Fun times in Macau

It's been a week and a half since I arrived in Macau to sing Ännchen in Der Freischütz. Macau is basically the Las Vegas of the East, without the Vegas-style entertainment. This is a place to gamble, gamble, and gamble some more. I've walked into many of the casinos, and while they're definitely large and gaudy, they're nowhere near as interesting to see as the ones in Vegas. I did, however, spend about 45 minutes trying to find the exit in the maze of shops that is the Venetian (it's three times bigger than its Vegas counterpart).

There are certainly things to see here that don't involve the casinos. Macau is very interesting architecturally. There's not much that's Chinese about it except for the occasional temple and the Chinese store signs. There are a lot of grimy high-rise apartment buildings, the huge casinos, and a lot of neoclassical-style colonial Portuguese buildings, which are absolutely gorgeous (Portugal owned the place until 1999 when China took over). I have officially seen everything in the guidebook, since you can pretty much walk from one end of the peninsula to the other in a half hour.

Our hotel is conveniently located, we have free internet, and thanks to being on the top floor facing south, I have a great view of various casinos and the harbor. My bed is not so much a mattress but a hard box spring. One of my colleagues had to change rooms to a non-smoking floor and it turned out that his new bed had a thickish mattress pad on it. I requested one this morning, and let me tell you, trying to explain a mattress pad to the front desk folks who barely speak English was rough. I came back to my room after rehearsal and whatever I said and (mostly) mimed, worked! Hopefully I'll sleep a little better for the rest of my time here.

I arrived a few days earlier than everyone else because I wanted to be well-adjusted before my first rehearsal, which I thought was Oct. 16. Turns out, we didn't have rehearsal that day, or the next day, and  on Tuesday, we simply had a meet and greet and didn't sing. Left me with lots of time to explore. On the most recent day off I had, I took the ferry to Hong Kong and had a wonderful time. (I did not have a wonderful time on the ferry, however, which tossed and turned just enough to make me upchuck my breakfast.) I hope to get to Hong Kong again, but I'm not sure if I'll have any more days off.

I've eaten lots of delicious food, mostly Portuguese and Cantonese, although I did have a fabulous Indian dinner tonight. The food is fairly cheap, and it's fun to try lots of new dishes.

Rehearsals have been going very well. I really love the director. It's so refreshing to have a director with a plan. He stages very quickly and with a lot of detail, and then we repeat things a lot, changing or adding little nuances each time. It's a welcome change from the directors I've had recently. The unfortunate thing is that our lead soprano has not shown up yet. Supposedly she will arrive by plane tomorrow morning and will be at rehearsals all day. All of my big scenes rely on her character's reactions, so it's been difficult staging without her. The assistant director has been walking her parts, but he's really not the ideal leading lady. Everyone is pretty unhappy that she hasn't been here, and I hope that when she arrives, that she is friendly and ready to jump in.

Before I forget, I added an mp3 of highlights from one of the Daughter of the Regiment performances to my website. There aren't any complete numbers, but you can hear bits and pieces of my big numbers.

Here are some pictures to enjoy:

Cool architecture in Senado Square, a lovely pedestrian area:

View from my hotel room at night:

I think I took this from one of the fortresses high up in the center of the peninsula - the big building in the shape of a lotus flower is the Lisboa Hotel and Casino. My hotel is next door.

Yummy food - another singer and I shared marinated roast pigeon, veggies in curry sauce, and duck rice (basically rice fried in duck fat with pieces of duck and Portuguese chorizo):

This little piggy went to market (apparently with two of his little piggy friends). This is not the grossest picture I took at the meat market that day, just so you know:

At the bird market in Hong Kong, probably my favorite part of the day:

More colorful birds from the bird market:

Most interesting plant I saw at the flower market in Hong Kong - I will call it a condom plant:

Me on the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Central to Kowloon, with the Hong Kong skyline in the background (this one only lasted about 6 minutes and I did not puke):