Tito, Athens, Tohmaz...

Hi there, this week was intense. We finally run the whole opera, twice. Plus 3 rehearsals with orchestra. It was a lot but I am glad I am finding a balance on how to interpret Tito. The most challenging parts are all the recits. Of course the arias are difficult but the recits require a lot of colours and interpretation through the meaning and intention of the text. I am glad, in fact I think I am enjoying really a lot singing these recits.

I keep editing images, in particular this week of a trip I did back in 2018 to Greece for nine days. It was an incredible trip where I visited Athens and the island of Santorini. I really wanted to do a solo trip and I really wanted to see Athens and its ancient sites and Santorini which is a island but is actually situated on a volcano crater which erupted around 1600 B.C. and the little towns are located around the creater. It an incredible place. Luckily I went in May so there were not so many tourists and I could enjoy a lot. When I took this trip I had just recently broken my meniscus, so I had a swollen right knee and I could not walk properly, nevertheless my will to make this trip was too strong, so I went and I walked literally many kilometres everyday and every evening I put a cold compress on my knee to more or less compensate for the abuse of it. The food was amazing, the coffee, the places, the weather. It could not have been better, and, I think that the fact I was struggling to walk properly gave it the special extra touch, cause I was really determined to walk as much as possible to see as much as I could in the little time I had to enjoy and discover such a beautiful country, and its people. Everyone I met over there was really nice. So I searched on my external hard drive for the photos I took back then and decided to edit some of them.

Next week is finally our premiere of Tito, we have still some rehearsals with orchestra and the staging, it is a difficult opera and I hope we all do great to have a successfull evening on Saturday 28th January. I am looking forward to it.

Today Akiho found a wonderful lebanese cafe place called Tohmaz, we had an incredible brunch. We ate a lot and it was very well priced. The arabic coffee was also really good. We read a bit there and later we went up the castle for a walk and there was still snow covering the gardens and little paths up to it. Now we are home a resting for the upcoming week which is going to be crazy with lots of rehearsals and the premiere.

I hope you are well and take care, see you next week here.