France, Vichy

Last night was our final concert in Vichy, France. I felt sort of bad for the audience, there were a lot inside jokes added to the opera between the orchestra and the singers, but I'm sure the audience didn't get most of them. We, on the other hand, had a bit too much fun. It was awesome. I also got to play first horn on the overture, which includes a big solo. It made me quite nervous. Today we pile back on a bus, which will take us to Lyon. From there I have a train back to Zurich, I arrive this evening. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe I won't see these people again until November when we get to play the opera again in Versailles. I really don't want this tour to end, don't want to go back to the real world. But... I guess I'm looking forward to sleeping in one place for more than two nights... And practicing something else will be fun. So, thanks for reading! Next stop is San Diego on Friday, and then Colorado on August 6th, so I'll see you all there!

Lots of concerts later...

It's been forever, I'm sorry!! Our first concert after Pavia was in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The city was so pretty, and full of dragons! The hall was small, but very nice. We were broadcast live on Slovenian radio, but the link they gave us so that people could listen online didn't work, which was sad. From Slovenia we drove to Venice, where we hopped a plane to Marseilles, where we got a bus to Aix en Provence. The hall there was amazing. It has a wonderful acoustic, and holds almost 1400 people. The concert went really well, which was good, because the festival in Aix is a big deal. Today was a short travel and concert day. We are now in Perpignan, where we played an outdoor concert. My roommate thinks we should call our concert tonight "the revenge of the singers" because they got to make up their own staging. One of our singers hurt himself last night shortly after the concert, so he couldn't walk, thus everything they had practiced had to be changed. Honestly, I think they were secretly happy that they could do what they wanted. It was very, very funny. There were a few minutes when the orchestra was laughing so hard we weren't sure we could play. Unfortunately we had mics, which mean the audience could here the giggles. Oh well, they were laughing too. Tomorrow we travel to Vichy, where we have our last concert (which is on my birthday). We are all so tired, it's going to be good to go home... But I'll miss everyone so much! This tour has been amazing!

Romania, Bucharest; France, Montsapey; Italy, Pavia

The concert in Romania was quite difficult to play. The outside temperature was 39c, and inside it was also quite hot. This would be a problem for most orchestras, but on period instruments it is even more difficult. I think by the end of the concert our pitch was nowhere near where it started. After Romania we flew back to France and then drove to Ambronay for a much needed day off. Yesterday we then drove to Montsapey for a concert. Montsapey is a little village in the mountains. We had to drive (in our coach bus, haha) up 9km of hairpin bends to get there, but once we were there, the view was just beautiful. The concert itself was in a sweet little church. It was too small to do most of the staging, so the singers could do what they wanted to show the story. This actually made them better, and gave the whole performance a lot more energy because everyone had to ready for the unexpected. There were a couple small children living in the village, and a few went around after the concert asking us to sign little notebooks. They were so cute!! Yesterday was a bus day, so now we are in Pavia, Italy. Our concert tonight will be outdoors, which means everyone will take a bath in bug spray first. The best part of tonight is that Irene and Niki are coming. They should be here in a few hours!!!

Namur, Belgium and Bucharest, Romania

Exploring Namur turned out to be quite fun. There was a beautiful cathedral, and another nice church, as well as a lot of very sweet little shops. Unfortunately it rained some that day, which made wandering the city center a bit harder, but that's okay. Yesterday was a travel day, and it was a long one. We drove the the airport, waited forever, and the finally flew to Bucharest, Romania. The city is really pretty. There are a lot of really big buildings, and coming in, everything was getting lit for the night. I really would love to come back here someday and see more. We have our concert in a few hours, and then tomorrow we take an early flight to Paris, after which we will drive to Ambronay. Tomorrow is going to be a long day...

France, premiere, and Belgium, Namur

We had our premiere in Lyon last night. The audience was great, and it went a lot better than our dress rehearsal, which was good. The church was really sweet, and the festival had amazing food. After the premiere they brought us champagne, which was nice too. This morning at we all piled into a bus and drove... More than nine hours on the road later (with a few short breaks) we arrived in Namur, Belgium. I haven't seen much of the city yet, but we have some free time tomorrow before the concert, so I'm hoping to explore. Until them, I'm really looking forward to some sleep. That's all for now!!!

France, dress rehearsal

Yesterday was our dress rehearsal, which means tonight is our first concert of the tour. We're playing in a small church in Lyon for a festival. It's really nice, but the acoustics are quite difficult to play in. So much echo we have to be really careful with the sound when the singers are singing.  Tomorrow we leave Ambronay for Belgium. It's going to be a day spent on the bus, fun fun.  I'm really looking forward to seeing some new places!

France, I totally forgot today is a Holiday back home!!

I didn't remember today was the 4th of July until a minute ago. There's a big concert here tomorrow (not ours though) do there's a lot going on around us. It's kind of crazy, lots of people and rehearsals, and they've built a big stage in the parking lot. If anyone wants to come to our last concerts in November, here the link. It's going to be really fun! Nothing else is new here, I'm sorry! Writing about rehearsals gets really boring after a while. But the fun starts on Saturday!

France, day I don't remember

More of the usual today. We moved rehearsal venues, and the singers are now using most of their props. Sometimes the orchestra laughs when we see what they have. Some of the costumes are truly entertaining. Our schedule has shifted so that we still have about six hours of rehearsal, but we don't start until 2:30. This means that dinner is not until 10, which leads to a rather alarming cookie consumption during rehearsal breaks. But it means we have mornings off to practice, which is nice. It's finally stopped raining, which is nice. Means the clothes I washed on Sunday are finally almost dry too. Yay! We have another day off on Friday, and then the real fun begins. I can't wwait for the tour, it's going to be so fun. Ands exhausting. But mostly fun, I hope.

France, day off

I've been here a week as of this afternoon, which is crazy. Today is our day off, which is nice, but it's raining. The rain is nice since it got really hot the last few days, but we wanted to go to the lake, and that looks unlikely. I'm happy right now though because there is thunder. This morning some people made pancakes, which was nice. Lots of work though! There was a party last night out in a little courtyard in the abbey. It's sort of strange to be drinking in an abbey to bad techno music. It was fun though, cool people to talk to and a chance to relax a little bit... And the party was more interesting than the local bar... Or the whole town, really! My roommate Nienke and I are still getting along fine. She has been making a lot of oboe reeds, not that that is surprising. The last few days were not nearly as intense as the first days here. Yesterday we just did one rehearsal, a complete run of the opera. We have a lot of coordination work left to do, I think. But it will be good. We have another complete week to work out the kinks. That's all for now!