im really bad at keeping this updated...

hi everyone! or whoever reads this! hi! i'm still here... in perigueux... and will be for another 3 weeks. it feels like i've been here for a really long time and i'm getting a little homesick, but i'm still enjoying france.

this past week has been very, very busy. i am at school around 9hr and then leave finally around 18 or 1830hr. the days are usually as follows:

9-12 : voice lessons or coachings. each student gets 30 mins and we work on arias, art songs or songs by the composer in residence, isabelle aboulker. she has some good music and some not so good music, but is a very enjoyable old french lady who likes me and my playing, so bonus!

12-14 : lunch/ NAP TIME

14-16 : afternoon coaching sessions

16 - 1830 : staging rehearsal of la perichole - the offenbach opera we are performing in 2 weeks.


so yeah- things are busy. i'm enjoying learning all of this repertoire, though! i think i will have played around 30 arias and about 100 art songs by the time i leave here.

this past friday night i played a full recital program with 6 singers in a lovely church located in genis - about 45 minutes from perigueux. the program included 2 art songs and 1 aria from each singer. and there was a real piano! it was a miracle, basically. churches are the best place for singers to sing - anyone sounds good because the acoustics are just marvelous. here are a lot of pictures:

looks old...

it is old! 

catholic stuff

the walls were lined with these paintings and sculptures

wow!

beautiful stuff.

i'm assuming its a little creepy at night.

altar? 

i think this was the convent

old!

lovely little building in genis

roads are TINY in france 

every building has personality

taken from a "parking lot" aka a dirt area to park cars 

roundabout with fountain

last night we had another castle concert - it was all arias. i played 7 - i think... everything starts to blend together after a while. this was an ACTUAL castle with history dating back to like 1200AD or something like that. also, this is supposedly the place where richard the lionheart was killed? i'm not quite sure. it's for sale, though! a mere 10 million euro...

ivy and stone

lookout tower

archway into a garden or something

view of the city

the garden

old stuff

tower! crazy.

tower with the scariest stairs

this random statue head

stairs! 

a random knight

our "stage"

an old fountain with stinky water 

a hallway

genis!

ok thats all for now! bye!

still here!

much of the same has happened since my last post. rehearsals are going well - we have act I down and are starting work on act II tomorrow. the participants have made a lot of progress in such a short amount of time - it is really impressive. lots of talent here - and i'm having a great time coaching and playing for lessons.

this weekend there are three (3!) song recitals. each singer will perform two songs. i've been assigned around 9 of them i think... playing songs by debussy, chausson, duparc, faure, poulenc, and others. again have had to learn them fast, but it will be a good test for me!

as for this past week - fireworks happened on bastille day! they were lovely. here are some pictures that i think turned out at least ok.

we were near a river and there was a very large crowd that gathered for them.

also, it was the birthday of one of the faculty members.

happy 70th, sylvia!!

a short post, but again, nothing of note has happened. i'm still having a great time and am loving france to death.

i'll leave you with some random photos! hope everyone is doing well at home xo

d

another view of the cathedral 

a little café

night view

some of the crew!

catch up day!

hi everyone who still reads this! sorry for the delay in blog posts. this week has been very busy. here's an overview:

• i played at a house concert this past friday with three singers. i got the music on wednesday (...), so it was fast learning for me! they sounded fine. we arrived in lanaouille, a town close to perigueux around 7 pm and were given champagne, wine, and a three course meal. coffee and conversation in french and english (and franglish) ensued. we didn't sing until 10, but left with a big bottle of champagne from the host, who happened to be the mayor of the city.

beautiful gardens!

yum

real sheep!! how lovely.

• yesterday (saturday) was our first real concert. it was at a "castle", which happened to be just a chateau. it was very nice with a meal provided. the hosts were dutch, so french was the second language of many people there. there were 22 singers each performing an aria during the concert. it was so long. ugh. also, the program here doesn't believe in real pianos, so the pianists had to play on an ELECTRIC keyboard. it was pretty horrific, but everyone said it sounded fine. i guess that is all that matters, right? 

the "castle". it's not as big as it looks.
but, it's from the 16th century, so it's pretty neat.

all of this land is owned by one person...
last week they "built a lake on the golf course" in his backyard...

our concert venue. in a barn. notice the keyboard -__-

gorgeous grounds!

wow

just a casual pool in the middle of the rolling hills of france.

• we've staged act 1 of the opera, which is about 45 minutes of music... this took about a week. there are FOUR casts . . . . . . . so i'm playing for about 3 hours of staging every day. maybe 10 pages of music a day. it gets very repetitive, but i try to make it fun with casual snarky remarks. i can't help myself. 

• i also play for lessons or coach every morning from 10h to 13h. the singers are getting much better even in just one week. it is pretty great. after long days, i come home to eat with the rest of the faculty and we have wine and dish about what happened during the day. i'm meeting and living with some amazing people from around the world! it's pretty exciting. 

de-stressing

• today is bastille day aka independence day for france. we sang the french national anthem this morning at some park and it was lovely. 

lovely park!

another pianist, maggie, et moi.
our sashes were on backwards - one french guy said :
"well... it's close enough" 

liberty or something. statue blahblah. 

the house of the mayor... looks nice.

• i tried some new foods this week! shrimp in the shell last night and today at lunch i had an AMAZING salad with foie gras (duck liver!!!!!) along with some other part of duck (magré and some other word that means throat). it was DELICIOUS. i'm serious. i was verrryyy skeptical at first, but then it turned out to be amaaaazing. foie gras is banned in the US because people overfeed the ducks to make their livers taste better or something. i'm not quite sure. 

i really can't tell you how good this was.

trying to figure out what i'm about to eat.

ok. long post. i have more pictures. i'll put them here. feel free to ask questions! i don't know if i will respond. i will also try to be more diligent about keeping this up. i am having an amazing time. 

bonne fête national et vive la france!!

d

it's pretty beautiful.

same fountain, different day.

a cathedral!!

cathedral / crazy parking! they drive on sidewalks here NOBIGDEAL

beauty-full. 

une maison

une autre maison

perigueux

just me in france.