2015 is off and running

Where do the years go? I must be getting old when I come out with lines like this.

So here we are in 2015 and it looks very much like I will be spending most of it in Tasmania with the remarkable TSO. And why not, they are fantastic in every way.

We started in mid January and since then have done some CD recording sessions for Giselle, with Nicolette Fraillon and the Australian Ballet. David MacAllister came along for the sessions. He is crucial in setting dancable tempi for the recordings. It was fascinating to watch him work. We see the singers in the Sitz rehearsals for the operas but we only work with the dancers in the pit. It was insightful to watch Nicolette and David work together. They are an amazing team. Everything stems from the dance, and Nicolettes main job is to shape the music to make it fit the stage.

Between the two weeks Giselle recordings we had conductor workshops with Johannes Fritsch and his excellent young trainee conductors. Some stars for the future in that class.