Love is in the air....

So I know I have been absent here for a bit - my apologies - but duty was calling! We don't have the longest rehearsal period for this particular revival (this is, I believe, the 4th time putting Robert Carsen's brilliant staging up), and considering it is my first stab at the role (sorry for the pun), I've just had all of my mind, energy, and attention pouring into it - and I think it may just be worth it. I think I perhaps underestimated the scope, intensity and density of this role - it's an easy mistake: you look at the notes Bellini jotted down onto the page, and they look oh-so-simple. "It's a few chord changes, a simple melody, the odd chromatic leading tone to bend the phrase - seriously, how entailed can it be?", she foolishly thought!

Well, as I posted earlier, I'm in love. I quite simply LOVE this role, and am pinching myself in each rehearsal that I have been entrusted to sing it. Are you kidding me? It's bliss. We're having a wonderful time, our first orchestral rehearsals have gone extremely well, everyone is excited and positive, there is a great rapport between cast, chorus, orchestra - and hopefully the audience will catch the fire, as well!

However, my work is not done, so I will write more once my "day job" is settled. We have a big week ahead, building to an exciting opening night on Saturday, so I'll be back. The brilliant part of having some time off this weekend was spent with my camera in a blissful day in Paris, thunderstorms and all, enjoying nooks and crannies, and a delightful, full-fledged Parisian dinner party: the writer, the singer, the painter, the banker, lots of talk of literature and cinema and laughs - not to mention aromatic wine and a GREAT Camembert - is there anything better?

In the meantime, because I am in a "Romeo Mood", I seem to be catching lovers everywhere, as in the pigeons above, and of course, to put a smile on your face, I introduce you to Odie, the pug: