winter has not left

I woke up this morning and noticed that it was very gray, not surprising nor particularly concerning. I then looked out the window and exclaimed out loud "oh man!" (in the less than thrilled fashion). After pretending that it was spring briefly it is winter and snowing. I'm not surprised, but I had stopped wearing a hat, something I was really sad about yesterday.

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, a day that I did not know existed before I was asked to sing for the service. In the Passion story, I think that what happens on Maundy Thursday is the most intriguing to me. I think it is because Christ is begging God the Father to not let this happen. He is fearful. I'm not going to write a ton more on this except for that I find that really fascinating and far more powerful than what happens on Good Friday. On Good Friday all that he predicts goes down. I'm far more interested in the prediction I think.

I've seen two operas at the Lyric recently. The first was Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The production was really lovely, leaves all over the stage. They really focus the story on Onegin and his struggles rather than on the melodrama of Tatyana the girl who falls for him. Beautiful overall, the choral work was good, and the orchestra was great!

After as I was hopelessly waiting for the bus to arrive (it seems to always take forever after the opera) I saw Dimitri Hvorostovsky walk swiftly by, silver coat, red scarf, collar up. Following him were two girls about my age "Mr. Hvorostovsky!" He stopped and autographed a number of people's programs. I was tempted but couldn't bring my self to do that. It was cool though.

I also recently saw Il Barbieri di Siviglia this week. Again I really enjoyed the production, the sets and costumes were based on Magritte paintings which was really cool. There was a nice mention on our critical edition in the program (it was of course written by my big boss, he wrote the notes for the La Traviata program as well). I thought the ornaments were both tasteful and really exciting, a combination that is difficult to achieve!