Please Let Spring Stay!

It has been mild and beautiful -- can the weather please settle down and let us enjoy this wonderful time of the year? (Just a small cry from the heart -- and I don't really think there will be any more snow.)

Now, La Tragedie de Carmen on Saturday had a large and enthusiastic house and our extraordinarily beautiful quartet of singers turned in a gripping performance. I guess some people were totally flummoxed by the thing. But there is no doubt that the audience was gripped once they got over a few questions: "Is this Carmen? I recognize these tunes, but where's the chorus? Hey, it's all over and there was no intermission?" We wait to see what the "critics" have to say. The Sun-Times sent their theater critic, not the music one. So that will be a different perspective, perhaps.

One delightful outcome of this production was the arrival in Chicago of two young women from Kosovo, the sister and cousin of our Micaela, Krenare Gashi. They both live in Prishtina and have come to town for Krenare's debut in the United States, and will be staying in Chicago for two weeks. The whole family speaks completely fluent English -- entirely learned at school in Kosovo. Amazing really! Anyway, here they are at the post-performance party yesterday evening. (Krenare is in the middle.) We hope to be seeing lots of them in the coming days.

And so we have another tough week as we get Owen Wingrave finished up in the rehearsal room and onto the stage. They are in good shape and we have almost two weeks before we open. But there will no doubt be the usual intense moments ahead. Pray for sunshine -- it makes all the difference.