Decisions, decisions...

As long ago as the middle of last October I started to wonder about my future at this theatre. Near as I could work it out, anyone in the German system who wasn't actually fired by official letter by 31 October was automatically renewed for the next year. Well, maybe, thought I, but I only had a one-year contract, surely that by definition couldn't be automatically renewed (or else why wouldn't they have made it a rolling contract subject to termination every year?). I had a short meeting with the incoming Operndirektor (director of opera), in which he apologised for the situation not yet having been decided, and asked me for my patience...

[I believe that until the financial crisis buggered everything up, matters were different here. Singers were renewed or fired at the end of October, new singers were auditioned, contracts were issued, bob's your uncle. Not quite what appears to be going on now. I've heard from countless friends that theatres are deciding later and later what they need, and (naturally from the theatre's point of view, irrationally from the singers' point of view) requiring several aspects of a particular voice type in one handy package. Ho hum.]

Anyway, patience took me as far as last week (believe me, that is a LONG time as far as I'm concerned). I sought out the incoming management and had a little talk. The roles they're offering me for next year (yes!! they want me for next year!) are not perhaps as enticing as one would have hoped. Other talks reassured me that this was absolutely nothing personal, just how the season had fallen out.

SO. I have a couple of other offers so far. More audition possibilities on the horizon. And a damned difficult decision to make! I like it here. I like the people. I want to work with a particular director again. Will there be great roles once I've proved my worth? What's the best thing to do? Aargh, I wish I knew! (I would like to say hello here to all those who state, as I did for years, "All I want is to make my living from singing opera, then I'll be happy". I see your optimism and raise you... erm, this would probably work better if I'd ever played cards for anything other than random foreign change - but you hopefully know what I mean!)

Added to which is the need to find another flat to rent. I've loved this flat - the only thing is that the original tenant has had to cut her studies in Australia short, and is coming back sooner than she'd hoped. She's amazingly flexible in the matter, even offering to stay with her parents for as long as it takes (greater love hath no man for his sub-tenant ... etc etc), but eventually I'll have to move on. It's a matter, therefore, of whether I need something short- or long-term. Agents' fees here seem to hover suspiciously around 2.38 x monthly rent. Perfectly reasonable if you're planning on staying for decades (and Germans do NOT seem to *get* the Bohemian-lifestyle sort of thing; once you're in, you're IN!), but provoking howls of anguish for short-term lets. Added to this, I would LOVE to find a place where my cat, currently lording it and happy as larry with my ex, could live with me. Not, of course, that easy in a city... And it's not just the cat. I have to decide what to do with a shedload (literally!) of Stuff...

Goodness. Reading back, it's no wonder I sometimes end up absolutely stymied over whether I fancy pineapple juice or apple juice. Deciding one thing at a time is manageable. Deciding more than one thing almost certainly bungs up the old brain and shouldn't be allowed!