Me? Samson? That's kind of funny.

Yesterday was a whirlwind day, but one that put me on absolute cloud nine.

I woke up thinking why my practice session on Sunday had not gone as well as it should have. I meditated on this point and realized that, in the next months, I need to concentrate on remaining open and available for whatever God brings me. This is a time of great change in my life and I mustn't take on tunnel vision, to remain open—this includes remaining open to the messages that are being sent to me.

For some time, since early Spring, really, I have been getting positive message after positive message about my singing, that I am on the right track, that I should continue. And yesterday was no different. The General Director of Orlando Opera is here in Pforzheim, directing a production of the Marriage of Figaro. I have had a couple of conversations with him and he agreed to listen to me so that I could get some feedback. I sang the Florestan aria and "Winterstürme" from Walküre for him yesterday, and he had a lot of extremely positive things to say. Amongst the awesome feedback were the recommendations that I sing for Speight Jenkins at Seattle Opera because they love big voices there and do a Ring cycle every four years. It was funny because, just before he put out Speight's name, he asked what under what management I am. "Uh, I am really at the very beginning here, the first audition that I have ever sung as a Heldentenor." He was probably going to recommend that my agent try to get me an audition in Seattle. I guess that will have to wait…

He totally gave me the green light, said that I am ready to start my career and that the music on my audition list is very good. It was interesting to hear an American perspective on this, though. "Do you sing any of the bigger French stuff?" he asked. Huh…. I hadn't even thought of that. Interesting. We just do little French stuff here, but he is probably thinking more "internationally" than I. Things he recommended that I learn:

Aeneas in Les Troyens (Berlioz)
Samson in Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saëns)
Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss)
Lenny in Of Mice and Men (Flloyd)

Interesting!

Yesterday was also a great milestone for my doctorate. I finally finished the first revision of a big paper that I sent off to my professor last night. Things are coming along on my doctorate and I have bought my tickets to go back to America. I will be there for the entire month of September. I think it's really going to happen this time.

Anyway, yesterday was an awesome day. Just thought I would share.