Opera sans Turkey

We moved into the theater finally. We had been rehearsing in another space that is about a 15 minute drive from the opera house. We would meet in front and all take a van to rehearsal. But now I am about a 3 minute walk from my apartment to the opera house.

This is a shot of the opera house from the front which is on the opposite side of the sea. Luckily that means that my dressing room looks out to the Mediterranean Sea and has this spectacular view.

The inside of the opera house is very typical to European theaters. There is no balcony, there is only a main floor and then 5 floors of boxes that surround the perimeter of the house. It looks very similar to La Scala but only smaller. It is very ornate on the inside and decorated with gold and red.

In this shot you can see the stage from the audience view.

Happy Day Late Thanksgiving. Apparently in Nice they don't have turkey so I had to settle for Chicken, some cheese and baguette, and perrier.

My legs and ass are killing me.....

This morning I was awoken by a marching band going down my street. I have no idea where they came from or where they were going. I think they came out of the cathedral that is just down the block from me, but I'm not sure. What an alarm clock though.

So the reason for my title is because I rented a bike today and rode around for 2 1/2 hours. I road through town and got lost but its pretty easy to figure out where to go. I just headed toward the water and was able to get my bearings again. There is no real grid system so the streets go in all different directions. I also road down the Promenade de Anglais which is an 8 Kilometer stretch of pedestrian and bike path that goes along the water front. It was a little chilly today and the sun only peaked out of the clouds every once and a while. At the end of the promenade there were a munch of men fishing off from some rocks.


I also road up to the top of Colline du Chateau which is where a Castle was that ruled over the old town Nice before it was dismantled in 1706. In the pictures of the fisherman it is all the way across the bay and up on the hill. Here are some pictures from there.


The picture of the boats in the bay is on the other side of the hill from Old Nice. And I love this panorama shot that I was able to get from the top of the hill.

It's cold and I am sitting outside at a cafe, so I am going to cut it short.

Till later........

Learning new things everyday......

Today I had some time to go out and take pictures. This first one here is of my “street” in Nice. I live in the area called Old Nice or Ville Vieux. As you can tell all of the streets are very narrow and are mostly pedestrian. Although during the day you see some cars driving down to make deliveries and such to all of the little shops in the area. I live above the restaurant La Tapenade, my window is right next to the street light hanging off the building. This is another view of my building looking down the other street on the corner.



I also went down to the market today. It is only a few blocks from my apartment and is open daily. It not only has fruits and vegetables, but also many flowers, olives, marzipan, candied fruit, and baked goods. Here are a few shots from the market.

This morning I went to the shopping district on the street Jean Medecin. Once you get out of the Old Town, it is more like being in a metropolitan area. They have a tram-train that runs all over the city and is only 1 euro per trip. I took the train down to the shopping area but ran into some trouble on my way home. I got and the train and it only went 1 stop and then they made an announcement and everyone got off the train. So I started to walk back to my apartment and I then found out what was going on. There was a large protest for education and they had blocked the way for the trains. There had to be over 1000 people including 2 giant flatbed trucks with bands playing on them. I didn’t have my camera, so no pictures. :(

A final thought. Some things just don’t translate well. During rehearsal we were working on Act 2 which I only sing at the end of. As I was sitting and waiting for my part, the soprano who is singing Magda, Daria, asked me an odd question. She said “Do you have big balls?” By the look on my face, she knew the translation didn’t work so well. In Italian they have an expression “Che due Palle?” which in essence is asking if you are bored or “weighted” down, hence “big balls”. An odd expression, but definitely an interesting one.

Nice is Nice

So I am starting up my blog again. But now I am writing from Nice, France. I will be performing the role of Rambaldo in Opera d'Nice production of La Rondine. I have been here for a week and have not had a chance to do any sightseeing.

On our first day of rehearsal I found out that there is an alternate 3rd act that was written in 1920/21. In the original score, I am not even in the 3rd act. But much to my surprise, during our musical rehearsal, I discovered I have a whole scene in the 3rd act. No one informed me which version we were doing before I got here. In fact, in the score I purchased in the US, there isn't even an indication that there is an alternate 3rd act. So needless to say, I have been craming all week to learn and memorize it.

A few other issues I have run into. I tried to learn some French before I came to this country, I was using the Rosetta Stone method. So far I have been able to use 1 phrase that I learned. Un garcon sous la table. Which means the boy is under the table, I actually was able to use it when I saw a kid playing under a table at a cafe. It's a good thing that I didn't invest too much in learning French because of of my rehearsals are in Italian. The majority of the cast including the Maestro and Director are all Italian and speak Italian the entire time. I can keep up most of the time until we are in social situations were they are using slang and speaking FAST. Oh well, it's really great for my languages though, full immersion.

So not much more to write right now, I will add more when I have time and have taking pictures. Nice is beautiful though, I now understand why so many artists have come here.

a domani....or longer