Candide, indeed

OK, so Candide isn't set in France and I'm not rehearsing it in France.
But Voltaire was French, and even though the story starts in the imaginary land of Westphalia and continues all over a crazy unexplained world, as far as I am concerned, this still connects me to France.

I had no idea what Candide was about when I was invited to audition, all I knew was that the choreographer was near and dear to my heart, and I was elated at the prospect of working with her again.

When I got the official call that I was being offered Candide, I jumped around my apartment like a jackrabbit on crack. OMIGOD! I get to be on stage again! And in New York! At Lincoln Center! And I get to work with Patty Birch again!

Wow, what can I say. The rehearsal process is over and we've opened the show (if you're in NYC, you still have time to see it before we close on April 2oth...)

This has been such a wonderful experience. Our cast is so talented, as is the creative team and the often overlooked stage management and technical crew. And did I mention the 30 piece orchestra and the singing chorus? And the extremely talented actors and actresses who are our covers/understudies (who will sit patiently on beeper each night... waiting to be called in to perform a role that they have studied and rehearsed that may never be seen by the public) ?

The tech week at City Opera is different from the typical 'Broadway/regional theater' process, since we only get 3 1/2 hours on stage per day vs 10-12 hours that the theater community is used to. And we didn't hear the orchestra until the day before our final dress.

Hearing the orchestra for the first time was mesmerizing. The music that Leonard Bernstein composed for this show is so beautiful and in rehearsals we only had a pianist (who amazingly played the whole orchestra). I think I practically swooned in our first orchestra stage rehearsal from the shear beauty of it.

to be continued.....

Au revoir, France...and some good news for 2008

Ending a great trip is kind of like leaving your dearest love....the one who you know will always be there, but you never know when you will get to see them again.

And departure is pretty much uneventful, you get up, you get some breakfast, you go to the airport and then 'phhffft'......it all becomes just a beautiful memory.

But fate did put one pretty good dent in our departure day. As we were standing in line to check in, we were all ordered to leave the terminal because of a bomb scare. OK, typical NY'er (and from what I observed, probably typical Parisienne also), we were more annoyed than scared. Everyone took their sweet time exiting and vied to be closest to the original check-in line once the evacuation was over. Eventually, we were all deposited on the sidewalks outside and tried to get a handle on the situation.

Well, at least I got some entertainment during our wait. A few feet in front of us was a woman conversing with a sock puppet on her hand. Oh, this was a full-on conversation mind you. She even had the puppet talking into her cell phone and posing and taking pictures. I really wanted to get a photo of this little farce, but never did.

So this whole bomb scare was the result of a briefcase that had been left unattended. Hordes of policemen, security guards, bomb squads all descended upon the sad and lonely attache.

And then they blew it up.

A little piece of advice for you......don't forget your luggage a CDG.....you'll never see it again.

Somehow, we still managed to board the plane on time.

As I settled into my seat, I pulled out my little box from La Duree and bit into what was left of my chocolate and pistachio macarons from two days previous. My husband looked at me aghast and said "are you eating again?"

I replied, "No, I've been saving these last bites for just before we left Paris! I don't want our trip to end, and this is my way of tasting the last three weeks all over again."

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We've been back from France for nearly 8 months now. A lot has happened, and we still don't have cemented plans for our return this year. We still hold on to our dreams of owning a little gite or B&B somewhere in the south. This is ten to fifteen years in the future, but it's fun to think about it now. We've stayed in touch with Marie and Jerome and are looking forward to seeing them again. We've attempted to make Cassoulet (well, DH tried this, on his own...and we're still looking to perfect the recipe). I've cooked dinners from my Provence cookbooks, trying to recapture the magic of it all.

The exchange rate has gotten worse and airfares have gotten out of control. So, as of today, we are hoping to return in September.

In the meantime, even though I can't physically go to France...in a way, I am visiting there in my imagination.

I am in rehearsals now for the New York City Opera's spring production of Candide!