Atlanta

Hey folks! It's almost showtime in Milwaukee. Brenda and her fellow castmates have their final dress rehearsal tomorrow night for Mozart's Così fan tutte with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. They've managed to put together an entirely new staging of the opera in a little over two weeks, which is pretty darn quick. Brenda and I are very excited to see all you who will be coming to the performance! If you'd like a sneak peek behind the scenes, here's a short video of the crew putting up the set.

This past weekend I flew down to Atlanta to see one of our best friends, Dan, who is a recent transplant to the city. Brenda and I haven't been able to see Dan and his wife Whitney nearly as much as we would like in recent years, but since we're in the same country for a change, I thought I'd pop down to see how he is liking his new stomping ground. 

Even though Dan has only been there a short time, he has already scouted out some excellent restaurants. I had fun trying a few different cuisines including some traditional southern dishes (e.g. grits, fried okra, and collard greens), Indian street food, and an excellent Japanese meal which was homemade by my talented host. We also made our way over to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum where we learned a little more about our 39th president.

Meanwhile back in Milwaukee, Brenda was busy working, although she did get to go to a concert on Saturday night (Rufus Wainwright performing with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra) and an apple orchard on Sunday.

 I'm not sure what's more fun: picking the apples or going for a ride on the tractor.

 Brenda picked a lot of great looking apples. If only we had an oven in our hotel room to bake an apple pie!

Dan looking presidential in the recreated Oval Office at the Jimmy Carter Museum. You've got my vote, Dan.

So that's what we've been up to. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

Milwaukee

Hey all! Brenda and I are currently in the great state of Wisconsin where my better half has been busy rehearsing for two upcoming performances of Mozart's Così fan tutte with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. It's great that Brenda is working so close to home for many reasons, but we're most excited about so many of our family and friends coming to the show next week. By the way, for any of you who will be there, the performance is going to be like a normal evening at the opera. That is to say that the singers will be in costume and wandering around on a set. (Sometimes operas are performed with the singers just standing in formalwear at the edge of the stage with the orchestra behind them, which I expected in this case.) There will also be supertitles in English just in case your Italian is a little rusty. If you'd like to learn more about Così fan tutte before the performance, you can do so here.

Besides a trip to the airport, I've never spent much time in Milwaukee. I've always heard good things, though, and so far I really like it. Our hotel is downtown and close to where Brenda is rehearsing so, with the exception of the grocery store, we've been walking everywhere. There are a lot of beautiful old buildings downtown and the lakefront is easily within walking distance from our hotel. We're planning on a long walk by the lake one these days.

We haven't been good about taking pictures this week, but we do have this picture from last week that features our adorable niece, Beatrice.

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

on Wisconsin

And we're back in the Midwest! Brenda's recital in Austria last Wednesday went really well. She performed all 23 songs from memory (19 of them were totally new to her), and the audience seemed to love every minute of it. After the recital we had dinner with our friend Andi and his family at an excellent restaurant not far from the concert hall. We had a great time catching up with them.

Brenda and pianist Wolfram Rieger during the recital.

The quaint restaurant we dined at after the recital.

Andi and me at dinner.

We've been hanging out at my parents' house since arriving in the U.S. on Sunday, but we head to Milwaukee tomorrow for Brenda's next engagement. We're really excited that she gets to work in her home state for the next few weeks.

Until next time, have a great week!

a week abroad

Greetings from Austria! After a wonderful and relaxing vacation in the U.S., Brenda has started rehearsals for her next engagement which, by the way, is tomorrow. The Schubertiade, a world-renowned Schubert festival, kindly asked Brenda to perform a solo recital of Schubert songs this summer at their beautiful recital hall in Schwarzenberg, Austria. Brenda appeared with the festival two summers ago as a part of a clarinet and piano recital, and she jumped at the chance to return again this year.

We were able to enjoy almost twenty hours in our apartment in Frankfurt before we had to leave again. Brenda snapped this picture of our balcony early Sunday morning after her jet-lag woke her up.

Schwarzenberg is nestled in the mountains in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg. According to Wikipedia the population is around 1,850 people. Brenda took this picture of me yesterday shortly after we visited the town's new grocery store.

Horses grazing in the middle of town.

While I went home with the groceries, Brenda headed off to rehearsal.

We're looking forward to spending a few days in Frankfurt after we head home on Thursday. As it turns out Brenda's second engagement of the season is with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra so we'll soon be flying back to the midwest. We're trying not to get too accustomed to the German time zone.

Until next time, have a great week!

vacation recap

Hey All! Brenda and I are back in Iowa visiting my family and enjoying the last few days of our vacation. We took many pictures during our time in the U.S. Here are a few of the highlights:

 Brenda is very focused when playing pirate-themed mini-golf. She has a very convincing pirate voice, too.

 We always enjoy seeing the double feature at the drive-in movie theater in Door County.

 We canoed for a couple hours one afternoon and managed to stay dry. We weren't so lucky on one of our previous canoeing trips.

 The room at our bed and breakfast in Door County.

We even got a little beach time.

 Our first night in Santa Fe we tailgated before the performance as is customary at the Santa Fe Opera.

 We also took a hike on the Aspen Vista Trail, although we took it easy because we weren't completely acclimated to the high elevation.

This time next week Brenda will be back at work in Austria. I'll fill you in on that gig next time. Until then, have a great week!

a quick trip out west

Hey All! Brenda and I ended up having a great time in Door County this past week. The weather was cooperative most days which allowed us to spend a lot of time being active outdoors. And we needed to be active to offset all of the delicious food and frozen custard we ate. We have many pictures to share with you but they will have to wait until my next post because we are still on the road.

After spending two wonderful summers in a row in Santa Fe, we felt the urge to head out west again this year. We arrived yesterday afternoon and headed straight to the Santa Fe Opera box office to get tickets to the opera that night - Donizetti's "The Daughter of the Regiment." Today and tomorrow we're planning on hiking, although we're going to take it easy because we're not acclimated to the high altitude, and tomorrow night we'll see another opera - "Cold Mountain." No doubt we will have loads of pictures to share with you in the next post. Until then, have a great week!

Door County

Hey Folks! Yesterday Brenda and I began the solo (or perhaps duo?) phase of our vacation. We'll be spending the next several days hiking, biking, kayaking, mini-golfing, dining, and most important of all, relaxing. In the event of rain, we'll add reading to that list and spend some quality time indoors at our comfy B&B. We're determined to enjoy ourselves and that's typically not too difficult to do in Door County.

This isn't really a vacation pic but I thought you'd be interested to see it anyway. Earlier this week a storm came through Wisconsin that managed to knock over one of Brenda's parents' trees. We were able to cut the toppled portion into smaller pieces and move it off the neighbors' lawn within a few hours.

Brenda took this shortly after we arrived at our B&B yesterday.

We didn't stay in our room long. We were ready to hike.

We woke up to another beautiful day this morning and enjoyed breakfast on the balcony.

So that's what we've been up to. Next Tuesday and Wednesday are travel days for us so I'm afraid the blog entry will be late again next week. We'll get back on track one of these weeks. Until next time, have a great week!