January

January in Toronto isn't so cold compared to the small town in New Brunswick where I grew up.  I remember when your hands got so cold that they'd feel hot!  But there was lots of snow, and I miss that a bit.

Even here in the big city cold weather can get to people.  I'm an organizer of Meetup groups, and there's always a problem with people who say they'll come but don't show up. (As Mary Poppins says, "That's a pie-crust promise--easily made and easily broken.") If I knew of more dependable people I'd invite them.  But there have been a couple of times on cold January evenings when nobody but me showed up!  I guess the weather has something to do with it.

In the Toronto City Opera where I'm in the chorus, January is the time when we go on stage and start blocking the shows so we'll all know exactly where to be during the February performances.  Fall is my favorite time because we're just learning the singing.  But the blocking is less fun, because you start thinking about all the ways you can screw up. (I'm sure it's even harder for the soloists.) Back when Giuseppe directed the shows, you could see him getting more exercised as the premiere approached.

Now Beatrice is the director, and I don't know how she can be so patient.  Last year we were dress-rehearsing the finale of Don Giovanni, with the chorus in demon costume.  There's a point where we come out on stage, and some of us were supposed to form a line from left to right backstage and other surround Don Giovanni, then we drag him down to hell.  But when that point came, nobody came out!  The people at the front balked, and the ones behind them couldn't move. (There was one guy they relied on to go out first, but he was looking for a demon mask.) It isn't easy being a director!