After the Fall: A Glimpse at my Last Year with a Nod to the Future.

Well, it has been over a year since my last blog-post, and now as I prepare to depart for South Africa, where I hope to be able to document my three week tour, I have decided that I better bring the past events up to the present. But where do I begin?

View outside my Window at Solesmes

Thomas in Hannover

In June of 2013, when I departed for Solesmes, France? There where I spent 8 months praying, singing and living as a novice in the Benedictine monastery of Solesmes? Or my wildly inconsistent courses in French at the University Catholique de l'Ouest in Angers, France, studying along with students from around the world who all longed to speak "la plus belle langue du Monde," and where I lived during the weekdays with the Servants des Pauvres? And then of course there is the carefully planned, joint-decision, to depart the Monastery in February of 2014 and move back to Gütersloh, Germany and resume life and adventures with Thomas Jaschke.

In Costume

Anita and Gernot

Do I then write about my months spent living outside of Frankfurt, Germany from May to August with dear friends and their pet pig, while I struggled to learn German at the Goethe Institute, and at the same time take part in rehearsals and 18 performances of Franz Lehar's frothy operetta, "Die Lustige Witwe," with Kammeropera Frankfurt?

Vienna

Strasbourg with friend

And then there are unforgettable adventures like our bike tour from Vienna to Bratislava, enjoying opera on the square and Sacher Torte, and later in Bratislava where I led a little city tour for our friends. Or the week-long stay in a tiny Gîte (country home) in the diverse region of the Alsace, featuring daily excursions to picturesque wine-towns, unforgettable walks through the impressive city of Strasbourg with its massive, rose-hued Cathedral, and the historical impressions of Colmar and its unsettling depiction of Christ's "Crucifixion" by Grünewald.

Grünewald 

Seattle Friends

And hard on its heals are trips to Berlin where we met up with Seattle friends and dined on top of the Bundestag. Then a chance meeting in Detmold with Seattle Opera's former Gen. Director and a performance of Donizetti's beloved "L'elisir d'amore." Afterwards it was a trip to charming Munich with a pilgrimage to Kloster Andechs. Simply stunning baroque architecture, not to mention great beer and pig knuckle!

August Macke

A Walk Along the Rhine

C'est la Vie

Soon afterwards was a whirlwind weekend where we spent an evening in Bonn, taking in an exhibition of the paintings of Marc and Macke, then a long walk along the Rhine, and in the evening a fantastic symphony at Beethoven Hall where, by the end of the concert, the orchestra and audience literally danced out of their seats. And in the morning, a sojourn to find the best croissants outside of France. Afterwards it was onto Münster where we visited the newly opened Landesmuseum and celebrated the 750th Jubilee of the Cathedral, just making it in time for a packed Vesper service sung in exotic-hued Hindi. Our evening was then divided between a rock concert in front of the Market Church and a little later, a Spectacle by a French light designer who transformed the side of the Cathedral into a glowing stage for 30 minutes of beautiful and evocative images and story-telling through pictures, while a live orchestra and choir filled the air with celestial song.  (Here is a link to the 30 minute video - which you can skip around in to get a feel for this breath-taking spectacle).

Joyce DiDonato

S. Africa Companions

The next morning brought us to Osnabrück, where we met with our fellow South African travel companions and attended a small but impressive presentation of the South African "Garden Route" by the neighbors who had recently returned, featuring thrilling images of them amidst wild Lions and stories about their unforgettable experiences. Lastly, we drove to Essen in order to hear the sparkling voice of American mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato, who dazzled us with her Bel-Canto technique in arias from Napoli. And even if in deciding to meet her afterwards caused us to miss our train and spend the night in a hotel, I don't think we would have traded the experience for anything.

Silly

Paul and Carla in Haarlem

An Angel sings in Haarlem

And finally, my last recent adventure brought me to Amsterdam where I stayed with a dear friend in her impressive Condo, which she shares with a lovely cat named "Silly," and who's little pug-face is enough to make any cranky soul burst into laughter. It was in Amsterdam that I met up with a beloved colleague, from my days at Seattle Symphony, and her boyfriend, and with whom I spent time dining on delicious Indonesian cuisine and laughing as if I had just remembered how. The following day took me to Haarlem, where I explored this pretty Dutch oasis with my friend, catching a private concert of an angelic soprano in the gothic cathedral, enjoyed delicious cakes, learned about the modernistic techniques of 17th c. Dutch painter, Franz Hals, and washed it down with the fried flavors of Belgian Frites, mayo and beer.

And that catches us up, in a way, to the present. Of course the details are fuzzy, but I might just have to leave that long corridor of the past unclear for a time, allowing it to rise to the surface at different points as the memories of this wonderful past year and a half continue sorting themselves out to charm my next steps. There will will more chances to write about France later.


It is now time to look to the future and prepare for our adventure to South Africa. I can't wait to share the details with you when I have time to write again.