A Flemish Postcard

[This title makes me giggle, thanks to an old opera chorus inside joke from HGO's Don Carlo that would take too long to recount. It has to do with Flaming Flamingos.]

Greetings from Ghent, which I am told is in Flanders!

While I have mentioned that this summer is essentially a European tour, I've posted no dispatches, and am correcting that situation prontissimo!

Just for a sense of perspective, I remind you that I had my surgery on 4 June (see? I'm being all European with my dates). On 4 July, I left for Belgium I. Returned to Houston on 14 June, left for rehearsals in Austin on 17 June, left Houston (via Austin) for Copenhagen on 21 June and returned to Houston on 27 June. Then, on 3 August, I returned for Belgium II, from whence I will return on 9 August.

Are you tired yet? I am...

The first thing I have had to orient myself to (since I essentially don't get jet-lag-- don't hate.) is the keyboards. In the US, we have what we call QUERTY keyboards, which I vaguely recall were developed based on letter usage frequency. I never completed an actual typing class; as with piano, I suck at memorizing fingerings and dropped my high school typing class before I failed it. That said, on a QWERTY keyboard I type pretty quickly and mostly accurately, having essentially memorized the keyboard layout and can quickly navigate it.

Here's what the letter layout of a Euro keyboard is:

a z e r t y u i o p ^ $
q s d f g h j k l m ù µ
w x c v b n , ; : =

Additionally, all the numbers and symbols on the top row are flipped: symbols are default and numbers require the shift key. To give you an idea of how slowly this is going, I will type this sentence with my "keyboard memory."

To give you qn ideq of hoz lsozly this is going; I aill type this sentence zith ,y £keyboqrd ,e,ory;£

Yeah, like that.

Anyhoo, back to the (slow) dispatch.

GHENT
Ghent is lovely. It's about 35 miles from Brussels. The best way to get here is train; about 50 minutes and only about 15 bucks (no dollar sign on this puppy). Since I was on various restrictions during the first trip, I took a cab. That was about 200 bucks (thank God Les Ballets is so generous with its singers!). Once I arrived at the Hotel Astoria, Frank, the very lovely proprietor said a cab ride could be had for more like 100 bucks. When we arranged one ahead of time for the return trip, it ended up being 150 bucks. Ah well.

The hotel is not in the center of Ghent and there is little in the way of restaurants without going in to town (tram ride: buck-fifty. food choices: priceless), but there are a few. Places in the area where I have dined during my two trips:

- Kam Kwok (Chinese). OK, nice waitress, fairly inscrutable menu in "Engrish," German and Dutch (the lingua franca). I ordered a crab pancake, sweet and sour pork and lemonade and received an eggroll, the pork and a sprite. Now I know. The rice was excellent, by the way.

- The Rambler (standard euro-american fare). Meh. This one had an English menu (many do). Forgettable meal of shrimp scampi with a cute baby waiter.

- Casteel (decent restaurant of a 2-star hotel). Nice barmaid, excellent house-made sangria and a nice prix fixe steak dinner for 40 bucks. Odd cut of beef, but tasty, and the dessert was a plate of chocolate goodies: mousse, ice cream, cake and whipped cream.

- Salt & Pepper (Indian). Quite nice. Was craving veggies by this point and had sag paneer (creamed spinach) and calamari (very red and very spicy). Nice white wine.

- Cafe Parti (my favorite, thus far). It's a "slow-food" restaurant; locally obtained, organic where possible, cooked to order food. Couldn't get in the first time I happened by, but managed to eat there twice more that first trip as well as tonight. And tomorrow. My two favorite offerings? A cheese croquet (think fried cheese, only better) and minced pineapple with minted sugar.

[Note: that may seem like a lot of variety, but that was 85% (give or take) of all the possible eateries in a 3-square mile area. A similar type/sized area in Houston would have double that, I'm sure.]

I managed a few meals in town too: Amadeus (an all you can eat rib place, but they serve the ribs BY THE SLAB so there's not so much second plate action) and Passion (basic European- they had Belgian specialties, so I had Waterzooi- a creamy chicken stew).

We did a lot more than eat, though it probably doesn't look that way! I've been here rehearsing a show, "Pitié," with Les Ballets C de la B (The Contemporary Ballet of Belgium). There are about 12 or so dancers and a band (drums, bass, trumpet, violin, accordion, alto sax, cello- I think that's all). The music is a remix of sorts of Bach's St Matthew Passion for soprano, mezzo-soprano and counter-tenor. Hard to describe, but it works. Fabrizio Cassol arranged the music and Alain Platel choreographed. This production opens at the end of August and tours through next June. Three casts of singers (including one of my faves, Laura Claycomb and a new fave, Maribeth Diggle) share the singing duties. (Curiously, there are several American singers in this production, although I am the only one living in the US.) We rehearsed in a lovely Art Deco theater called the Vooruit from April till July and not are in Minnemeers, part of the Ghent municipal theater from now till opening.

Haven't done much more than rehearse and recharge, but I did stroll through town one Saturday and almost saw the Van Eyck bros.' "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" at St. Bavo's Cathedral. It had closed for the day, but I'm planning to return tomorrow.

COPENHAGEN
I think I mentioned in the previous post that Conspirare sang at the 8th World Choral Symposium, which is why I was there. We sang our own program twice (to general acclaim, I hear) and also premiered one of the Symposium commissions, a Light Mass by Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miskinis. From what we hear, he's a big deal in Europe. We performed in the Royal Opera House (LOVELY venue) with a jazz trio and our own Faith DeBow playing the other piano part. We sang it well but there were mixed reactions to the piece itself. It had a homogeneity of sound and texture that apparently wore on some listeners.

Once again, accommodations were outside of the city center. This time though, they were outside of the city itself, in a suburb called Kastrup, near the airport. The hotel (I think they left the "s" off of hostel") is a budget chain called Zleep Hotels. Not recommended by this traveler (don't be fooled by the sunny website). While I freely admit that my idea of roughing it is a Motel 6, this was um, sub-basic. Teeeeny tiny rooms and beds and a "power-shower:" basically a combination toilet/shower/sink. Breakfast was nice though!

By this point in my travels, I was quite tired, so I did little more than was required. I managed to see a little bit of Copenhagen. One day I'd love to go back when I can better cope (hahahahaha).

I am also grateful for our two amazing Symposium hosts, Martin and Carsten!! They kept us sane and amused...

I loved spending time with my Conspirare buddies, especially as this upcoming season is pretty much all Les Ballets. It was the same old, fabulous crowd with one exception. One of our regular members had a death in the family and had to cancel at, literally, the last minute. He was ably seconded by a new friend, John Proft, who is my new hero. Our rehearsals started in Austin on 18 July. John got the call on 14 July, got the music on 15 July and managed to arrive virtually completely memorized AND with a brand, spranking new, theretofore nonexistent passport. On top of that, he had to travel alone on his first trip outside of the country. He rocks; basically.

Sigh, I've abused your eyes (and the backspace key) for long enough. There are more tales to be told and I'm sure they'll end up in some future dispatch from your favorite Yankee Hobbit.

If Europe is in your travel plans at some point in the next 11 months, check the website and come see the show...

Later, peeps...