Good morning, all! I've had another fantastic day and I'm now killing time before I meet Joe and walk to our first piano-singer rehearsal. I am excited about meeting these folk I've only seen on youtube or heard on mp3 files.
Last night Joe and David Brophy took me to a wonderful restaurant, Hugo's, around the corner from the hotel and across the street from a famous Irish pub, O'Donaghue's(?), that calls itself 'the home of Irish music' and the place where the Chieftains got started. The dinner lasted around three hours, with wine, wonderful salmon, greens and potatoes, along with gossip and stories about casting, the singers, the orchestra personnel, and the panic attack of our harpist over the size of her part (we're recrding all of this?).
David Brophy, our conductor, is a wonderful talent, and I think he will do a fantastic job. He'd just come from a rehearsal with the piper for the recording and had some questions about parts that were not playable on the Irish pipes. My feeling is, it should be imnprovised, using Herbert's notation as a guideline. The player, whose name I could never attempt to spell or pronounce, is considered the best in Ireland, so I'm sure we'll work it out satisfactorily.
Joe's bad news was that the chorus master was finding it impossible with summer schedules to assemble a boys choir to sing the 'Ave Maria' in the Act Three Opening, so we'll record the orchestra track and dub them in later.
BK, safe fight today! Get home safely. I'm happy all went well.
DR John G, great news on the work front.
DR TCB, welcome back. I hope things improve swiftly and soon.
