Concerts, Concerts, Concerts
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2011
1
35
Trip End
Aug 29, 2011
Vianden, Diekirch, Luxembourg
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday was filled with more staging rehearsals. I was booked solid until 6pm. I knew I had just enough time to get up to the castle for a 6:30pm concert. I was pleasantly surprised to see my cousins looking for me at the hotel when I went back to grab some things for the concert. Perfect timing to run into each other! They had come to see me at my little home of Vianden, so we all went to the faculty concert together that evening. And when I say went, I mean hiked up the large hill to the castle since our group had grown too large to sneak onto the festival-run shuttle bus. No time for dawdling. It's still a pleasant little walk up to the castle in my opinion despite the steep streets that make your thighs and glutes glad to be of service. Again, a nice faculty concert was presented. And, how cool is it to watch a concert in a beautiful European castle? During intermission, we could wander throughout the castle and gaze into its historical bedrooms, halls, and kitchens. We could also mosey on through the outside balconies and halls that had gorgeous lookouts onto the town of Vianden. Once the concert was over, we all had to scamper on down the hill again as I was planning on going to the faculty dinner at the Victor Hugo restaurant that evening. I had to say an unfortunate quick goodbye to all my cousins again so I could take my seat for the delicious tomato pesto soup, curry sliced turkey with pineapple, and banana split dinner that was served. I just simply thought it was cool to be invited to a faculty dinner. One step at a time…climbing up the social ladder, right? That’s what I tell myself at least.
Despite Saturday being…well…Saturday, aka "the weekend," I was up early and just grabbed some croissants from the breakfast room to eat as I walked to school to get started on practice for the day. I had to get all my practice done early because starting at 9:30am, I’d have staging rehearsals straight through 5:15 that evening. A little more “Remember, you are the character, but the character isn’t you. So let go of yourself a bit!” kind of talk. Start the music. Stop after only a few lines. Repeat. And so the day passed. Rehearsals ended at 5:15, just enough time to get to the hotel for a change into performance attire and to take the shuttle up to the castle for the 6:00pm mayor’s reception. We had a mayor’s reception here just as we had at Saarburg. A couple students performed to kick off the evening, the mayor of Vianden said some stuff about how she was oh-so-glad to have us all there enjoying the wonderful city, and the food and wine was opened up for the reception. Fancy lil hors d’oeuvres really. Everyone drifted about the castle in their formal evening attire until the official 8:00 student concert. I was set to perform for the three opera scenes on the concert, which were mixed in among various instrumental pieces. *Stop. Pause. Romantic sigh that I’m actually performing in a European castle. And continue.* The first opera scene we did was a duet from Weber’s Euryanthe. And for the most part it went well, except that I felt I was trying to get used to controlling the keyboard the whole time and some of the notes didn’t sound. Bleh. The other two scenes we did were both beautiful selections from Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore. Those went quite well actually, and my teacher was pleased with how they sounded despite him never coaching me on it before the performance. Major sigh of relief was in order. One concert down, three more to go for me. But first, Sunday…the day off…an excuse for another adventure perhaps?
Comments
Wait! That's it! No "Next Entry"?!! Where's the next adventure?
Ah! We all sure do miss you, Kristen!! Thanks for being such an amazing and wonderful addition to our summer!
Ah, I know! I plan to finish it up when I have a chance, but I'm always so swamped with school! I have bits of it written in a Word document...hope to post it eventually. :)