Friday, September 24, 2010

Involuntary Pause

I'm not out of commission for lack of ideas or time. We don't have internet in our brand new apartment in Amsterdam, so it has been hard to post. I've actually been VERY productive the last couple days, working on my blocking for an upcoming "La Boheme" with Opera York in Toronto. I've always thought "Boheme" (I used to go see it EVERY Christmas in New York) was perfect, but not one I would ever stage. Actually, though, I've found it quite wonderful to work on and have a great concept which I hope to share soon. What a fantastically perfect piece, absolutely without any problems. I love it. Other than that I'm preparing two competitions, one for Opera America based on John Adams "The Flowering Tree" and one for Opera Europa based on "I Capuleti ei Montecchi"...both I have to say rather inspired. Dan (husband) is off in Cremona this week looking for a new violin, so I've been on my own and working hard. I just got offered a new "Voix Humaine" which is a wonderful piece, with the Dutch National Opera Academy, and have lots of AOT things on the burner. Busy time...but then again they all same busy these days. I hope we'll have internet and I can write more soon. After the competition deadlines I'll post photos of Ryan Winneinger's (my beloved designer) stage designs, and info on the concepts. Great stuff...I think...I hope.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Back in Action

So yeah...took a LONG break from blogging this Summer. I needed a chance to refigure what I wanted to do with this blog and also was busier than I've ever been with projects all over the world. First things first! The blog is doing now what I like to think about as "expanding". In reality, I'm feeling that it might be a little easier for me to write regularly on the blog if I felt like I could write about everything I'm up to, and not just the AOT projects. Making the blog exclusively for AOT was fine when I didn't have much else going on, but now I find myself pulled from project to project - dream to dream - and was frustrated that I couldn't write just about what was going on in my mind. If I'm going to give to the blog I think the blog should give back to me. I mean, using the blog as a place to air out ideas and think outloud could really help me develope concepts and communicate with myself (and since giving up journaling several years ago...I'm in desperate need of self-communication). So, I'm still going to keep readers abreast of AOT activities, but I'm going to open the blog up to writing about a whole lot more.


And second of all...what have I been up to? Well right after the "Giulio Cesare" in London I returned to the Netherlands where I staged Peter Maxwell Davies opera "The Lighthouse" for the Nationale Reisopera to open the 2010 Grachtenfestival. I left right from those performances to Sardinia where I staged my old "Dido+Aeneas", which just gets more refined everytime, and premier a new piece called "Butterfly" based on the Puccini, but much more about her fragile psychology than all the Asian trappings. Maybe I'll find time to expound on all that in the weeks to come. But for now here are some photos and video of all that stuff.

John Molloy, center with Kris Belligh and Richard Rowe
THE LIGHTHOUSE





Sarah Barnes as Cio-Cio San
BUTTERFLY
Sophie-Louise Roland as Suzuki


Brian Arreola as Pinkerton