In the past few weeks, several of my fondest wishes have come true (although that whole "financial independence" thing hasn't quite panned out just yet). First, we finally married off the Old Maid Jessica (thank god)! It was a lovely ceremony, and not terribly stressful (at least, it felt more relaxed for me, but then, it's slightly less stressful when it's not your wedding, I guess), and we got a little bit of time to visit with friends and family when we weren't running errands, attending official wedding functions, carving pumpkins, running around town taking photos....ok, so maybe it was a *little* stressful, but we had fun anyway! I sang Panis Angelicus: a huge step up from the Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli duet "The Prayer" that I sang at Jessi Poepping's wedding (sorry, dear), and had to give the best man speech at the reception. Guess which one I was more nervous about??? The speech went over well, if a tad lengthy, and in fact I had several people tell me it was one of the best they'd heard in awhile (who knew I could be so witty and verbose?). The best part was when the priest went home with my Jewish voice teacher at the end of the night... Er, rather, he drove her home, so we wouldn't have to leave the reception early to do so. But still, what I wouldn't have given to have heard what that ride home conversation was like...
After we got back, we fulfilled another dream of mine by finally painting the living room. Woo! (My dreams are somewhat small and sad, aren't they?) We had been holding off on it, because we wanted to make sure we were going to be able to stay here before we did a huge project that will need to be undone when we move out. Since we got the renewal lease, and they didn't jack up the rent TOO much, that gave us the green light. We chose a reddish-orangish brown, called "Toasted Chestnut". There's some pics below, although it looks decidedly more orange in the pics than it does in real life. It's funny how little things like a coat of paint can make a place feel more like home. It turns out, we got it done just in time, as we had a house guest the next weekend... Jessica was three weeks into her marriage and feeling the need to get away (I so understand), so she came up for a short visit to NYC. It was fun; we got to have our traditional un-turkey thanksgiving since she couldn't be there for the actual day, and we terrorized some children at MoMA by teaching them that breasts are not volcanoes (it was just like old times)... Actual Thanksgiving Day was nice too. I made the whole thing myself, including handmade pumpkin ravioli which turned out remarkably well with a friend's borrowed pasta maker. I don't think I'll be running out and buying one anytime soon, but it was yummy for a special occasion!
My last bit of exciting news is that I joined a new choir that will be performing at Lincoln Center this June! That is definitely a dream of mine, and while I won't be a soloist or anything like that (the soloists are all major professionals from the Met, including Chris Brewer, who's affiliated with Webster and singing part of the Ring Cycle at the Met this season), it's still pretty awesome to be singing at THE performing arts center of the country, and with the NY Philharmonic, no less. The group is called The Dessoff Choirs, a semi-professional group that's been around since the 20's and has gained an excellent reputation - thus, they are often called to do big symphonic works around town like these two concerts in June. The first concert will be Britten's War Requiem, a stunningly powerful modern setting of the Latin mass for the dead, and the second, Mahler's 8th, also known as the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the massive number of musicians needed to perform it. While I'm excited about the Mahler because I've always loved his music, and I'm not terribly familiar with this one so it will be a good chance to delve into another of his greats, I'm elated about singing the War Requiem. I discovered this piece only a few years ago, and was just blown away by it. It was written for the re-dedication of Coventry Cathedral, a 14th-century church which was completely destroyed by bombing during WWII, and replaced by a modern structure in 1962. Britten used this juxtaposition of old and new by taking the traditional Latin requiem that composers have set to music since the dawn of time, and interjecting it with poems written by a British soldier in the trenches of WWI. The whole piece is basically conceived as an anti-war protest, giving it both a historical context and a modern poignancy that those who have opposed this war we're in now can related directly to. That, and it's just a fucking beautiful, lush piece, written for choir, boy choir, and two orchestras. We're working on a concert for March, too, that is all American choral music, which will be pretty cool, lots of Ives, but nothing compared to the two NY Phil concerts. The group seems pretty cool, too, meaning, they do interesting, complex music, the rehearsals are intense and productive, and it's not one of those groups where I feel like I have to be terribly social if I don't want to (you know me, I don't like to talk to people).
The only other thing going on currently is Nate busily preparing to head to China. He has some mixed feelings, I think, being that it's only for a week and he won't have much of a chance to see anything, but it will be a great experience for sure. The girls and I will be lonely next week, but we'll do our best to make up for it by eating meat everyday. I'm sure I will make him write a post all about his experiences when he gets back, so stay tuned!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
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