What’s New at the Zoo

 

During the aforementioned organized meeting with the mayor of Landau, Zach and I decided to forgo local politics and take a quick visit to the zoo nearby our host family’s house.

Sorry guys… didn’t have time to translate

 

Relative to the size of, say, the Houston zoo, this was quite a small collection, but I’ll always take the opportunity to take a gander at (mostly) exotic animals.  Plus, it was a perfect excuse to test myself on all of the German animals of which I have been singing in Die Schöpfung.

Apparently it was feeding time when we first arrived, and we caught the penguins being tossed some sardines. The leopards, however, managed to have a field day with a not so lucky pigeon not quick enough to fly away.  Even the tiny fox was chowing down on a little baby chicken (which, by the way, has been our nickname for the campers since back in 2010, so I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this.)

Lovin’ them some sashimi

 

 

NATURE!

 

Givin’ me some sass.  (The baby chicken is behind and to the right)

 

One of the more surprising animals to be found at the zoo was a group of guinea pigs, as I can’t say that I’ve ever seen them at one in the states before.  When talking to our host father he said that often when families who have them as pets get tired of them they will donate them to the zoo to be used as food. (Shhhh… Don’t tell my mother this!)

Meerschweindschen! Though, why they are called “sea pigs”, I’ll never know.

 

And speaking of upsetting parents, nothing gets an Aggie more upset than the sight of some big ol’ horns:

Saw ‘em off!

 

One of the "interactive” sections of the zoo was a sanctuary you could walk into and see the birds up close. The following bird was labeled as a “Mexican fowl” if I remember correctly:

 

LEARN SOME ENGLISH!!

 

Though adorable, I’m not sure these ginger monkeys would be a big hit across the pond in merry old England.

 

Look at me!! … Mmmmk, thnx

 

Don’t think I didn’t get away without making an excuse to take a ridiculous picture of myself.  There were numerous metal statues of animals littered about the property, the largest of which was a bison and it’s baby.  Mind you, our first day in Landau was the hottest one they had in several weeks, so needless to say I only stayed on for the absolute minimum time needed to catch the photo.

Yee haw or ouchee?

 

Zach was even going to attempt it but, after touching the metal and nearly burning himself, decided to be the smarter of the two and abstain.  His inner thighs most definitely thanked him.  He did, however, find a smaller, shadier Simba to pose with.

 

Stop stealing my pose!!

 

And though it wasn’t in Eberbach, I couldn’t HELP but add one more Eber to my collection! This one’s for you, Sabrina!

 

Annnnnd finally, in the small gift shop they had some stuffed animals with oddly large eyes.  Perhaps I’ve been watching a little too much New Girl, but these things are giving some serious Zooey Deschanel realness, right?!

Who’s that giraffe… IT’S JESS!

 

Artists: Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green / Album: Do Re Mi

Like a Rock

 

One of the wonderful (and yet, often troublesome) aspects of being in this biz called “show” is that it is a very very small world. Example: I recently went to a birthday party for my friend, Julia, who studies at the University of Houston and naturally I ran into three people I knew, one with whom I had gone to Michigan, and those whom I didn’t know at least had many mutual acquaintances.  That’s always my favorite awkward moment… when you realize you know someone in common but don’t know if you share the same opinion of said person.  It’s always a bit of a verbal ballet (which is about the only kind of dancing opera singers tend to know) we all do to figure out what level of dirt telling we can get away with.  Which, by the way, the scale of “dirt telling” for singers basically has a base line of about 6 on a scale of 1 – 10.

Yet I digress.  All this to say… with as much traveling around that we all do for auditions, performances, lessons, etc. it’s not uncommon to see old friends pop up outta the blue every now and then—which brings me to the point of this blathering. 

A small opera company here in Houston, Opera in the Heights, is doing a production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and my friend and studio mate from Baylor, Sarah Beckham, is performing (the hell outta, btw) the role Fioridiligi in one of the casts.  I haven’t seen Sarah in about seven years, the last time being when I went to audition at Boston University… an experience I mentioned previously back in February when I took a small vacation to the northeast.

 

In addition to Sarah as Fioridiligi, my friend, Zach (who was mentioned in one of my favorite posts ever but has thus far eluded being photographed) is performing the role of Ferrando in Sarah’s cast and Jennifer is the Despina in the other cast. I unfortunately have conflicts with Sarah and Zach’s performance dates so I was able to go to the final dress rehearsal with Jennifer and the above picture is from the casts’ post-performance drink session.

Thought it’s a bit of short notice, if you want to listen to some live performances from Cosi by Zach and Sarah you can tune-in to Houston’s Classical 91.7 (streaming online here) for today’s edition of The Front Row at NOON.

And, as a bit of a parting shot—and because there’s not really anything she can do about it—my absolute favorite picture of Sarah evar!

 

Artist: Bob Seger  / Album: Like a Rock

P.S.: A little back story behind today’s post title.  As Sarah is not from Houston, the company has put her up with a host family and the “father” was at the final dress as well.  He came up to her at intermission because he had to leave after the first half and the conversation went something like this:

Man: Sarah! You sound so fantastic… just spectacular!

Sarah: Oh thank you!!

Man: I especially loved the, hold on one second… I really like that one song, wait a minute I wrote down the name of it… that part where you sang by yourself, where IS that paper—oh here it is.  My favorite song of yours was that “Like a Rock” one, that was just great!

The adorableness of this is that “like a rock” is the translation “Come scoglio,” which also happens to be one of the most famous arias from the opera and like, ever… but as some of you southerners may know, is also the name of that song from the Chevy truck commercials.  So for your listening pleasure (and because I think everyone should listen to the aria at least once), here is lady Renee Fleming rockin’ out some Mozart.

 

P.P.S.:

Milkshake

 

Today is National S’mores Day and the perfect day for me to do a bit of retro-blogging.  A while back in March when my friend Lembit came to visit for the Houston premiere of his oratorio And Then I Remembered we tried out a recipe for s’mores milkshakes that I learned from another friend of mine, Zach. 

Step 1:  Broil marshmellows in oven until toasted

Step 2: Blend together with your ice cream of choice, preferably vanilla or chocolate (or both) but definitely BLUE BELL, and Nutella

 

 

Step 2.5: Add Speculoos spread if available. 

Some of you may remember my birthday post from this year as well as a bit of a security snafu when flying back into the country how much I love the Speculoos cookie spread.  WELL, folks… I’m giving you a bit of an exclusive here because you Texans can buy the stuff at Central Market!!!!!!!  Now, to be fair it is delicious in the same way that American Nutella is delicious.  And by that I mean the European versions are made with slightly different ingredients and tend to be more buh-mazing, but the stateside versions are still very very good.  Point of order… they also sell just the plane cookies as well but do not have the “cruncy” version :(

(Instead of Speculoos spread make sure and look for Biscoff spread)

 

3. Pour and enjoy!!!!

 

Artist: Kelis/ Album: Tasty

The Movie in my Mind

Our second (and last) stop in France was the supremely picturesque Alsace region-- heretofore to be known as "where the wine comes from"!  The region is made up of several smaller villages, including Barr (where our concert was held) and Obernai (where my host family was located).

The crest of Obernai

The first day we walked around the town, which was so beautiful that I felt like it was straight out of a movie set!

The outer walls were built in 1282!!!!!

My host family lived on the outskirts of the town and across from their house was a large corn field situated between two other houses. Apparently every spring they sit in their front yard and toast a drink to the corn because, luckily, no one has mowed the field down and built a house on it.

View of the field from my window

The husbad was also in the process of making stone steps for the entrance of his studio (he is an artist) and the stone mason was over one morning carving out some of them.

The Elijah concert went very... ... ... interestingly to try and chose a polite word.  the conductor, Maestro Jean-Jacques Werner is a big name in the area from what I understand.  A tip to future singers: if you ever hear the words "I will follow you" from him it most likely means "I will drop beats, give you false entrances and conduct in patterns so fast even hummingbirds will have a hard time distinguishing three from four." Or perhaps something just got lost in the translation?

Unfortunately our concert was held in a gym. Waaah waaah

The nice thing is that I still feel I sang well and we were lucky enough to have the performance broadcast on the radio across the entire region, including Strasbourg.  Funilly enough the review in the local paper didn`t have a word to say about the choir, orchestra or anz of the soloists.  For all you Werner fans, though, don`t worry, they didn`t fail to mention the Maestro`s "magic baton."  And by magic I mean wonky.  Bitter soloist much? :)

As is often the case after a big performance, some of the other soloists and counselors decided to go out to a bar and have a little adult time away from the campers.  Following is the resulting revelry!!!

Mason, Emily, Sabrina, Zach (lookin all cray cray) and Ellen

Sabrina and John... Soprano and Tenor.  Get it high voices!!

YAAAAAAAY no campers!!

Representing U of M with the highest amount of dignity and class