France: Église Saint-André, Reims

After our… interesting… stay in Amiens, we loaded the bus once more and headed to Reims, a slightly larger town in the heart of (drumroll please) champagne country! France’s Champagne province is the only area in the world that is legally allowed to call their sparkling wine “champagne,” though it has become a generic term across the world, much like “Kleenex” or “Band-Aid.” Regardless of what it’s called where, this girl is a huge lover of champagne, so I was determined to do some tasting in Reims, along with most of my colleagues.

First, though, we had a concert. Business before pleasure, right?

We checked into our hotel, which was rather inconveniently located outside the city center, but very conveniently across the highway from a McDonald’s and a place called “Flunch,” which apparently was short for “fast lunch.” Flunch, which was somewhat cafeteria-style, turned out to be fantastic. You could grab sides, desserts, drinks, and a la carte items, then order your main course and pay at the cash register. Then, if you ordered a burger like I did, you took your order ticket over to the grill and waited for your food. It was all unsuspectingly delicious, including the chocolate mousse I had for dessert. I wish I had taken a picture of the place.

After Flunch, we headed into town for our rehearsal, dinner, and concert. The venue was a church called Église Saint-André, and compared to Notre-Dame d’Amiens, it felt very intimate.

The steeple of Église Saint-André, Reims.

Those pock marks all over the façade are bullet holes. World War I and II history is everywhere in this area.

Upon entering the church for rehearsal, the French gentleman who let us into the building gave us a short, informative history of the church. Compared to some of the churches and other landmarks we had already seen, Église Saint-André was relatively young. It was built in the mid- to late 1800s, and as you saw in the above photo, it was badly damaged during World War I. In fact, only one of the original stained glass windows remains. I wish I had taken a picture of it to show the difference between it and the rest of them, which were installed after they were bombed out during the war.

One of the new windows. The one remaining original window is composed of much lighter pastel colors and more delicate designs.

Looking to the back of the church and the rose window. Again, very modern design and colors.

I felt a strange sense of connection and warmth inside this particular church. It may have been that my subconscious noticed the lack of tons of Catholic icons inside… not that I have any issue with Catholic churches, it’s just not what I’m used to or familiar with in a church. It may have been the natural light that streamed in multicolored through the stained glass windows. It may have been the smaller size that instantly made it feel more friendly, welcoming, and personal. Whatever the reason, this particular church touched me as I sat down during the other choir’s rehearsal and could vividly imagine the war damage being done just barely 100 years ago. When you travel to Europe, you see tons of Renaissance art and buildings that were constructed in the twelfth century, but it’s much easier to connect to history that happened within the lifetime of some people you know (okay, maybe not World War I, but definitely WWII). It’s a perspective I never really considered on my previous Europe trips, but one that adds a whole new later to my appreciation for and love of Europe.

Of all the concerts we performed on this trip, I felt that this one was the cleanest. Because the church was on the smaller side as European cathedrals go, the sound didn’t get sucked up into the high ceiling, but actually reverberated and came back to us. Personally, I was able to hear much better, and because it wasn’t freezing like the night before in Amiens, I was able to focus much better as well… perhaps surprisingly, because we had eaten dinner before the concert and it didn’t even start until 8:30 PM. Again, though, the audience loved us and we received a standing ovation.

That night we were all sort of confined to the hotel, as we were twenty minutes outside the city center and there was nothing to do in the immediate area. I sat down to a glass of champagne on the patio with our director, the other choir’s director, and a couple of friends, which turned into a giant party with most of our group showing up at one point or another. Drinks abounded from the hotel bar, and some brave souls even crossed the highway to pick up large amounts of chicken nuggets from McDonald’s. We were even joined by a cat that was clearly a frequent hotel patron, as he made himself quite comfortable in the arms and laps of a few different people. A good night was had by all, especially him.

England: London at a Glance, and Southwark Cathedral

Day Two of our choir trip found us on a bus tour of London. Since we had limited time, we weren’t able to get off the bus at any point to take photos, which was pretty lame, but necessary (I guess).

We started at our hotel in the West Kensington/Earl’s Court area of London, which is so far from the center that it’s actually in a different Underground zone than central London. The tour took us through Kensington, past the Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. That took us into the area surrounding Buckingham Palace, as well as to Knightsbridge, the shopping area famous for Harrod’s, among other high-end stores.

Royal Albert Hall.

Harrod’s.

Triumphal Arch on Hyde Park Corner.

From there we headed to Westminster, where (you guessed it) Westminster Abbey is located, right across the street from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and across the Thames from the London Eye. Fortunately, I was able to return to Westminster with a few friends during some free time and take some decent pictures.

Me crossing (you guessed it) London Bridge.

The side of Westminster Abbey, where the visitor entrance is located.

The impressive front façade of Westminster Abbey.

In the afternoon we performed a concert in Southwark Cathedral on the south bank of the Thames, right next to London Bridge (not to be confused with Tower Bridge). After grabbing some meat pies for lunch at the Borough Market (despite one friend’s remarks about Sweeney Todd), we joined up with the rest of our choir for a warm-up and the concert.

Once we were done singing, we were given a tour of the cathedral. Although England’s cathedrals are as grand as many of the Catholic churches we have in the States, the majority religion there is Anglican, which is a Protestant denomination. I knew this, but it didn’t really occur to me until we paused our tour briefly for a prayer service that ended with the Protestant version of the Lord’s Prayer. A pleasant surprise for this Presbyterian girl.

The exterior of Southwark Cathedral (pronounced “SUTH-erk”).

Interior of the cathedral.

Us during our concert. I’m on the first step up, the one behind the piano and closest to the camera.

Organ pipes.

England: Oxford

I am writing this post from London, at the end of a long first day of a choir tour! After what felt like a million hours of travel and a very jet-lagged day yesterday, I was finally able to get some sleep last night, though I did wake up at 4:30 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Fortunately, several of my colleagues were in the same situation. Unfortunately, my roommate was not one of them. Oh well.

As many choir tours do, our trip included several concerts as well as many opportunities for sightseeing. The first concert on our list was at Christ Church College Cathedral, Oxford.

If you’re not familiar with the college system adhered to by Oxford and Cambridge, each university is made up of several colleges within which students do all of their studies, regardless of their field of study. The closest metaphor we have in California are the UC and CSU systems, where “University of California” is the overarching organization, like Oxford, and “UCLA” is the individual college, like Christ Church College. It’s not a perfect explanation, but it works. Unlike the UC and CSU systems, however, each of Oxford’s colleges is located within the town of Oxford itself and exists as its own enclosed fortress.

The drive from our London hotel in Earl’s Court to Oxford took about an hour and twenty minutes total. Luckily we had a wonderful tour guide traveling on our bus (“coach”) with us, Marianne, who gave us all sorts of fascinating British history lessons regarding the Queen and the royal family, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and the histories of Oxford and Cambridge. Did you know that both universities used to be monasteries? English students had to go to the Paris Sorbonne for their higher education, but when a French archbishop excommunicated Henry VIII (maybe? I can’t remember), the English students had to find a place to study in their home country, and they turned to the monasteries. In turn, the monasteries expanded to accommodate the students, and both institutions gradually evolved into places of higher education, not just religious studies.

In addition to the history lesson, the views of the English countryside on our drive were gorgeous. Everything was so green, which we don’t always get in California, and there was the occasional herd of cows, goats, or sheep taking their mid morning naps, which made me miss my cats. We also made a short “comfort stop” at a big rest stop that was complete with Starbucks, where I bought myself a London Starbucks tumbler.

When we arrived in Oxford, I couldn’t help but drool over the beautiful brick Victorian houses that line the streets up and down. It’s such a quaint place, something we definitely don’t have in the Bay Area (in fact, I’m not sure many people there could even tell you what “quaint” is).

We didn’t have much time to explore upon arrival, since we had to head to Christ Church College Cathedral and rehearse for our lunchtime concert. When the concert was over and we were all back in our “civvies” (street clothes), we were set loose on the cobblestone streets of Oxford for a few hours.

My first stop was the Ashmolean Museum, which features permanent exhibits on the artistic and cultural fusion between the UK and Asia. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I only spent about fifteen minutes wandering the galleries before I realized why I don’t normally frequent art museums: they are too overwhelming for me. There’s always too much to look at, so I don’t look at anything unless I’m there for a specific purpose. So I gave up. I’m sure you would appreciate it if it was your thing. They also had a featured exhibit on Cézanne that you could pay to enter.

I remembered that Marianne had mentioned a street full of bookstores, so I decided to venture off in that direction next. This led to about an hour and a half in heaven as I browsed through Blackwell’s Books.

Notice how that sign actually says Blackwell’s Music. The front part of the store is a music store, and we’re not just talking instruments, accessories, and novelties like music socks. They had an entire room full of sheet music, some of which was marked down to incredibly low prices. I exercised a lot of self-control and didn’t buy any of it, mostly because I knew I could get those pieces online and not have to carry them home in my suitcase. However, our choir director went pretty crazy. After about an hour in there, he had a giant stack of heavy scores that he ended up having shipped home. And once I discovered the shelves of opera DVDs, I knew I was in big trouble. Somehow I managed to leave with just two of these rarely-sold-retail DVDs. Basically, it was a huge haven for music nerds.

Plus there was the back room, the Norrington Room, which was an even huger haven for just about every other kind of nerd.

We met as a group in the evening and walked to dinner at Brasserie Blanc in Oxford. I wish I could tell you what we ate, but since the meal was pre-ordered and prepaid, we never even saw a menu. However, it was delicious! The appetizer was a cheese soufflé, the main course was beef with roasted carrots and white rice, and dessert was an apple crumble with cream. Yum!

After the drive back to London, a few friends and I decided to grab a drink at The Goose, a pub near our hotel. We each had a different type of fruity cider, all of which were delicious, but last call was at 11:00, which was pretty lame. Our night ended there, since we knew we needed sleep before another long day.

Randoms For Your Monday

It’s been a long time since I posted, partially because I’m so freaking busy, and partially because I feel like I don’t have anything interesting to say. So here are a few random facts about me and other thoughts.

1. One of the things I love most about being a singer is the work uniform… that is, I love wearing fancy dresses. I have a board on Pinterest called “Dress Envy” and it’s one of my most frequently used boards. I was at the mall today on my lunch break and I had to stop and look at the gowns and day dresses. I have a recital coming up, which is a great excuse to buy a new gown, right?

The gown for last night’s concert. I love it, but somehow it was a little smaller when I first bought it…

2. I’m a master at eating in my car. The other day I ate pasta with a fork while driving. It’s really just out of necessity, since I’m almost always either engaged in an activity that prevents me from eating (like singing), or driving to or from work or rehearsal or whatever. The bad news is, my car is full of empty food containers and silverware. And no, I have never once gotten pulled over or gotten in an accident because of eating.

3. Our city had a really bad sports week. Between the Sharks losing to the Kings and the Warriors losing to the Clippers, it’s pretty safe to say the Bay Area hates L.A. right now. Few people are more depressed about it than T, who promptly and grumpily shaved off his beard after the Sharks threw away Game 7.

T and I at the Sharks game we most recently went to, before the playoffs (and the sucking) started.

4. T and I have an unhealthy relationship with our cats, Nora and Nigel. We spoil them and treat them like people. As a result, they can be quite the troublemakers:

KITTEHS.

And finally…

5. We are going to be an aunt and uncle in October!!! T’s older brother and his wife are expecting their first baby. We don’t yet know the due date or the gender, but that info should be coming to us soon. We’re SO excited, and of course T’s parents are beside themselves. Can’t wait to welcome Baby W into the world!

Back to Reality

Well, The Pirates of Penzance closed on Sunday. It was a wonderful run––I had a great time and got a fantastic review, the show got better and better every weekend, and I think the company actually even made money on it. It’s always hard to see a show go, but I know I’ll work with several of the people again, and it’s time to move on to something else, i.e. four concerts in the month of May.

In parting, here are my souvenirs from the show.

My Act 2 costume slippers, an engraved keychain flask that was a gift from the director, my trusty score, the DVD of the show, and a poster signed by every member of the cast. D’awww!

And a special bonus souvenir:

Yes, that is a bruise. I fell down several stairs during the third weekend of the show, and shockingly enough, this is actually the upswing of it. A few days ago it was much darker and completely solid-colored. I won’t tell you which part of my body it’s on.

And with that, I say farewell to Penzance and to Mabel for a while. Until we meet again!

“Dulcissime” from Orff’s “Carmina Burana”

Here’s a short video of me singing the final soprano movement from Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” in a performance about a year ago. It really is only 30 seconds long, but it includes all kinds of fun high notes, including a D above high C. Those are my favorite notes to sing!

Past Travels: Vancouver, BC

One of the perks of being a singer is the travel. I don’t do a lot of out-of-town gigs, partly because I like being at home with T and partly because I can’t afford to travel to auditions all the time. However, one common thing among young singers (really, all singers) is to participate in summer programs, which are offered at varying levels, content, and cost all over the world.

Last summer I chose a program in Vancouver, BC, called Vancouver Summer Opera Studio. It was a three-week program, during the course of which I lived in Vancouver and participated in master classes, voice lessons, coachings, and movement classes, in addition to performing the role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. In this particular program, there were only 20 singers, so we each got tons of individual attention from the staff. Without this becoming a review, let me just say that I absolutely loved the program and would highly recommend it to other singers (and if you are a singer, feel free to contact me for details!).

Vancouver is, for lack of a better term, an extremely cool city. Located in about the south-westernmost part of Canada, it’s a port city, so it sits right on the English Bay and the Vancouver Harbor. This instantly made me feel like I was back at home in San Francisco, in the best way possible. Unfortunately for me, it also means that sushi is a huge thing. Like, huge. I hate sushi, and I think I begrudgingly set foot in more sushi restaurants in those three weeks than ever before in my life combined. Hey, I didn’t want to spend all those evenings eating dinner alone.

Watching the sun set over Kitsilano Beach.

Aside from the sushi, though, there are a lot of awesome things about Vancouver’s location on the water. For one thing, it’s a major port of call for cruises, so I spent many a lunch hour sitting on a bench on the beach with some of the other singers, watching the ships travel in and out of the harbor on their way to or from Alaska. If you locate yourself in the right place, you can also watch all kinds of sailboat races, paddle boarders, and various other water events, which of course I love.

One of the many small harbors surrounding the city.

And then there’s Granville Island. Guys, if I lived in Vancouver, I would do all of my grocery (and other) shopping here… and let’s be honest, probably just hang out here all the time. Not only is there a huge indoor-outdoor market (think Pike’s Place in Seattle), you can also hit up tons of shops selling arts and crafts, food, wine, coffee and tea, musical instruments, and all kinds of other things. My favorite was a shop that sold these awesome handmade brooms. I seriously considered buying one (or more than one). There was even one that had a handle made out of a hockey stick. Oh, Canada!

I felt like I was shopping for a broomstick in Diagon Alley.

To be perfectly honest, because of the schedule of the opera program, we didn’t have a ton of time to get out and explore the city. However, two of the other girls and I managed to catch a performance of Hamlet at Bard on the Beach, Vancouver’s answer to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival in Oregon. It was my first time ever seeing a Shakespeare play live (I know, right?), and it was amazing. My friends and I agreed that we learned a ton about acting by watching a straight (non-musical) show. All three of us also bought the same shirt at intermission, unbeknownst to each other. Unfortunately, we never managed to take a triplet picture.

A photo I snapped during the pre-show curtain speech, before I wasn’t allowed to take photos.

The program ended on a Sunday, but I wasn’t leaving until Monday afternoon, and I happened to be on the same flight home as my dad, who had come up to see the performance. We had some time to kill before heading to the airport, so we trekked through downtown Vancouver to Canada Place, the main harbor where the cruise ships dock. There are some fun things to do there, like get your picture taken with your face in a hockey player’s body.

No, this is not me and my dad, these are some friends of ours from home who were also nice enough to come see my show.

If you walk all the way down to the far end of the harbor, you can go on a simulation called Fly Over Canada. If you’ve ever been on Soarin’ Over California at Disney’s California Adventure, you probably won’t be super impressed with the Canadian version, but it was fun all the same.

The entrance to Canada Place from the downtown side.

I loved everything about Vancouver: the vibe, the culture, the cleanliness, the ease of using public transit, of course the proximity to the ocean, even the slightly cooler summer weather. If I could live anywhere in the world, this city would be at the top of my list.

Have you ever been to Vancouver? What are your favorite things about the city?

A Day in the Life of an Opera Singer: Pre-Show Routines

I’ve been terrible at this blogging thing ever since starting the new job last week. Between working all the time and singing the rest of the time, I haven’t even opened my laptop more than two or three times since Friday night.

But it’s Monday afternoon, the boys I nanny for are homework-ing away, and I thought you all might enjoy a little bit of insight into what goes on backstage (or in the case of my current show, under the stage) before a performance. This is a sample timeline for an 8:00 PM curtain (start of show), based on the schedule for .

• 6:30 PM: Arrive at the theatre and sign in on the sign-in sheet backstage. A very important step to avoid the wrath of the stage manager. Deliver comp tickets to the box office. Wander into dressing room and stand around aimlessly, wondering where to start.
• 6:40: Take off regular jewelry and put on show earrings. Complain to one of the chorus girls about how terribly my March Madness bracket is doing. Turn on curling irons. Start makeup. For current show, simply touch up street makeup, since it’s a very small house and a very natural look. Add false eyelashes (about which I complain vigorously), blush, and slightly more defined highlights and shadows.
• 6:55: Escape the dressing room psychosis by going outside and having something to eat.
• 7:05: Begrudgingly begin curling hair. Try not to get too involved in conversations so as to rest voice, and generally fail at this. Roll eyes at chorus girl who has a crush on the male lead and can’t stop talking about it.
• 7:30: Vocal warm-ups as a group in the room across the hall. Don’t over-sing.
• 7:45: Director and stage manager give pep talk and make announcements, including “15 minutes to places,” to which we respond, “Thank you 15.”
• 7:50: Finish curling hair if not done. Add hair ribbon. Find ways to occupy self that don’t involve too much talking. Munch a little bit more. Avoid getting into complicated costume.
• 8:00: Wait until stage manager starts her curtain speech, or better yet, until the first song of the show starts, and make the trek outside, up some sketchy stairs, and around the back of the building to use the restroom, since the only one in the whole building is located off the lobby (oversight much?).
• 8:05: Return to dressing room and take advantage of other girls still being there to help me get dressed. Tights, knee pads, giant petticoat fondly known as Angry Mildred, huge poofy dress that has to go on over my head due to Angry Mildred’s presence and be pinned together in the back. Double check jewelry. Put on lipstick.
• 8:12: Chorus girls go upstairs for their first entrance. Enjoy several minutes of quiet in dressing room.
• 8:17: Girls’ chorus song starts. Scoop dress and petticoat off the floor as much as possible, awkwardly grab character shoes and water bottle. Make the trek outside and up the sketchy stairs again, but this time to the work area outside the stage door.
• 8:18: Put on character shoes just outside stage door. Pick up parasol and enter stage door quietly, not letting in any light from outside work area.
• 8:19: Tiptoe through pass-through at the back of the stage. Take a few moments to self while girls frolic. Hide water bottle under set stairs for when I get to exit briefly.
• 8:21: Tenor is singing a very pretty aria. Try not to get too distracted. When he gets to second verse, climb back of set stairs. Try not to make contact with cello or bass player, so as not to hit them or their instruments or get giant dress stuck on them. Quietly open parasol.
• 8:22: Take deep breath, smile adorably, and make dazzling first entrance! And don’t get the giant dress stuck on the plywood mountain.

The life of a singer is truly a magical one… but only when you’re actually being a singer.. Is it Friday night yet?