Happy Holidays! (And time to get to work!)

To begin with, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! And soon to be, Happy New Year. 

December has been super busy and also a bit frustrating. Good stuff first: the Christmas Markets are fantastic, full of great food and arts and crafts, and I've seen just about all of the ones anyone's heard of. I've eaten all sorts of delicious sausages, crepes, melted cheese, perogies, salamis, soups, quarkballs (basically donuts made with sour cream), chocolates, and other things I can't remember. Yum! Sadly, they're all over now, but they sure make being away from home during Christmas less sad. My sister visited for a week in the beginning December, also a lot of fun, and I got to walk around more of Berlin that I haven't seen, and try out interesting restaurants like a Sri Lankan place I'd like to go back to. I've also managed to memorize Zerbinetta, which is great since Ariadne auf Naxos starts on January 2.

And now the not-so-much-fun stuff. We started rehearsals for Strauss' Die Ägyptische Helena (which I now am calling Hell-ena). The cast is wonderful, and surprisingly, mostly made up of Americans. The Helena is German and expects the world to rotate around her, but she has a fabulous voice so I'm not too bothered by her attitude (many of the other cast members are ready to kill her for being such a diva, but I haven't had any major run-ins yet). Our conductor, Andrew Litton, is lots of fun, American, always buys the wine at dinner, and speaks no German. The director, Marco Marelli, speaks English to the conductor, but not to us. Two of us don't really understand him, and the other girl doesn't seem to care, but I do. It's so frustrating to be told something in German, understand some of it but not all of it, and then after looking confused, have the director say the same exact thing in German again. I also hate having to always ask another cast member to translate, but it's what I have to do. I can't go from not understanding German to understanding it fluently just like that. I do get a lot of what the guy says, but there's only so much I can get at once, and it's not nearly enough.

I had mentioned before that we're in the whole show, even though we only sing in one scene. During a 3-hour rehearsal, we cover about 3-5 minutes of the opera. We do the scene over and over again, and we barely change anything. And if Marelli wants to change something, instead of just going over the one part, we start the whole scene over again. And then the next rehearsal, it ends up changing! It takes so much energy to be there, and he expects more with each repetition. By the time you get to the 20th rep, everyone's making stupid mistakes because we just can't focus anymore. We've been working on the show since the beginning of December, and we basically have seven days of rehearsal left before our first dress rehearsal. We still haven't staged half of Act I, and the elves haven't been put into Act II at all (and I know we're in it!). I don't know how this show is going to come together in time. However, all that being said, if it does come together, I think it will be a beautiful production. The costumes and sets are gorgeous, and I think it will be fun to watch even if the process is tedious. Hopefully we won't get booed like Tannhäuser did!!

I've had three performances of The Cunning Little Vixen. It is the cutest production – everyone's in amazing animal costumes, and there are a number of dancers. I am a grasshopper in the beginning and the end, and I eat leaves and play a violin like it's a guitar, and dance like an idiot. All that while being very green and wearing a grasshopper head that I can't really see in.

In another scene I'm one of two boys (well, more like a big boy since I have a padded stomach on my costume). We torment the vixen and get thrown back inside by our dad.

We had two performances yesterday, one on December 17, and one coming up on January 9. I only have a few lines to sing, but the music is fairly difficult rhythmically, and we have a conductor who doesn't think it's his job to cue singers, so we are always off. The audience would never be able to tell, but it's annoying to never get things right – as soon as one singer is slightly behind or ahead, we all end up singing it wrong. Oh well! I suppose if he cared, he'd cue!

January is going to be super busy. I'm singing the first 10 days of Zerbinetta rehearsals, starting January 2. I'll also be at most of the other rehearsals because of covering Zerbinetta and Najade. Hell-ena opens on the 18th. And then we're starting Elektra and possibly Carmen. The big news about Carmen is that we're no longer doing a new production since the director had to pull out for health reasons, instead we're remounting the old one. This will take substantially less time rehearsing. This is good because I'm already busy enough and will appreciate the extra time, but bad because I'd like to have a chance to really rehearse Frasquita before being thrown on stage. I'm also not performing the role until June, so I don't know if I'll be called to the early rehearsals. No matter what, they can't call me to more than 6 hours a day of rehearsals, so I'll be busy, but not that busy.

Not too much else to report at the moment. Happy New Year everyone!

A month later, still alive!

I just realized it's been a long time since I've written a post! Over a month, actually. I think I figured you needed a bit of a break after the small novels I kept writing about China. I sure needed a break after all that wall-climbing and dumpling-eating, and I got my wish. Most of the operas I'm in start in December, so I've had lots of free time in the last month to learn music, sing another Queen of the Night, and eat sausages. (And now that the Christmas Markets are open, I can eat a different sausage every day by walking around the corner and pointing!) Speaking of China, I finally took a picture of the jacket I had made for me. Here I am!

My biggest excitement this month was Queen #2. MUCH better than the first time. After the costumer left my dressing room, I took the heels off, hid them under the couch, and put my own shoes on. So, about 90% less tripping occurred. I say 90%, because my dress was now about an inch and half too long, so I had to pay more attention walking. I felt great on both my arias, and this time around, I actually got more applause than Pamina. This is really my goal in this role, to be on stage for 10 minutes and somehow manage to get more applause than the girl who was on stage all the time and had to work way harder than me. Thanks, Mozart! Here are a couple pictures of me as Königin der Nacht in the big production. Not quite as exciting as the costume for the kids' show.

Last week I got to fly to NY for the Opera Foundation Gala. The Opera Foundation is the group that gave me my scholarship to Berlin, and so they bought me a plane ticket to come sing at their annual dinner. It was a great event. Depending on how much you want to donate, seats are either $500 or $1000, so I was expecting the food to be perfect. And it was. First course of lobster, followed by rack of lamb, followed by a lovely dessert with fresh fruit and different sorbets in a chocolate shell. After the lobster, the three scholarship recipients sang. I sang the Queen of the Night's Vengeance Aria, and also a duet from The Barber of Seville. The aria got lots of cheers, and as soon as I sat down I was given a business card from a publisher of Opera News, who told me to call her. She said she was just thrilled with my singing and wants me to stay in contact. I was also approached by a woman from New York City Opera, saying that even though they're going through some transitions, she wanted to pass along my information to them. I even had a few of the wait staff come up to me with compliments! Here's a picture of me with Harold Wilson, a former scholarship recipient and the emcee of the evening, and Elizabeth Walbröl, New York socialite and in charge of the Opera Foundation.

Back at Deutsche Opera, I'm in two productions that are starting rehearsals this week, a premiere of Strauss' Die Ägypstische Helena, and Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. The director for Helena has decided that all the singers with smaller parts that should only be in one scene of the opera will be on stage for the entire opera. This means I'll be called to every rehearsal until opening. Not so much fun. Vixen will be fun, I have three tiny roles and get to dress up like different animals. Probably more exciting than both of those things is that I found out that the woman singing Zerbinetta in our new production of Ariadne auf Naxos will be absent from the first 10 days of rehearsals. And I'm the cover! So that means I'll get to sing all of her rehearsals during that time and probably stage all of Zerbinetta. I'm almost done learning the role – it's not easy but it's a ton of fun to sing.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I had two! My parents moved it up a week to when I was home, and then on the real Thanksgiving, I went to a big dinner with a bunch of American friends here in Berlin. Glad I at least got to spend one holiday at home this year, since Christmas and Easter will be spent here.

Tonight I went to the premiere of Tannhäuser. I was told that at premieres, the applause at the end can be the most exciting part. Some singers were cheered more than I've ever heard in my life, and the Elizabeth/Venus was booed. I don't think I've ever heard boos before in a theater. Her boos weren't anything, however, compared to the boos for the director and designers. The whole theater booed as loudly for them as they had cheered for the Wolfram. Crazy stuff! Glad I was there to experience it. I found the production to be sort of blah, not great, not bad. Certainly not boo-worthy.

I'll post again once I have something more substantial to write about, like my upcoming rehearsals and shows. Until then, have a great December!

End of China and beginning of Königin der Nacht

Temple of Heaven

Scary looking Buddha on display

I only burned a little film.

Beats me.

And I did.

Panda!

Look closely, it's another baby butt!

We decided not to take the pleasure boat.

Well, I'm back in Berlin. The last couple of days in China went well. I didn't have to perform so I basically had the days free. The highlights were the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Zoo where I got to see the pandas, a fun artsy shopping street, and on the last night, I shared another duck with my friend Stephanie. After the first roast duck, I didn't think it was possible for one to be better, but this one put the first duck to shame. We went to a place off the beaten track that I had read was amazing. It was a beautiful little restaurant, and you could see the oven in back with the ducks hanging and the fat dripping off. This place made its own hoisin sauce for dipping, which I could have drunk straight from the dish. The duck was perfect. Juicy and tender, not one bit of fat anywhere, and the crispiest melt-in-your-mouth skin possible. The waiter who carved it really got every bit of meat off, unlike the other place where we pretty much just got the breasts and the rest went back into the kitchen for someone else's meal. I will definitely miss Peking duck, fresh dumplings, and most of the rest of real Chinese food.

My schedule has been super light since I came back. The big thing that's happened, of course, is my real debut in a non-children's opera. Last Friday, I sang Königin der Nacht in the main production of Die Zauberflöte. Now, let me tell you how things happen around here. When a new singer enters an old production, they don't particularly rehearse. I received two rehearsals for Königin. One was about 20 minutes long, and was about four weeks ago. The other one was two days before the show, about 15 minutes worth. At my first rehearsal, I had the Pamina there, but no one else, and we of course weren't on the stage. Second rehearsal, I had Pamina and Tamino, which was better, so my arias felt slightly normal. I was told what would happen in the final scene, but never got to walk through it. Never got to wear the costume, never got to use the props, never got to see the stage. Well, the night of the show rolled around, and I felt fairly confident about the staging. I was a little nervous about the first aria, since I start by running from the back of the stage to the front, and I am followed by a number of girls in mini black dresses carrying a huge piece of black silk that covers the stage. I'm supposed to grab the knife that's stuck in the floor, collapse, and this piece of silk is brought over me and I grab it and put it around my neck like a big cape. It's a cool effect. Second aria, pretty easy staging, final scene, I figured nothing could go too wrong.

Well, here's how it went down. First off, I put on the 4-inch heels I was supposed to be running in, and I tried to run. They fell off. I got the costumer, who added some heel pads so they'd stay on. I still didn't feel so great about wearing them. Then, I put on the costume, and never in my life have I smelled riper armpits. I tried not to think about it. I was pre-set for the first aria, and ready to run. Somehow the shoes stayed on, but once I collapsed at the front of the stage, I could not for the life of me find the front end of the silk. I finally got it right in time to sing my first line. Not bad. Then the trouble started. The dress (sorry I don't have pictures, I completely forgot) is a long straight dress with about a four foot train. The bottom is wide enough to walk easily, but when you're collapsed on the floor and have to get up, it's not an easy event. My staging was to get up and sit on a chair that was about a foot to the left of me. I had such a hard time getting up! I kept stepping on the dress, or a shoe would get caught in it, and I was afraid that the shoes would just come off entirely. So I kept struggling until I finally made it onto the chair. I was fine for a while, until I had to stand on the chair, which I was hoping wouldn't require hiking my dress up too far, but it did. I almost made it on the chair at the right time. The one part that went perfectly was my stabbing of the life-size picture of Pamina. I think I was getting out my frustration at the costume and the shoes. OK, so the second aria was much better. I again had a hard time getting from the floor to standing, but the tripping was minimal. Then came the final scene. The stage for the show has an extra piece that is in front of the orchestra, it's about a three or four foot wide path. I waited with Monostatos and the Three Ladies in the pit for our entrance. I made it to the middle of the path with not much of a problem (besides hitting my head when I came up the stairs to the pit, oops). While we're singing, the Second Lady hands me a rifle. When the lightning and thunder happen, we all put our guns down and walk to the side. Well, having never done this before, I figured, I'm walking to the left, I'll put my gun down to the right so I don't have to step over it. Good thinking, until I stood up and realized that my gun was on the train of my dress. I was petrified! I didn't know what to do, so I just walked, hoping it wouldn't fall either a) into the pit and kill the conductor or b) fall into the audience and kill whatever rich old person was sitting in the front row. Well, God must have taken pity on me, because the rifle gently rolled off my train and into place on the stage. And that was it! My big debut! I guess you're probably wondering how the singing went. I hit all the right notes at the right time, and according to a couple friends in the audience, the crowd went crazy after Der Hölle Rache, which I totally nailed. All in all, I think it was a success, and I can't wait to do it again now that I have a better idea of how things work. And I will definitely be switching out their shoes for my shoes, whether they like it or not.

Sadly, my Staatsoper gig didn't come through. I came back from China, and a week later received an email that they needed to record earlier than they thought, so they had to hire another singer. Oh well. At least they know I'm around and can hit the high notes, so maybe they'll call me again in the future. I also almost lucked into singing Königin der Nacht at the Komische Oper Berlin last Saturday night. Their Königin was sick, and I got notification right before Friday's debut asking if I was available. They called the next morning saying that they had found another replacement who had already done the production. Maybe next time!

Coming up for me is another Zauberflöte on Nov. 4, rehearsals for the new production of Tannhäuser (which I don't sing until May), and Cunning Little Vixen in December. I'll make sure I take some pictures next time!

Mind the Hilly Road

Yeah, so rather than another long post you probably don't have time to read, I figured I'd keep it shorter and write about just a few days. Lots of exciting stuff to see! And lots of exciting menus to read. And the pictures are:

1. Sign seen in many places at the Summer Palace, it's very hilly there
2. Tower of Buddhist Incense at the Summer Palace
3. One of the many decorated ceilings at the Summer Palace
4. Dancers on the Great Stage at the Summer Palace
5. Me on the Great Wall
6. The path I walked all the way up to the top
7. From the menu at the Hutong restaurant
8. We ordered the first dumpling listed, can you tell what it's made out of?
9. An item at the dumpling place we thought it was wise to stay away from

Day 8:

On Monday, we went to the Summer Palace, which is very similar in look to the Forbidden City, but more spaced out and with fewer tourists since National Week is over. I think we were there for about five hours, walking up lots of steps to nowhere, and seeing beautiful Chinese buildings. There is a little shopping street on a section of the river on the grounds of the Summer Palace, and one of the booths had a man playing various Chinese flutes and other instruments. We stopped over, and he let us try the instruments, and I played a pretty mean Frere Jacques. I ended up purchasing a beautiful little instrument that translates to Oriental Magic Flute (how appropriate for a Queen of the Night!). It looks like a small tear-shaped vase, and sounds like a low pan flute. It will be beautiful to display, and something I can’t really get anywhere else.

Day 9:

I had  no one around in the morning to do anything with on Tuesday, so I explored a bit on my own. I went to the ultra-touristy Silk Market, a huge six-story building with hundreds of vendors trying to sell you knock-off clothes, silk scarves, tablecloths, chopsticks, freshwater pearls, everything you can imagine. When you walk down an aisle, the vendors grab at your clothing trying to get you to look at their wares. As you walk away, the prices shouted at you get lower and lower. The whole experience has a bit of a dizzying effect on you.

After I got back, I met up with a friend, and we got lunch in the Hutongs where we had been before. We also did some shopping at a handmade pottery store, where the items are made out of purple clay, a type of clay only found in southern China. We both bought a number of items, they were very inexpensive and absolutely beautifully made and colored.

Day 10:

Today was the big day – the Berlin Wall and Grant’s Tomb. I mean, the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We went to the Badaling (not Badabing, but it helps me remember the name) section of the Great Wall, which could also be called the Great Wall of a Thousand Steps and Steep Slopes. This is the major tourist section. You start at a low point in the middle, and can either go left or right up the wall. We went left, because it looked like there were fewer tourists going left. Probably because the left side was the extra steep side. We went as far as we could go, and despite having to pull ourselves up via the handrail at times, and climbing hundreds of stairs, it was an unbelievable experience. We ended up having time to walk halfway up the right side, also, but were happy to let our uncontrollably shaking legs rest on the bus afterwards.

The Ming Tombs were another story. Talk about boring and waste of time. We were given two hours until we had to go on the bus again, and basically, there’s one building. You walk down to the depths, look at the 13 tombs of the Emperors and Empresses of the Ming Dynasty, and walk back up and wonder what you’re going to do for the next hour and a half. So we sat on cute little stone elephants and waited for the clock to move.

Once home, and starving, I went back to the dumpling place I had been earlier in my trip with a friend, and ordered six different types of dumplings I hadn’t tried before. All delicious. 36 dumplings plus tea cost 46 yuan, or about six dollars. And that includes the price of looking at the funniest menu we’ve come to so far. We actually ordered a dumpling, and had no clue what some of the ingredients were because the Engrish was so bad. Tasted good though!

So the amusing part of my day was that I had heard that there weren't any bathrooms with toilets at the Great Wall, so I tried to not drink much water so I could avoid standing over a hole in the ground. After climbing for almost two hours, I figured I’d at least look at the bathroom, and it turned out there was a whole row of stalls with toilets. Well, after I got home, I drank a ton of water to make up for earlier, and after our first round of dumplings, I really had to use the bathroom, which of course ended up being a hole in the ground. D’oh! I’m going to try to avoid those for the next few days, but I sure was kicking myself for not drinking more water while up on the Wall!

On tap for my last two days: Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, Confucius Temple, $5 massage, maybe the Beijing Zoo if I can talk anyone into it, but probably not.

Welcome to Beijing, would you like a side of smog with that?

I have been in Beijing about one week now, and I have to say, things have been getting more exciting and delicious each day! I was thinking about just posting after I get back to Berlin, but that would be one really long blog post, and no one would actually get through it. So I'll break it up into two posts, and hopefully you'll get through this first one. I'm going to go by day, since it's the easiest way to do it. And just in case you're curious, the pictures are as follows (wish I could put them at the end, but that's not an option):

1. Inside the Forbidden City
   
2. Best laugh I've had in forever
   
3. Olympic figurines in Tiananmen Square
4. Forbidden City Concert Hall stage
5. Bugs on sticks ready for cooking

Day 1:

The first day was a day of ups and downs for me. For the trip from Munich to Beijing, I managed to score a bulkhead exit row aisle seat, thanks to two non-English speaking Asians who were kicked out of the exit row in front of me. Watched two movies, took a sleeping pill with some sparkling wine, and slept for about 4 hours. There was a little card we had to fill out for entering China, and the start of my small yet annoying troubles began. Pulled out my pen, which had apparently exploded on the plane, so I ended up with a hand full of black ink. Breakfast came, and despite my best efforts, upon opening my yogurt, it too exploded and was all over the front of my shirt. Fine. Left the plane, and saw a woman holding a sign with six names on it of opera folks, thought it was some sort of special treatment, and found out that our luggage never left Berlin. Luckily, I’ve had luggage lost before and have become excellent at packing my carry-on bags just in case I’m stuck without my big suitcase. Still, really annoying. Once we gave our info to the Lost and Found, we walked out of baggage claim, and there were signs welcoming the orchestra and some of the higher ups (director, stage manager types), there was no sign for the soloists/singers. We ended up on the bus with the orchestra, which took forever to leave, and when we arrived at the Swissôtel Beijing, we were pulled aside, told that a mistake was made, and that we were supposed to have been in an Audi that was there to pick us up, and they seemed mad that we hadn't taken the right car.

I wandered around with two other singers for a bit in the neighborhood around the hotel, got lunch by pointing at pictures on a menu (which seems to be the thing here), everything was very good and inexpensive, and came back to the hotel, where I proceeded to smash two of my fingers in the sliding bathroom door. Went downstairs bleeding and cursing, and was especially unhappy that I had to purchase bandaids, that the concierge didn’t have a couple sitting around. This bathroom door the real version of a Chinese finger trap – the place where you put your fingers to slide the door ends up underneath the wall on the other side, and you just can’t see it coming until you have two bloody fingers that you can’t bend anymore. It’s dangerous!

The concierge, besides not having bandaids, is completely useless. We asked him where to find restaurants within walking distance, and he gave us completely wrong directions on our map. I asked if there was a place he recommended, he just said that there were lots of places. We eventually got dinner after wandering around for a while, and three of us ate a ton of food for roughly $3 a person at what looked like your standard Chinese take-out place with a few tables. Ordering was very frustrating since we were given one menu about 20 pages long with pictures, and the waitress hovered over us from the beginning until we finally ordered, and then seemed annoyed that we had taken so long. I kept trying to order hot and sour soup, and every time I pointed at the picture, she pointed at the soup above it that I didn’t want. This happened about 10 times maybe, and I still have no clue why she kept doing that! She finally brought another waitress over, and I pointed at the hot and sour soup, and she didn’t have any problem with it. Each soup ended up being enough for about 6 people, so maybe she was trying to tell us to share one, but we ended up eating almost everything we ordered.  

Day 2:

We decided since this was a completely free day, that we should go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. This is a holiday week for China (October 1 was National Day, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China) so Beijing was and still is packed with people, and walking through the Forbidden City was slightly insane. The Chinese are very pushy, and will literally shove you and push you out of the way to get in front of you. There were a few things we just couldn't see because we couldn't push ourselves to the front of the line. The architecture is incredible to look at, and there is so much to see. When we finally decided it was time to use a bathroom, we noticed that the public restrooms had a four star rating! That doesn't include toilet paper or cleanliness, however, it did include a toilet seat, which you can't find in too many places around here. The best part of the day was seeing a little boy sitting on his father's shoulders, and the back of his pants had come undone (for families that can't afford diapers, they have children's pants that open in the back). So his butt was hanging out of his pants and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Tiananmen Square is right at the south entrance of the Forbidden City, and it was still decorated for the Olympics, and also being decorated more for the holiday. Lots of gorgeous flower arrangements. In the evening, we went to a dumpling house I found online, and four of us ate 42 dumplings, three main dishes, a bottle of Coke, and tea for about $4.50 a person. Each set of six dumplings was about 90¢. Can't beat that!

Day 3:

Not too much excitement, just rehearsals for Rosenkavalier, and a rehearsal for our opening concert in the middle of the day. Didn't leave us much time for exploring.

Day 4:

This was the most exciting day for me, the day of the opening concert in the Forbidden City. We started with a rehearsal in the concert hall, which is small, but lovely. When we got there, workers were arranging hundreds of yellow and red roses in front of the stage, which looked beautiful. I sang my aria (Adele's second aria from Fledermaus) twice with the orchestra, and felt ready for the evening. We had a big late lunch at a restaurant a friend had recommended to me called Ajisen Ramen, and the food was great. Then we were told that there was a reception before the concert that we had to attend, so I ended up eating more food there even though I was already stuffed.

The concert was amazing. I sang my aria in the middle of the second half. When I went backstage, I asked the stage manager if singers were going out for a second bow after their arias, and was told no. Well, I sang, I nailed the high D at the end, and the crowd erupted in bravos and whistles. When I exited the stage, they kept on clapping, and I got to take a second bow! I felt so good!!! They loved the Rigoletto Quartet too, which was the first of three planned encores.

After the show, we were invited to a very exclusive members-only club called LAN. We were taken into one of the private rooms behind a curtain and given a seven course Chinese meal. The most interesting part was a piece of soft bamboo that had the most delicate flavor and texture, over some mustard greens. I wasn't even hungry, but managed to eat most of everything, including a couple glasses of champagne (of course) and numerous refills of a very good red wine. The next morning I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach all night. I think it was just sore from eating too much all day!

Day 5:

On the fifth day was the first performance of Rosenkavalier, and Sophie didn't get sick, so no performing for me. During the day we visited the Yashow Market, where you can go to a silk store and have traditional Chinese (or normal) clothing custom made for you. I decided to order a thigh-length jacket with 3/4 length sleeves out of a gorgeous off-white silk with a delicate silver and light pink flower pattern. It'll be ready to pick up on Tuesday. I also bought a few souvenirs and gifts, after spending what seemed like forever bargaining the price down. The funniest part was that when I was buying my second group of items, I ran out of money, so the girl at the shop told me to give her 80 Yuan then, and bring her the other 70 on Sunday when I told her I was coming back for my jacket fitting. Not sure if she actually expected me to come back, but she's kidding herself if she thinks it's going to happen. She was probably overcharging me anyway, even after all the bargaining. 

Day 6:

This was another rehearsal day, this time for Tannhäuser. Not too much excitement there. I'm covering Hirt (the shepherd boy), so I didn't have to stay too long at either rehearsal. We had a lot of fun in between rehearsals, though. Went to Wangfujing Street, a major shopping street, with chopstick shops, tea shops, and live bugs on sticks that they'll fry for you right there. Talk about fresh. Scorpions are a specialty. I decided to pass. One of the large tea shops we went into gave us samples of as many teas as we liked, I never realized how different jasmine teas could be from one another, and the more expensive, the stronger the flavor. I bought some tea and a beautiful tea mug for myself with a little removable insert for the loose tea leaves. Around the corner from Wangfujing is the Night Market, an aisle of wacky foods on sticks mostly, from live bugs to seahorses and starfish. Some smells I never hope to smell again. And all this talk of food leads me to the best part of the day: Peking Duck. Three of us shared a duck for lunch, and it was incredible. The skin is crispy and melts in your mouth. The duck meat is soft and succulent, and not greasy or stringy. Nothing like any duck I've ever tasted before. You are given thin pancakes, and you dip the duck and skin in a sweet dark sauce, wrap it in the pancake with some spring onion, and eat it. It was probably one of the best meals I've had in my life, and all for about $15 a person. I think we're getting another Peking duck meal provided for us after the final concert on the 9th, so I will just dream about it until then.

Day 7 (today!):

The second and final Rosenkavalier performance is tonight, I didn't get a call that Ofelia Sala is sick, so I'm assuming she'll sing Sophie and I'll be off the hook. I had my jacket fitting this morning, it is going to be gorgeous. I can't wait to see it once the piping, buttons, and lining are put in. I'll be sure to post a picture! It's so neat having something made for me, and it will be a wonderful reminder of this trip (until I get so fat from all the dumplings that I can't fit into it anymore). And speaking of dumplings, I had dim sum this afternoon, and had the most light, fluffy, delicious pork buns ever (among other dim sum goodies). Everything was so fresh and light, and I didn't leave feeling like I had a huge lump in my stomach. So good! After dim sum, we did a little walking trip around some hutongs (the little alleyways where people actually live, and kids get haircuts on the side of the road in the drizzle). It wasn't overly exciting, but it was nice to see some "real" Beijing, not just touring attractions. And it was great to be away from all the tourists and crowds of people. There was one street with a bunch of shops and boutiques which we will probably go back to when we have more time, because there was a massage place where you could get a 45-minute shoulder massage for about $5. The full body 60-minute massage was about $8. Makes the $7 for 11-minute Chinese massages in NY look pretty expensive.

OK, did you make it to the end of this? Congratulations! See you next time! I'll post again when I get back to Berlin about the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we're going to check out the Summer Palace and some other sights, and on the 8th we're off to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. Can't wait!

My first Queen!

Had the premiere of Das Märchen von der Zauberflöte yesterday morning, and it went wonderfully! I mean, you really can't go wrong with cutting Die Zauberflöte down to 70 minutes, but what a terrific production this is. From the costumes to the sets to the singers, everything is just top notch. After we finished the show, there was champagne for us outside the dressing rooms, followed by more champagne in the Deutsche Oper's restaurant. Just makes you feel special to be treated like that!

It is such a difference working in a big house. First off, I find it quite nice that I don't have to do my own pin curls (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's the way you prepare your hair before the wig gets put on). My makeup lady, Sandra, takes care of that for me. She also comes to my dressing room, so I don't have to worry about going to another room to get my makeup done. Makeup is done so lightly here, the American theaters sure could take a hint from this. There is so little base put on, just enough to even things out, so it's very easy to remove afterwards (and it looks just as good – there's really no reason to cake it on). After I'm in makeup and wig, my costumer Isra comes in and gets me into that great costume, and then I'm ready to go. There is always someone to open every door for me, and Sandra and Isra are always there to help out every time I leave the stage (I have crown ad collar changes between every entrance). The stage crew guys are so friendly, and they really seem to be enjoying themselves, not just doing their jobs because they have to. They're always humming along and smiling and looking way less stressed than I'm used to the crew looking. The stage manager for my side of the stage is the friendliest guy ever, always smiling and dancing around and making jokes. I can think of a few stage managers I've worked with who could learn a few things from him!

So yep, I hit the high notes, only tripped over my costume once (during curtain call as I was backing up, not too noticeable), got lots of applause, and felt just great afterwards! I'm looking forward to doing this five more times this week, I really am!

In other news, and this could turn out to be pretty exciting, I was hanging out with a friend when my phone rang with a number I didn't recognize. He joked, maybe it's the Met calling, and he was actually pretty close! It was Ronald Adler, the artistic director of the Berlin Staatsoper, who had received my name from Christoff Seuferle, the director here who hired me. The Staatsoper is premiering a modern opera called Hölderlin, and in one of the soprano parts, there are an infamous eight measures that include a sustained high F and a sustained high E, and his soprano cannot/will not sing them. Assuming they like the sound of my voice, I will be recording these measures to be played at the nine performances of the opera. I've sung through them and can do it, it'll just depend on whether they like the sound of my voice or not. Not so sure I can crescendo the F to a fortississimo, but we'll see if they like what I do. Getting a foot in the door at the Staatsoper could be a great career move.

Last night I saw the big Zauberflöte production that I will be in next month, and I loved it. Yes, I have actually used the word love in the same sentence as Zauberflöte. The production is so good, and I found myself thinking, wait, have we gotten to the boring parts yet? I think they're around here somewhere. Well, they were nowhere to be found. The sets, the costumes, the staging, the characterizations, everything is really exciting to watch! My favorite parts were Papageno, who steals the show because his character is just so funny to watch, and the 3 Knaben (or spirits), who sounded heavenly in their three part harmony. Perfectly in tune, gorgeous voices, I've never heard anything like that out of kids before. My only issue with them? They were wearing long sleeved leotards with no pants. And speaking of costumes, Monostatos and his slaves were all in blackface, big lips and all. Would NOT fly in the States, but pretty funny to watch. Now, I was hoping to refresh my Queen staging by watching the evening's Queen, but sadly she neglected to do much of what she was supposed to. She sounded amazing, though. The biggest mistake she made was that she is supposed to cut through a life sized photo of Pamina with a dagger in her first aria, and then step through the frame. She only cut the top part, and didn't finish cutting the rest of the photo, and came very close to falling flat on her face when she tried to step through and got stuck. Not too pretty. But at least I can learn from her mistakes.

I have a very busy week ahead of me. We're beginning rehearsals for Tannhäuser and Rosenkavalier, the two shows we're taking to the Beijing Music Festival this Sunday. While I probably won't get any actual stage time during rehearsals, I have to pay close attention and take great notes, just in case the two ladies I'm covering get sick over there and I have to go on stage. The music is hard enough, so I hope the staging is simple! I should have internet at the hotel in Beijing, so maybe I'll get to write a post from there, otherwise, you probably won't hear from me for a few weeks. Wish me luck!

One down, 36 to go.

Saturday night was our first performance, the Eröffnungsgala. It was an evening of opera scenes, arias, and some solo orchestra stuff. My part was singing Frasquita in the Carmen Card Trio and in the Toreador Song. We also ended the evening with Vaughn Williams’ Serenade to Music, which is apparently a tradition here. For those of you that know the piece, I had the first and last female solo, “…of sweet harmony.” Well, it was an interesting and eventually successful evening, but I’ll start at the beginning.

I shared a huge dressing room with three other ladies, and I was told before I got there that we would be getting our hair and makeup done. (We also have dressers, so the one time I tried to be helpful by zipping up someone else’s dress, I was pushed out of the way so the dresser could do her job. Fair enough.) After putting curlers in another singer’s hair, one of the makeup/hair ladies came over to me and asked what I wanted done with mine. I basically told her to work her magic and do whatever she wanted. For about three minutes, she brushed my hair with a curling brush, then tucked it behind my ears and put in a little hairspray. Looked EXACTLY like it does every day I show up to rehearsal. Then she did my makeup, which looked lovely. After she left the room, I started teasing my hair and spraying it to make it actually look like I was about to perform. I will most definitely do my own hair next time!

Next interesting moment. We’re all backstage waiting for the cue to enter for Toreador. Gerlinde, our director for Zauberflötchen, was acting as stage manager for the evening. She told us to get ready to go, and I’m first out, so I’m trying to pay attention. My friend Heidi is on stage bowing to thunderous applause for her aria, and as she goes offstage, I hear Gerlinde say “Go go go!” So I go go go, and from the other side of the stage, Heidi is coming back for her second bow, at which point I turn around and go back offstage. And Gerlinde says, “I said ‘No don’t go!’” Yeah, well, between the German accent and the rhyming English words no, don’t, and go, and her standing behind the four of us instead of at the front like a normal stage manager, I ended up making my debut entrance with Deutsche Oper Berlin at completely the wrong time. Anyway, I figured that since I messed up before my actual singing, the singing would be glitch-free, and it was! Both Carmen numbers were terrific, the audiences out here are so enthusiastic and after the Serenade we came out for about six bows, and Kirsten Harms, the Intendant (basically, the lady who runs the place) came up to me afterwards and said she really liked me.

And there we have it! I’ve made my debut, and I think it was a success! My official debut with the company in a full role will be as Königin der Nacht in the middle of October, and before then I have a few performances of Königin in the little Magic Flute for kids, and my big trip to China (still haven’t finished learning Sophie in Rosenkavalier, but that’s what random days off are for).

Just to let you know, my internet is spotty at best, and hasn’t been working so much lately, so if you email me and I don’t reply, or if I’m not on Skype, there’s a good reason.

Have a great day!

One week down...

Well, it's been a week, and I'm loving Berlin so far. The Deutsche Oper is filled with wonderful, helpful colleagues and employees. The singers I've met so far are all relatively young and the voices are terrific. Many are Americans, which isn't helping my German, but it's definitely keeping me from getting lonely! 

To start at the beginning, I arrived last Tuesday. If any of you fly into Tegel, be warned that the luggage is right when you leave the plane, not a half mile away and next to the street like it is in American airports. So, missed that, and had to wait for a while in the Customs Luggage building for unclaimed bags. Luckily, my friend Randy had met me at the airport, so I had someone to help me out. I went to the opera house first to get my apartment keys, and then crossed the street (literally), walked up three flights of stairs, and met my new apartment. It's huge! And very nicely furnished. Big kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room with a futon for guests. Tons of space, and lots of furniture so it doesn't look empty. It's made entirely of IKEA.

Rehearsals have been great and there haven't been too many so far. I staged my two arias for Das Zauberflötchen (our Magic Flute for kids) the day after I arrived. We've also been rehearsing for the opening gala concert this Saturday, at which I'm singing the Carmen card trio and Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with the rest of the group. Had our first rehearsal with the orchestra tonight that went well.

Costumes are looking good so far! My Königin costume for the kids' show is fantastic. It's a half globe skirt that's about 6 feet in diameter with a corseted top and long sleeves that cut off before the shoulder. There's a big collar that attaches and everything's covered in stars. I'll have pictures at some point. I also tried on my costume for the main Zauberflöte, which is completely different - silver and more straight with slightly poofy long sleeves. Most of my Sophie costume has been shipped to China already because it is very poofy, so I only got to try on bits and pieces.

I have my first private coaching tomorrow, on Sophie and Hirt (Tannhäuser) for China. I still haven't finished learning Sophie, so I'm a little nervous, but I'll be fine. I'll learn the rest of Act II in the morning before my coaching. ;-)

I had the weekend off, so I took Saturday to explore my neighborhood (Charlottenburg in West Berlin). Saw lots of the landmarks that are on the covers of guidebooks, and went to the KaDeWe, Europe's largest department store, which has a top floor dedicated to national and international foods. It's not organized in any way, but fun to walk around. On Sunday, I went to brunch with a friend of mine from USC who's been living here, and then she took me around the rest of Berlin for the day. At 4pm, there was a free outside concert of the Berlin Staatsoper performing Beethoven's 9th with Barenboim conducting.

So, after a week in Berlin, here are some of the things I've noticed:

Things I think are neat:

• You buy a Twix king size pack, and instead of four bars, you get 2 really long bars.

• Starbucks uses real mugs (I actually haven't gone and probably won't, but it looks nice from a distance)

• Wine is cheap! I was looking at a wall of reds, and the most expensive one was 4,99 (about $7.50). Most were 1,99 or under. And none of them were called Charles Shaw.

• Bread! Not only is it always delicious, but that $6 bread you pass by in Wegman's? It's 0,95 and twice as big here.

• The check-out people at every register in every store, faster than a speeding bullet they are.

• Cheap German chocolate bars. (Duh.)

Things I think are not neat at all:

• No matter what direction I turn the faucet, my bathroom sink continues to get hotter.

• No clothes dryers.

• No top sheets for beds, only fitted sheets. What?

• The folks in City Hall who don't speak any English, and that's the place you have to register when you move here from a possibly non-German speaking country. Even the guy at the Currywurst stand speaks perfect English.

 • I really need to learn me some German. I have traveler's German down pat, and it's pretty useless at the opera house.

• German cardboard, I mean toilet paper.

Things I'm not sure what to make of and find relatively amusing:

• No stop signs at intersections. My friend Meredith was saying that it was planned that way so drivers pay more attention and drive slower.

• Oil of Olay products are Oil of Olaz. Maybe because the German keyboard switches the y with the z? Still looks weird.

• Berlin fashion, if you come out here you'll know what I mean. I'll try to sneak in some pictures of crazy looking people if I can. And I see WAY too many mullets per square km.

• Spongebob Squarepants is translated as Spongebob Schwammkopf, i.e Spongebob Spongehead. Why?

Pictures! We have me standing in front of a lot of sausage at the KaDeWe, the side of the opera house (the view from my balcony), the outdoor concert, the old Kaiser Wilhelm Church that was bombed during the war and next to it, the new one that is now used, and the Holocaust Memorial consisting of 2711 concrete slabs of different heights on a sloping field to represent confusion and disorder.

Döner kebab count: 1

Sausage update: 1 Currywurst, 1 Bratwurst

Aack, last day in the US of A!

Hey, it's my first "real" post! Just arrived home from Opera North at 1am last night, and after unpacking everything, I've spent the evening packing my life for the next 10 months into two suitcases and two carry-ons. No more matching sneakers for every outfit. Boo.

So to give you a short recap of this summer, I spent three busy weeks in Vermont singing a tiny role (Annina in Traviata), and getting coachings on my Berlin music in my spare time. Met lots of neat Canadians, and ingested a lot of maple products. Then had a bit of a break, and drove to NH for Opera North. Great singers, great people, not as much time as I would have hoped to learn music. Not as much maple, despite the close proximity to Vermont. Most interesting bits of Opera North were the lining of my entire shower with plastic and duct tape by the landlord since the water was apparently leaking through the tiles (see picture), and my costume for Queen of the Night that was held up by swim noodles. Pointy swim noodles, apparently, since my left shoulder is all scratched up and actually started bleeding during my final performance. (See pictures. Not of the shoulder, of the costume!) Anyway, it was fun to sing one of my many dream roles, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to sing it with orchestra before I make my Deutsche Oper debut as Queen in October.

For those of you who don't know, I've been asked to cover two roles when DOB goes to the Beijing Music Festival in the beginning of October. I'll be covering the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, and Sophie in Rosenkavalier. And with all the things in China that can kill you or make you sick (which is pretty much everything according to the lady at the travel center who gave me my shots), there's probably a 50/50 chance I'll go on. I'll keep you updated!

So yep, leaving in about 18 hours, and by Tuesday afternoon I'll be decorating my apartment in American flags and settling down to a nice meal of sausage with a side of sausage. My dad will be taking over my cell phone, so unless you really want to talk to him, probably don't call my number. Email me, chat with me on Facebook, or be a really good friend and download Skype (for free!) and add me so we can actually talk. My Skype name is EricaMillerSoprano, and as soon as I have internet in my apartment I'll be on it whenever I'm home.

If you want to drop in for a visit, or send me care packages, letters, or kittens, my address will be:

Erica Miller

Richard-Wagner Strasse 1

10585 Berlin

Germany

Auf Wiedersehen, USA!

It's Millertime.

So, I've decided to start a blog to give myself, and the people who care about me, a nice easy way to keep track of my singing adventures. I'm sick of sending mass emails, trying to figure out who really wants to hear from me, and getting the occasional email back asking me to remove that person's address from my list (ouch! I didn't think I was that annoying!). I am doing away with the mass emails for good, unless something really cool and amazing happens, so if you want to continue to hear about how I'm doing, I ask that you subscribe to my blog. There's a convenient little box on the left side where you can enter your email address, and then every time I update, you'll get an email. I promise not to be annoying, not to update too often unless I really have something to say (i.e. I will not write every time I try a new type of sausage in Berlin), and to even be moderately entertaining at times. You can always unsubscribe if my blogging becomes too much to handle.

I may write a couple times from Opera North if I feel like it, but I'm mainly planning on starting for real once I'm in Berlin and have figured out how to order internet auf Deutsch. That is, once I've gotten over the fear of frying my beloved iBook by plugging it into the evil European outlet.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for (hopefully) lots of excitement, pictures, Eurotrash production stories, and the occasional sausage variety update.