Grinding the Gears

Deep into Carmen mode - suddenly and brutally. It always seems as if we should be able to pull off a concert opera with minimal staff and less fuss. But it's always far harder that I remember. (Yes, we all know my memory is not my best feature.) Why can I not learn?

Anyway, all is fine, but we are drowning in the details. Like how to get the refund for the parking ticket validation at the Kennedy Center after the ticket personnel go home. And why it takes so very long to peel off those damn sticky labels and put them in the supertitle score. (At left, in my satellite office in the Hall of Nations...) Note to self: Hire someone to do the &($*% supertitles next year.

But tonight's rehearsal (with the NSO, Denyce Graves, Simon O'Neill, WTOC and World Children's Choir) was exhilarating. Largely due to the magic and mastery of conductor Stephen Lord, who I continue to be able to talk into spending time with us at The Trap. It's the 30th anniversary of his Wolf Trap debut, too, but who's counting? (Doktor Faust, 1977) I learn more about what's happening in the business of opera from Stephen in 4 days than I do the rest of the entire year. And I invariably come away from it thinking that perhaps I need to find another line of work:)


Nice press for last weekend's opening of Volpone. Last I checked, we still had tickets for this coming weekend. There's been a lot of activity, but I don't think it's sold out just yet.