Wow! Two years since I wrote anything. I am so much more at home now with the kids and teaching so much more, but there's still been some lovely concert work. I will fill in as best I can in another post, but definite highlights were Kings College Cambridge tour finishing at Concertgebouw (Monteverdi Vespers) and a few Wigmores with Brook Street Band, as well as other lovely concerts and education projects with them. Trips to Rome and Florence with Modo Antiquo and now here in Mexico.
Inauspicious start... Dislocated ribs 48 hours before the plane journey. Mercifully the wonderful Heike put it all back into place. Then, horrific bout of food poisoning the night before the first concert. Not a great combination! The concert being a midday concert meant getting on stage only a few hours after some serious vomiting. (Too much information?!). 3 very efficient paramedics appeared in my room less than an hour before the concert with a huge syringe and injected me with some sort of stomach settling thing which did get me through. I only cut 2 arias and feel very proud, under the circumstances, to have got a standing ovation after yelling my way through 'armate face et anguibus'. I nearly fell over at the end mind you!
Guanajuato was great and Festival Cervantino is the best in the world. All I can think of is the colour, the music, the party atmosphere and just a great, warm audience at the templo de la valenciana. Theatre all over the streets, including some great theatre to mark the Independence Day anniversary. Pictures to follow.
Now back in Mexico City. Had a look round the Zocalo yesterday and most of the men in the orchestra bought fabulous hats. They all look very dapper!
More later...
