Nearly Home!

I've had a wonderful time for the last two weeks, but I am so looking forward to going home now. I have sung 10 concerts in six different countries in just over two weeks, and none of them light programmes for me. But I think I enjoyed almost every concert. Last night was fun, and in the St Nicholas Church in Mala Strana, which is an extraordinary example of the Baroque. The accoustic is just huge, with a whopping reverberation time, so that you can still hear the last bar you sang halfway through the next. I am sure that the audience miss out on a huge amount of detail, and many of them were seated quite far back, but I imagine it is still a great place to go and hear a concert in many ways. It was lovely to excercise the Exsultate Jubilate, and it was the first time I've sung the Beethoven Mass in C.
The other soloists were all lovely and very friendly, and included dear Ondreij who was my first ever contact here in the Czech Republic. Four years ago he managed to find my details after various enquiries searching for singing teachers for the Convivium course, and needless to say it was a very tenuous business, as I just happened to have done a concert with one of his contacts the week before, who recommended me for the job. Four years later, I have taught on 3 of the courses, have lots of lovely students in Prague, have begun learning Czech and now have collaborated with Ensemble Tourbillon, and the Pardubice orchestra, not to mention making some real friendships, and having many Czech visitors to stay in England.
I'm off to meet Petra now, who has been more than just my interpreter at Zeliv all these years, and without whom my class would somehow feel very lonely. She is coming to stay with us soon, which will be lovely.
Na shledanou!