Premiere Don Giovanni, reading, visits...

Hi there! I hope your week went well. Tonight I had premiere of Don Giovanni and finally I made my debut as Don Ottavio. Both arias from this role I learnt a while back when I was student and in fact, they were both some of the first operatic arias I learnt as student back in Mexico City with my teacher Héctor Sosa. Later on I worked both arias with Francisco Araiza while I was student at the Musik Hochschule in Stuttgart and a member of the Opera Studio at the Opera House. Don Ottavio is one of those roles that Araiza sang so well and so elegant and full of character. I was lucky enough to cover it at the Don Giovanni production back at the Staatsoper Stuttgart in 2011-12. Afterwards I almost forgot about that role, and for many years I have not touched it again, only until recent months when I knew it would come here to our Theater in Wuezrburg.

This week we had everyday rehearsals with the Orchestra on stage and we only had Saturday free before our premiere tonight. It was challenging to keep up with it, cause so many rehearsals and so much energy put into them, and just working so much. I am glad we had Saturday free so I could recover a bit before tonight's show. I am really glad I manage in this production to sing both arias of Don Ottavio. I will not go into details but since the beginning the idea was to just do "Dalla sua pace" and not "il mio tesoro". Towards the end of the rehearsal process, the director decided to try the aria of "il mio tesoro" to see if it fits his narrative, and it makes sense to him dramaturgically to have the aria. For all the right reasons I am so grateful he let me do it. It is a big difference for Don Ottavio to sing this aria, to dig deeper into who he is and explore more colors of his personality and relationship to Don Anna and in general to the Opera. It also gives me as an artist a more interesting chance to portray better the role and a beautiful and challenging aria to sing, to my surprise my colleagues and public were really glad I could sing this for them as well.

Tonight I had the blessing of having Akiho present by my side to see the premiere as well as my aunties Tamara and Tabata. Both of them came to see the premiere and I am so happy I have as well some family to see my performances. Besides my mum, they are the only family members to see me singing on stage here in Europe so, I feel honored that they came to support me and in general, to support Opera. We need all the audience and I am glad my family is contributing a bit to such form of art. Thank you Tamara and Tabata for coming!

To Akiho I am grateful she came to support me and to be there for my debut as Don Ottavio, although she is also busy at her theater, she made some time to come to support, so also to you Akiho, Thank you!

I keep my reading with my "Daily Stoic" some more of Epictitus " Discourses" and my 4 time a week exercise routine.

Take care and see you next week.