A good coaching session

Well that's one hurdle over with - I managed to decipher the first day's schedule and turn up in the appointed place at the right time. As I am not yet familiar with the layout of the theatre, this is not yet a given... luckily the porter noticed my blank reception of his directions and kindly trundled me along (up the stairs, along the corridor, cross the second bridge not the first, up the stairs again and there you go, it's one of those three but which one depends on mood). The repetiteur is fabulous and speaks great English - it was tempting to give up on the German for a while but I soldiered on, probably amusing him greatly.

We ran through my entire role for the first opera in one session. Twice.... As the première isn't until November, I suspect I shan't be wildly busy for a little while yet and shall have lots of time to wander around taking photographs of ripening blackberries...

Oh, and making myself watch German TV as homework. I don't really watch much TV at home in England, so it feels weird just sitting there looking at the box. I made myself sit through an entire made-for-TV cheesy film, on the basis that the main character was a pianist, engaged to a (much older) conductor (you just knew what was going to happen, though, when she went to a hotel (with a view of the Rhine! very pleased with myself for picking that up - well they did say it about thirty times, but still...) to practise for a concert, only to bump into the young, handsome, moody chef, whom she hated passionately at first sight...) - so I was listening caarefully for the musical terms. I'm not much good at saccharine plots, though, and don't suppose it helped me to appreciate the sentiments when I repeated half the phrases out loud and looked the rest up in my trusty dictionary. Luckily there's no-one here to laugh at me!