Studying, Meiningen, Salome...

Hi there, this week I continue studying for the upcoming projects. I was also able to go to Meiningen twice to see the opera Salome ( Strauss). On Wednesday there was an Orchestra rehearsal of the opera Salome at the theater in Meiningen, here in Germany they called Orchestra Haupt Probe or OHP for short. I went to see it because a very good friend of mine is doing the staging, her name is Verena Stoiber. She is a telented young stage director, we met back when I was doing the Opernstudio in Stuttgart (2011,12), she was there an assitant to the stage directors. Now she is doing a brilliant career as stage director. When I was in Stuttgart for a year, we shared a flat. When I met Verena for the first time at the theater, I was looking for a flat and she was able to offer me a place at hers. So, we lived together for a year and we became very good friends and over the years we have kept contact, but somehow in the last few years we have not seen each other often. As a quick way to describe our friendship, when I turned 30 years old, I was in Mexico doing a visa application to work in Germany at Freiburg Theater for a produciton of L'elisir d'amore as Nemorino, Verena knew I was going to be in Mexico like for 2 weeks and she decided to come for one week to visit me, and celebrate my Birthday. It was all really last minute and a great surprise for me and I was really happy. I am glad she was in Meiningen doing Salome because is not so far from Wuerzburg so, I got in touch with her and decided to go and meet her and we had a very nice time catching up and seeing her work. Today (Sunday) we went (Akiho and I) to Meiningen, to visit her and to see the 2nd performance of Salome. It was really good and finally Akiho and Verena got to meet each other. I hope in the future we see us more often, although she is travelling all the time and really busy with her 2 kids and husband. I am glad that after like 12 years of knowing each other, we still have contact and can talk still like back when we first met in Stuttgart. She is a real friend to me.

This week I also met some colleagues from the theater, we met for lunch and after Italian food, went to the river and play games and then came back home and played cards and we had a lovely evening. It was really nice to met them and to hang out with them. After a heavy season and months of just working and performing, finally I got a bit the feeling of normal life and just relax, at least for few days. Although I am working a lot on the repertoire for next season and for the upcoming projects, I can do it on my own pace and it is also nice to have a week where I do not have a performance.

I continue reading reading Robert Greene, and I also started with a book call "Start with why" by Simon Sinek, and I am finding it really interesting so far, it supports ideas that I have read in other books about business and such. Today is father's day, congratulations to all of you around the world, I made already sure to congratulate the fathers of my family and mine as well, I love you papa and I hope you are here for many years to come. Yesterday 17th of June was the Birthday of my grandfather, he turned 86 and I am looking forward to see him this summer in Mexico. Soon, I really miss my family back home in Mexico and I can not wait until I see them again.

Take care and see you next week.