The Red Hour has struck, and the 2010 Edinburgh International Arts Festival is open!!! Time to lick my wounds.

Funny how life sometimes imitates Star Trek.

Once in a lifetime everyone should have the opportunity to do something that very, very few other people can claim to have done.  It’s my turn.

When last we saw our intrepid Porgy folk we were sneaking up on the Gale, the general dress rehearsal.  Or, truth be told, perhaps the Gale was sneaking up on us.  This is where the old expression “canary in a coal mine” starts to seem prophetic.

Pre-Gale.  Sitzprobe.  Piano Filage.  If I didn’t know any better I’d suspect that we were putting together a very expensive porno flick.

Normally when I’m is hired to do concerts with, say, the Lower Podunk Symphony Orchestra, I start looking on Expedia for cheap tickets to Lower Podunk.  After all, one expects to rehearse said orchestra where said orchestra resides.  Which begs the question – why, then, if I’m doing an opera with the Opera Lyon company [...]

Being a collection of random thoughts about Porgy & Bess, Lyon, the French, and anything else that pops into my mind….