Not quite

Well that’s it then. Last night was my final performance this season. Time to go home!

Well... sort of.

I am indeed flying back to London today to sing at a wedding relatively near Gatwick, thank you Easyjet, and then spend a couple of days with my wife, but I am not finished. Far from it in fact.

When I return to Stuttgart next week I will have some more rehearsals for Cosi, just to make sure I know it really well in case I go on as a cover, and I am also now back in my familiar ‘cover-watching’ auditorium seat (row 15, 10 seats in from the left since you asked) for the stage rehearsals of Rigoletto, in which I am covering the role of Borsa.

Cosi

Last Sunday was the premiere of our Cosi Fan Tutte, an experience I found far from relaxing. Having sat through 6 weeks of rehearsals, and done a few myself, I was so keen for it to go well and to be received well. The gentleman sitting next to me, who turned out to be a good friend of our casting director, even commented on my nervousness afterwards.

The show was received well, thankfully, and I stayed for a brief drink afterwards to congratulate my colleagues. At that point I was definitely back to feeling like a ‘cover’, a sort of awkward dinner party guest that no one really knows what to say to, so I disappeared quite quickly!

Rigoletto

There isn’t a huge amount to say about the process of me covering in Rigoletto, apart from I have missed the first few weeks of rehearsals because of Cosi, so any hint that I will get on stage would, currently, terrify me. I’m sure that will change over the next few weeks and by the Premiere which is at the end of the month.

Stuttgart

Stuttgart has gone crazy this week, it is now quite hot (up to 32 Celsius today) and, being in a valley, the heat doesn’t escape and it becomes very humid.

There are also an extra 200’000 people in the centre of town for a thing called ‘Kirchentag’, a Christian arts and music festival which happens annually but in a different city in Germany.  This time it is Stuttgart’s turn and its crazy. Every public space in the centre is completely full of people, everywhere you turn there are stages with choirs/bands on performing and thousands of people joining in.

I’m not overly fond of spending time in large crowds of people, particularly not in 32 degree heat, and so this weekend hop over to the UK has come at a good time.

Speaking of which, I must rush to the airport…..

Hope you all have a good week.

Tom  

ps Next week I hope to have more to say about future plans....