in the last sentence on the page. Apparently Brenda and I aren't as original as we thought.

Brenda cuddling with a friend's cat while the cat looks for an escape route.

I should call it a night. Brenda had a piano dress rehearsal tonight, which I watched, and it ended around midnight. The show looks great, by the way. I'm excited for the opening a week from tomorrow. We hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

Enchanté

Greetings from France! Chenda is together again and loving it. My first couple of days in Europe were quite busy. I arrived Saturday morning and, after a rejuvenating nap, I was able to thoroughly enjoy Brenda’s performance at Oper Frankfurt that night. The next morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast prepared by our kind hosts, Barb and Michael. They made some wonderful French toast in honor of my birthday. Yep, I’m a year older, but it’s questionable if I’m any wiser. Later that day we met up with some friends for coffee, and then another friend drove us to the airport where we hopped on a plane to France. Since then, Brenda has been rehearsing while I’ve been trying - with limited success - to get over jetlag.

Barb and Michael even had cake for me! Our friends are too nice.

Last Wednesday Brenda went to Saint-Émilion, a beautiful town not too far from Bordeaux. (My darling Brenda, would you be so kind as to fill in the rest?) Brenda taking over! Saint-Émilion is a beautiful medieval city near Bordeaux, and some cast-mates and I visited the city on our day off last week. There’s a very unique church there, called L’Eglise Monolithe, which made me feel like I was in the Mines of Moria. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the church, but it was a truly amazing experience. Here are some other pictures I took throughout the day!

Two Paminas in Saint-Emilion!

Trying not to fall down a very steep and slippery stone road. I'm carrying precious cargo: freshly baked macarons!

Florian and Caroline across the courtyard of a church. 

Saint-Emilion (being part of the Bordeaux region) is of course famous for its wine. I bought some at this store, and thought the sign was quite cute.

Caroline's 13-year-old daughter came with us and she and I both seem to have an affinity for making funny faces. She was an absolute delight, and I loved getting to know her more!

We have begun rehearsing in the theater finally! What a gorgeous opera house!

Brenda’s first performance in Bordeaux isn’t until May 29^th, and her rehearsal schedule is pretty full between now and then. She will get a couple of days off here and there, however, so we’re considering taking a trip to the coast. Other than that we will undoubtedly be socializing with her fellow cast members, which we did last night, and enjoying spending time together. I’m also going to try to figure out if I had hobbies before law school that I could return to now that I’m on vacation. It’s hard to remember these things now that I’m older.

We hope you all have a great week, and we’ll talk to you next Tuesday!

Proof that Chad is actually in Bordeaux. This is a plaza just down the street from us.

summer is almost here

Hey All! Spring has finally arrived in Iowa - at least that's what we're all hoping. Last week was cold and rainy in Iowa City, but I didn't realize how good we had it until I went to Des Moines on Friday. The ground was covered in snow. It's May, by the way. Apparently Des Moines hadn't seen that much accumulation of snow so late in the spring since the mid-1940s. I took a couple of pictures, but I couldn't bring myself to post them.

I'm happy to report that my final exams will be over in about 36 hours. I'm looking forward to taking a break from my studies for a few months and focusing on being a more attentive husband. I don't think Brenda has been feeling too neglected, however. She has French wine and cheese to keep her company after all...

Brenda had a layover in Amsterdam over the weekend, and she took a picture of the impressive cheese selection in the airport.

Brenda had a successful trip to Frankfurt this past weekend. She sang the role of Cleopatra after not having sung it since January and with no rehearsal. Apparently the performance went very well, and Brenda enjoyed seeing friends she hadn't seen for a few months. She is back in Bordeaux now but will be returning to Frankfurt again this weekend for her final performance of Giulio Cesare. I will be at the performance if all goes according to plan, but the challenge will be keeping my eyes open (my flight arrives in Frankfurt earlier that day).

Before I forget, Brenda is mentioned and pictured in Opera News this month. The magazine did a story on Frankfurt Opera, and Brenda was one of the singers they highlighted. If you'd like to read the article, you can do so here.

I think I'll call it a night. Feel free to send smart thoughts my way over the next couple of days. After that, though, you can dumb it down. I don't plan on doing much heavy thinking this summer. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!