Studying, Makropulos, Ettlingen...

Hi there! I am writing my blog this time in a Hotel in Ettlingen, we came here to see the opera "Der Freischütz" by Weber and also because Akiho had a coaching with a french coach friend of us which happened to be here. Right now, we came back from the performance and it was really good. Mostly with very young singers which are still studying or just starting their career, so I find really good they get the chance to start working in a festival like this, in the beautiful Schloss and open air, here in Ettlingen. Ulrich Maier was conductor of this performance, we worked with him in Wuerzburg when he was a pianist at the theater, and he will be coming back for next season. He did a very nice job tonight with the small orchestra playing a very dynamic performance and we were happy to see him briefly afterwards to congratulate him and catch up a bit. It is always so nice to talk to him he is so nice and sweet.

Yesterday (Saturday) Akiho had premiere "The Makropulos Affair" an Opera by Leoš Janáček at the theater in Wuerzburg. It went really well and she did great. Her new agent was also there to see her and also my agent was there because two of the singers work also with him. Unfortunately, if Mozart sounds loud in the Blaue Halle, you can only imagine how such an opera like Makropulos sounds there. Our theater is under renovation and we are playing in a very inadequate place, where the acoustic is almost 0 and where the orchestra sounds so loud and singers are barely heard in general, because of the dry quality of the place, there is no tones which blossom and can really create an atmosphere. So it is really rare to reach a high level of music if one has not the help of the place where one is performing. In our theater all the musicians that come to see performances agree that it is really unfair for the singers and that we should not be playing in such conditions... Originally by now the theater would be almost complete but there has been so many problems that at least until the end of 2026 there is hope, and only hope that finally we can move back to the new theater. Anyways... the premiere yesterday went really well and I am very proud of all the singers who sang such opera and for the orchestra cause it is also for them and incredible hard one to play "bravi".

I am working on some of the arias for the gala in two weeks, it is not easy repertoire and I must be really clever how I sing it in order to offer a good performance and repeat it the following day. I will let you know how it went but I hope it goes well and that I can get to the level where I want to sing these arias and duets.

I am also starting to study some japanese now that I have some time, trying to remember what I already learnt and just keep learning little by little. Such a difficult language to learn.

Take care and see you next week.