July 25-26: The Soundtrack

My boss AMM is fond of marveling (as she should) at the "soundtrack of her life." Thus, this sampling of my 24-hour soundtrack, here in the home stretch of July 2008.

July 25, 8:45 pm
Balcony scene from West Side Story, compliments of DA and LC, in concert with the National Symphony.

July 25, 9:48 pm
La bohème end of Act I with MO as Mimi and BG as Rodolfo. With aforementioned NSO.

July 25, 10:06 pm
Love Walked Right In (Gershwin) from The Goldwyn Follies, with LC channeling her inner 1940's MGM movie star.

July 25, 10:22 pm
Bolero. Normally not a fan, but when you're about 6 feet away from those horn players at the end, it's a real hoot.

July 25, 11:35 pm
I Kissed a Girl. On the Alcina mix CD in the car. You figure it out.

July 26, 12:20 am
The Schmuel Song from The Last Five Years. My son singing it in the shower.

July 26, 9:35 am
You Can't Stop the Beat from Hairspray. With yours truly at the piano because the Broadway ROCKS gang showed up without a pianist for their impromptu Saturday morning rehearsal. You never know in which ways those years of summer stock and dinner theatre will pay off.

July 26, 11:20 am
Circe, Circe! from Ariadne auf Naxos. Compressing an mp3 of yesterday's rehearsal so it can be sent winging through cyberspace to our German coach in Bayreuth!

July 26, 1:05 pm
Heil sei dem Tag Finale from Fidelio. Doing timings for next Thursday's Beethoven concert.

July 26, 3:00 pm
It's not 3 yet, but in my near future is a sing-through of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio's Britten Project.

I whine occasionally about this many-headed musical monster for which I work. There are disadvantages (and advantages) to representing the classical music niche within a large diverse performing arts organization. Although we try to close the gap between "art" and "commerce," I'm always on the impoverished side with hat in hand.

But in truth, one of the reasons I chose to work here is that I know how claustrophobia sets in when opera is my only music. And even though days like this can feed maddeningly fragmented, that's more a feature of sleep depivation than anything else :)

I missed the July 25 posting. Was heading toward a photo entry of last night's Romance Under the Stars performance with the NSO, but Blogger was not helpful. The 15-hour day was too long to struggle with technology at the end of it...