Snowy Day

Today is a snowy day, with 3-4 fresh inches on the ground--it's so beautiful and pristine! It's a "dark night," meaning the theatre is dark tonight, with no rehearsals or performances going on. Bruce and I plan to drive down to Girdwood, where the Alyeska Ski resort is, for a pre-Valentine's dinner at The Double Musky, one of Alaska's premier restaurants. It features Cajun food, of all things! It's so fattening and rich you can really only eat there about once a year.

The Student Dress rehearsal was a huge success last night. I say "huge" because the students did NOT fall asleep, clapped and laughed at the right times, and cheered enthusiastically at the curtain calls. They obviously had their favorites, especially the Romantic young Lensky, the "rock star" of our Onegin. With his longish wig, he looked like every BBC Jane Austen hero ever seen, and the girls all but swooned when he came out for the curtain call. That role is beautifully sung by Matthew Pena, whom I interviewed last night and will post on tomorrow's blog. Matt is originally from California, attended Oberlin College and the Manhattan School of Music, and will be at Santa Fe as an apprentice this summer. His career is definitely on the rise!

One of the most fun things about opera is the make-up and costuming. EVERYONE loves that! So I've included a couple of pictures of our performers and our hair and make-up designers at work, always a fascinating process.

Tomorrow is opening night, and we expect a wonderful crowd and a party afterwards--then we are off until the next Wednesday! All of a sudden the intense rehearsal process comes to a rapid halt! That is the hard part of this job: there's a lot of down-time. It's easier for me because we have a condo here, Bruce has been here for his 2 weeks off, and our daughter lives here now (since last March). It's hard for 3 adults to be crowded into a 1BR condo, but it also gives me a touch of a "real" life; at least I'm not living in a hotel room, which is always so sterile, and eating every meal out.