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May 21, 2002
Greetings to all, and please forgive the considerable, uh.... lapse in this missive! As I'm sure was true for you too, the events prompting my last entry (9/11) threw everything into a tailspin of just trying to go on with life in a very unsure time.
So to bring you slightly up to date, I took a long-overdue rest for a few weeks in the winter, which included visits to a beach, wonderful friends on the West Coast, a long Holiday visit with my amazing family, and basically some much-needed recuperation time from the previous year which dealt a few personal blows, and while offering some great professional highs, was not without an elevated level of stress!
In late January, I was able to embark on a 7-city European recital tour with the wonderful Malcolm Martineau, refreshed and re-energized to a surprising degree!! So THAT's why God made vacations....!! Malcolm and I had a wonderful time with a very demanding program that included Brahms, Berg, Debussy, Poulenc, and yes, even a couple of gems from the French Belle Epoque operetta repertoire (insert shameless CD plug here).... why as a matter of fact, they are available on my newly released CD called "C'est ça la vie,
c'est ça l'amour" (see "Recordings" section of this website)!! Anyway, the tour was lots of fun and we are going to repeat it in America in the upcoming season (Check "Performances").
Then came Paris. Suffice to say it was a notoriously..... challenging...production of the great noble Mozart opera seria IDOMENEO.
Thanks to the great cast we were all able to survive it; no one is better at boosting morale than tenor Michael Myers, and sopranos Christine Goerke (who, if this "opera thing" doesn't work out, could easily win a spot on Saturday Night Live) and Mary Mills. A cast of irrepressible American pals in a very tricky situation. It confirmed yet again the importance of sympathetic personalities in this circus world we artists travel.... having to take three trains to get to some dreary rehearsals way out in the suburbs of Paris was made infinitely more fun knowing that, in the wings there was always a Herald-Tribune Crossword Puzzle contest, news from home, or just lots of creativity to bring humor and levity to a not-so-humorous collaboration otherwise. We survived, moved on....
And now I'm in Brussels for Berlioz' "La Damnation de Faust" with the elegantly devlish José van Dam singing Mephisto, and young dashing German tenor Jonas Kauffman as Faust. It's Tony Pappano's last opera here after about 10 years as Music Director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. It's a starkly simple production, which after the overblown Paris debacle, is very refreshing! Berlioz didn't actually intend for this piece to be staged, it was written as a sort of concert/oratorio. It has always stymied directors who try to stage it too literally, due to its jagged scene construction. Therefore some of the most successful ideas are the ones that let the music do the talking, and the surreal nature of the story then comes out.
Springtime in Europe has been pretty beautiful, and Paris was gorgeous as always. Even a difficult production can't take away the beauty of the Seine, the grandeur of the Cathedrals, the miraculous historical architecture or the many dear friends there. "... I love Paris in the Springtime...." I feel a song coming on....
I hope you are having a lovely spring-into-summer wherever you live. Enjoy those blooming flowers and blue skies.
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