We made it. Everyone (well, almost everyone) showed up and brought together a brilliant production of Don Giovanni on Friday, with not quite enough time or resources. There was a series of significant snags, but thankfully nothing that telegraphed to the audience.
I’m writing from my porch, completely jet lagged despite the fact that I’ve gone literally from home to the theater and nowhere else for the last week. This early bird who usually wakes up at/before 6am unprompted was DEFINITELY sending emails at 3am Saturday morning. I now understand how early a 10am rehearsal can feel, and for all of you night owls in the business? I’m unsure how you do it.
I don’t have any profound reflections on this summer. And that feels a bit like a failure? I was so very proud of the work we did, so grateful to all the people who made it happen. (And my thoughts are already turning towards next summer, masochistically.) Or maybe it’s just that, at the end of my 17th Wolf Trap Opera summer, I’ve already had all the deep thoughts and now this is the routine…the normal way to spend the summer…the enjoyable, gratifying , exhausting way to spend the summer.
Or maybe I just need some time to reflect, and some space to regrow some brain cells. Which I’m getting this week, blessedly.
Wherever you are in your summer, I hope that the long days, the tomatoes and peaches and plums, and the indolent humidity and helping you also to slow down, reflect, and rest.
Indirect Routes 