Stuttgart…
This week we had again Magic flute shows, they went really well. This time I took my mum to Stuttgart to visit the first german city where I lived after finishing my Masters Degree at The Royal Academy of Music in London. It was really nice to show her where I studied at The State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart and where I joined the Opernstudio at the Staatsoper Stuttgart for one year back in 2011-12. On that year I studied with Francisco Araiza and I cannot say enough how much I respect him as an artist and as a musician and I learned a lot from him, for that I am very grateful and he supported me a lot as a singer. In Stuttgart I also did my first proffessional roles on stage in Germany, where I sang among others, Flavio in Norma, Hrazda in Osud, Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro and was covering the roles of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Andres in Wozzeck and Elvino in La Sonnambula.
I also visited where I used to live in the beautiful building where at the ground floor there is a very nice Bakery called "Baecker Frank", so every morning the whole building smelled liked recently baked bread... like a dream everytime I went down stairs (I used to live on the 3rd floor) to go out. Also we visited a very nice museum and we ate very nice traditional food and drank enough coffee to keep us going for the whole day on foot. For my mum is very challenging to walk a lot cause she lives a very sedentary life, but she is happy to walk a lot and although she gets tired she is loving it, but I also take care of her, so when it is enough walking we take pauses or we go to rest to the hotel. Akiho came the next day and we went to our favorite shop Uniqlo and got some clothes, we relaly like this Japanese shop which I also know since my studies back in England.
On this little road trip I took my music from Onegin and I am listening to the Russian from the coachings I took on the text... it is not so difficult but since I have no much knowladge of the language it makes it difficult to learn it and to make sense of it. It will be challenging to learn it by heart. Therefore I am right now only focusing on the text and later on the music. This approach I do not use much since I normally I am acquainted to the language but Russian is not one of them. Both arias from Lensky are beautiful and I am really looking forward to sing them with orchestra and on stage.
Next week I will have free and I will be able to take mum to another trip, next Sunday again performnance of Magic Flute. Looking forward to sing Mozart again next week.
See you and take care.
