Star struck

By this time, week 13, of my journey in Stuttgart you may have thought that things would become repetitive and dull. And in truth, it is sometimes a challenge to inspire oneself when you are only singing one line in an Opera and the auditorium is only half full on a cold and wet Tuesday evening. 

At this early stage in my career, though, with the apprenticeship-like nature of an Opera Studio limiting the size of roles ON stage, I really enjoy the process of working OFF stage. Of being in a practice room and learning a new role, or doing exercises to improve my technique, of working on characters and interpretation and of memorizing....... actually that is a lie. I hate memorizing. Memorizing music, I find, can be one of the most frustrating and time consuming of tasks. But we have to do it.

January Concert

This week I have spent much of my time memorizing the music for an Opera Studio concert in January, which takes place in the beautiful town of Ludwigsburg. Excitingly I will be singing Edgardo's duet with Lucia from Lucia di Lammermoor, and then his aria from the end of the opera. I feel more and more like this repertoire and my voice were made for each other so to get chances to perform some of it will be great. 

The programme inevitably took a long time to put together. With all six of us from the studio performing, it is important to get a good balance. It is also important that we all sing music suitable for our voices, and Bettina Giese, the Head of the Opera Studio, took a lot of care considering the music for each of us. This care and consideration is one of the biggest positives about Stuttgart as an opera house. 

As I have mentioned before, the friendliness and support shown to me by everyone in the Opera house has made it a very easy place to feel settled in. In light of this, and if you are considering applying for an Opera studio, I would point you towards the Opera studio web site, with the deadline for applications being the 15th of December: http://www.oper-stuttgart.com/opera/operastudio_1516/

Home time

Despite it being a supportive place to work, the easing up of my schedule had allowed for me to miss home more than I had realised. Having been at boarding school from the age of 7 to 18, I am very much used to being away from home. I have never been away from home for this long in one go, though,  

So when I received my daily plan for Monday, on Saturday afternoon, and saw that I was free all day, I decided to fly home for 48 hours. With the help of a few thousand loyalty points, and having been paid for the Messiah I did the other week, I just about afforded the flights. To be home for a few days was worth every penny. To be able to sit with my wife and relax, have a curry, watch British TV without it buffering every 6 seconds, have a Pret-A-Manger Christmas sandwich, get stuck on a delayed train, was great. I look forward to being back again at the end of December.

Mercedes

On Saturday morning, before I had decided to fly home, I attended the 'Stars and Cars' event at Mercedes Benz in Stuttgart. This yearly celebration of their Motor Sports teams was made all the more special this year due to the success they had had in Formula 1. Both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were in attendance, as were many thousands of fans.

Having bought a T-Shirt and a cap to remember the day by, and having missed the interviews with Lewis and Nico I'd planned on catching, I decided to head home early. As I wandered towards the nearest U-Bahn I walked past the garages where they were preparing the show cars, including the F1 cars which I stopped to take a picture of. 

Two minutes later, and with me now in prime position at the front of the crowd, both Lewis and Nico turned up and I found myself shaking hands and chatting with Lewis, who also kindly signed my t-shirt. 

For extra proof that I met Lewis, I was unfortunate enough to be caught by the TV cameras and shown on British morning TV, as you can see here. In my defence it was very cold and the grey thing I am holding is the T-Shirt.

Family

Following the excitement of meeting Lewis and then heading home, I am now delighted to have my parents here until Sunday. So please excuse the shorter blog, but I must dash out and show them around town.

Hope you all have a great week.

Tom




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