I landed in Albuquerque, New Mexico a bit road weary but excited by the warm weather that greeted me. My driver took me to the newly renovated Hotel Andaluz which was built by Conrad Hilton. The next day was my rehearsal with the continuo of the New Mexico Symphony for the Evangelist’s parts in the Christmas Oratorio. After a couple days of rehearsals in the orchestra’s rehearsal space with the choir and soloists, we went off to perform our three concerts. The soloists were Kathryn Mueller, soprano, Ian Howell, countertenor, Dann Coakwell, tenor, David Grogan, bass and Roger Melone, conductor with the NMSO Chorus. The concerts in New Mexico were at two different venues: The National Hispanic Cultural Center and Popejoy Hall. Both completely different kinds of performing spaces, the first is an intimate, dry acoustic seating around 700 and the Popejoy is more resonant and seats just over 2000.

I love singing the Evangelist! The great thing about it is that you are the one that ties everything together and links all the arias, choruses and orchestral pieces together. You are the story teller and you get to infuse the text with so much drama. Our version was in English so it really was accessible for the audience and allowed them to be intimately involved with the story. The Christmas Oratorio isn’t done as much as Handel’s Messiah but really it should be done more!

After the first rehearsal, my driver, Betsy, mentioned that her choir director and organist at her church, Maxine, was Canadian and that I should meet her for coffee or lunch. I don’t usually make a habit of meeting someone just because they are Canadian but I’d been in so many hotel rooms in the last while, I was just dying to get out and do something. So we connected and had a fantastic lunch at P’tit Louis. (I highly recommend it! The quiche was amazing, the chocolate soufflé to die for and the Croque Monsieur was awesome.) We actually knew a lot of the same people. Maxine is a highly accomplished organist and choir director and has played all over the world. Check out her web page here! I also met up with friends Rick and Gretchen. (I had also just seen his daughter Sarah and Geoff after the Messiah in Vancouver.) I haven’t seen them in about 15+ years and it was so great to catch up! We had some authentic Mexican food, checked out the Old Town and picked up some awesome Piñon Coffee. Mmm...

After a couple days at home, I flew to Vancouver just in time to see Vancouver Opera’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor. It was awesome! I loved the singers, direction and even their “skateboard ramp” set. It’s amazing what a great lighting director can do. Can’t wait to return to the company soon...

The next day was a quick trip into see my brother-in-law, Richard, for an adjustment at his clinic, Synergy Chiropractic, then we went out for lunch at Tan Po Po, our favourite sushi restaurant, with Greg Dahl, who was singing the role of Enrico in the opera, and then off to rehearsals for the Messiah with the Vancouver Bach Choir and their new conductor, Les Dala. (The last time I sang with the Bach Choir was with Bruce Pullan, see here, who has since retired but conducted my last Messiah in Edmonton.) Les wanted to do the entire Messiah without cuts so some of us had to dust off some pieces we haven’t seen in a while. We had half an hour in his dressing room chatting about tempos and ornaments, then a soloist rehearsal with the orchestra, dinner, and then a dress rehearsal with the choir and orchestra. It was so great to hear choruses and arias that are normally not done. The soloists for this fantastic Messiah were Allison Angelo, Lauren Segal, and Alex Dobson.

As I was sitting listening to the performance, I thought how lucky we soloists are to be sitting where we are. Being right on stage, we are enveloped by the orchestra’s sound and get a wonderful mix of instruments and choir coming at us. I really enjoy being on the left side of the stage where the basses and cellos are - especially during the baritone aria “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth” and in my aria “Thou shalt break them”. If I got to do it all over again, I’d learn how to play the cello. What an awesome instrument!

I’ll be back in Vancouver for the Symphony’s Bach’s B minor mass in February.

Once again, it’s Messiah season! The first two concerts of the year were with the Edmonton Symphony and the Richard Eaton Singers in the glorious Winspear Centre. I’ve sung there a few times now with the Symphony and the acoustics never cease to amaze me. The concert’s soloists were Allison Angelo, David Trudgen, Aaron St Clair Nicolson, with Bruce Pullan conducting and Leonard Ratzlaff, director of the Richard Eaton Singers.

One of the best parts of this Messiah was hearing the organ in a couple of the movements. it’s not often that you get to hear the organ these days but this is the perfect piece to let Jeremy Spurgeon let the Davis Concert Organ rip - especially in Worthy is the Lamb. One year, Jeremy actually gave me mini concert on the organ and really opened the beast up. What a sound that instrument can make!

Straight on the heels of Lillian Alling, I returned to Calgary to sing Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Calgary Opera. The last project with them was in January as Laurie in Little Women and I’ll be returning there next season with an opera that hasn’t been announced yet. It’s going to be really good!

The cast of this Lucia was fantastic with many of the company making their debuts in their roles; Sally Dibblee (Lucia), David Pomeroy (Edgardo), Ted Baerg (Enrico), Uwe Dambruch (Raimondo), Rob Clark (Normanno), Jennifer Spoule (Alisa), David Gately (director), and Robert Dean (conductor). The role of Arturo is an easy sing...come in, sing a bit, get married, and then get killed before the night is out. No stress whatsoever! So, I took advantage of it and worked on some other music that is coming up like Abduction from the Seraglio and my first Dichterliebe. I think I look a little too relaxed in this photo. Either that or angry that I had to wear that beard around Calgary...good thing it was Movember and tons of other guys had strange moustaches.

I also had a chance to see my friends Glynis Leyshon and David Shefsiek. David was the GM at Pacific Opera Victoria and is now the GM of Alberta Theatre Projects where Glynis was the director for their show Seussical the Musical. I took a friend to see a preview night and it was packed with kids who absolutely loved the show. I must say, I had a smile on my face the whole time. I’ve been reading ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ to my son and the show really captured the whimsical nature of Dr. Seuss. If you get a chance to see it, you won’t be disappointed!

Who knew that the Festival of the Sound had such a great venue for concerts?! Well, I guess they did.The Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts is a stunning 480 seat venue made with local granite and wood trusses. It’s such a beautiful place to sing in! Not only is it beautiful inside, it also sits on the banks of Georgian Bay. At intermission, the choir, soloists and the audience mingled on the deck and watched the sun set. And what better to sing than Bach’s beautiful B minor Mass with Leslie Fagan, Vicki St. Pierre, Peter McGillivray, the Elmer Iseler Singers, and Lydia Adams conducting. The festival runs for over 4 weeks with an impressive line-up of artists. What a great way to spend an evening while up at the cottage. Paradoxically, the building also holds the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame. Only in Canada...

While I was up on stage singing, my poor wife had to move all our stuff (with the help of movers, of course) to our new house. I had packed all the boxes ahead of time and tried to minimize the work but it was still a lot of work. This isn’t the first time that I’ve been away while we moved - it’s the second! Fortunately, this is probably our last move for a long time. Thanks Rachel!

The Luminato Festival has wrapped up for this year and what a ride it was. Between the Opening Night party, our shows, our Opening party, Rufus’ solo concert and all the events going on, it was certainly busy! I needed to take a few days off to recover from all those late nights. One of the highlights was going to see my favourite new singer, Alejandra Ribera, sing a concert at Queen’s Park...so awesome!

The run of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna for the Luminato Festival here in Toronto was really fun. It was the same production that premiered in London directed by Tim Albery and conducted by Robert Houssart. The only changes from London were to two of the singers, Charlotte Ellett and Greg Dahl, who did a fantastic job!

With any piece, it’s always great to have another chance to sing through it. With only a month between performances, it really felt like it had settled in my voice and I had found ways of manoeuvring through some of the more difficult stuff. Some things I found easier to sing this time especially the high floating bits in the first aria. The acoustic of the Elgin certainly was a big improvement from the theatre at Sadler’s Wells and added a nice ambience to the piece. Janis Kelly, the Prima Donna, was amazing as always! She never fails to move you. She’s making her Met debut this coming season so look out for her. I also should give a huge shout out to Robert Houssart, our conductor. He’s a brilliant conductor and so easy to work with, follow and sing for.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what Rufus comes up with next!

The Luminato Festival opened with the Giorgio Armani Opening Night Party. Great food, great company, great music, and I got a chance to wear my one-of-a-kind Rosemarie Umetsu suit!

Rachel and I joined the New Hamburg Arts Live! festival singing the music of Gilbert & Sullivan. We performed with Erica Bardua, music director Vicki St. Pierre, Jason Nedecky, and Kate Carver at the piano. It was a fun night of some great music and great singing. The program was really interesting as some of the pieces I had never even heard of. One of the pieces that I had never sung before was the tenor aria from Utopia “A tenor, all singers above”. What a fun piece! I also sang some gems like “Take a pair of sparkling eyes” and “We’re called Gondolieri”. The festival is now in its second year and hosts concerts of country, folk, classical, big band swing and also features visual artists.

Rachel, my wife, works with an organization in Toronto called DareArts which “builds courage and confidence in children, empowering them to become tomorrow's leaders by harnessing the core power of the arts - Discipline, Accountability, Responsibility and Excellence.” (from their website) The grade 7 and 8 kids that Rachel has been working with had the opportunity to represent their school, Earl Beatty Public School, at the Toronto Leader’s Dinner for the Provincial PC Party held at the Toronto Convention Centre. With about two weeks notice, the kids learned the chorus parts to La Traviata’s Libiamo in Italian! With Rachel and I singing the solo lines, we kicked off the event with Libiamo and led the 1500 plus crowd in singing the Canadian National anthem. The kids exceeded our expectations, which were high to begin with, and performed flawlessly. What a great bunch of kids!

I made my debut with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque with Nicolas Kraemer conducting, soprano Suzie LeBlanc, mezzo Nina Heebink, and baritone Sanford Sylvan in a concert entitled, “Gloriously Baroque - Telemann and Bach” There are 224 Bach cantatas and so many gems. I never tire of hearing or singing his music. We sang in Cantata 19, 130, and sang Telelman’s rarely performed “Nun ist das Heil” at the Harris Theater in downtown Chicago and the beautiful First United Methodist Church in Evanston.

There were so many highlights of this trip one of which was being lucky enough to be in Chicago at the same time that Chicago Opera Theater was producing Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers starring Frederica von Stade, Sara Jakubiak and Matthew Worth. It was a wonderful and moving production! The Bach ‘cast’ also had a wonderful dinner at Ellen Hargis’ house consisting of asparagus risotto, stuffed lamb, salad and homemade ginger ice cream. I only wish I could cook like that! I guess it’s about time I learned. I met up with an old friends, Alan and Carl, and we had brunch at Rhapsody and then took in the Chicago Art Institute. Music of the Baroque put us up at the beautiful Fairmont Chicago but staying at a hotel means that you have to eat out a lot. Sometimes trying to find something healthy to eat can be a daunting task. But, I had a lot of great recommendations one of which was the Fox and Obel which is part market, part restaurant. It was so good that I had breakfast there almost every morning! Another great brunch place was Orange. I’m looking forward to going back to Chicago next year...

With much excitement and buzz, Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna opened at Sadler’s Wells in London. Getting to the big night was a bit of a challenge for me. About a week into rehearsals (on my two days off), I came down with a sore throat and fever so I headed off to the doctors office and he gave me a round of drugs. Five days later and a few days off from rehearsals, I felt so much better. But once again, on our day off, the sore throat and fever came back but with a vengeance. I headed off to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. He examined my throat and said that I was not well then admitted me immediately to the hospital. I really needed to get treated quickly since I had less than a week until opening! He gave me two different antibiotics, IV fluids, a mouth rinse and pain killers. After a night in the hospital, everything was starting to get better so I was released with two prescriptions.

Opening Night was first time I was able to sing full voice and it felt great! In the audience, was a plethora of celebrities including Boy George, Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, Tenor Hans Peter Blockwitz, and Graham Norton! The audience loved the show and we had a wonderful after-party. Our cast was so lovely and great to work with. Janis Kelly sang the title role of Madame Saint Laurent (the Prima Donna), Rebecca Bottone, her maid and Jonathan Summers, her butler. I played the role of André, the journalist who comes to interview the Madame on the eve of her return to the operatic stage. Our two actors were Siobhan McMillan and Jamie Griffith Jones, Tim Albery directed, Robert Houssart conducted, production designs by Antony McDonald, and movement coaching by Philippe Giraudeau.

Unfortunately, at the end of our show, Iceland’s volcano shut down all the airports in the UK and most of Europe so we were stuck in London. The apartment we had stayed for the month was all booked up so we were left to look for alternate accommodation and we were graciously hosted by our friend Tony MacIntosh of Le Café Anglais for an evening, (If you ever get a chance to visit London, have a meal at Le Café Anglais for some amazing food and ambience! The hors d’oeuvres, the main course and the service are all fantastic.), then spent one evening at the Citadines - Barbican and one fantastic night at the Beaumont House Hotel in Old Windsor! I never knew how happy I’d be to see planes taking off from Heathrow, once it opened again, and jet vapour trails in the skies. It was quite eerie not to see any planes flying around London. Luckily for us, we got on the first and only Air Canada flight to Toronto from Heathrow that day. The excitement of going back home on the plane was palatable. We heard so many different stories of people getting stranded and how excited they were all were to be going home. I’ve always said it’s wonderful to travel but it’s always great to go back home!

I had the chance to see Philip Glass’ Satyagraha, an opera based on the life of Gandhi at the ENO. I have somehow managed in my life not to hear any of Glass’ music and really didn’t know what to expect. I think I expected some kind of ultramodern orchestration and strange singing but was on the edge of my seat from the first moment. The singing was amazing, the music was engaging, the set and puppets were so interesting! This production was by director-designer team of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch. The opera was 3+ hours and I was captivated the whole time. My colleague, Janis Kelly, who is singing Madame Saint Laurent in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna, sang the role of Mrs Naidoo and gave Rufus and I tickets to the show. I’m so glad she did because I might never have seen the opera on my own initiative.

Last night, I attended a fundraising event for the Luminato Festival in support of Rufus Wainwright’s new opera Prima Donna which will be performed in London, England and Toronto, Canada. It was a stellar event with chef Jamie Kennedy in house creating amazing food and desserts. Rufus and director, Tim Albery, chatted about the opera and Rufus played two pieces — one from his new Cd and the final aria of the opera.

Had I of known that it was going to be Valet Parking in a very prestigious Toronto neighbourhood, I probably wouldn’t have brought my huge Ford F-150 with the baby seat buckled into the passenger seat to the party! The only spot big enough to fit the truck into was right in front of the house beside the driveway where everyone in their very expensive cars were driving up. Hopefully, no one saw me getting out of it...

This January, I made my first trip to Calgary. I’ve flown over on route to Vancouver, made a milk-run stop once courtesy of West Jet, and saw it from the air once flying out of Edmonton to Toronto but never made into the city itself. It always looked like it would be a great place to visit - being so close to the Rocky Mountains. I was hired to sing Laurie in Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women in my debut role with the Calgary Opera. Mark Adamo was present for dress rehearsal and opening night which was a thrill. He’s writing more opera and I’m really interested to see what he comes up with.

Usually life on the road isn’t glamourous but, this time, the condo unit I was staying in was fantastic! I had a huge screen HDTV in the living room and a smaller one in the bedroom with a PVR device, stainless steel appliances, and fully stocked with all the cooking necessities (other than food). As an added bonus, it was located about 50 steps from the Arrata Opera Centre where rehearsals took place. It certainly made life a bit more enjoyable.

The volunteer who picked some of us singers up at the airport had offered to drive out to Banff and show us around. I quickly took her up on that and after opening night was out of the way, we went up and had a great day. We rode the gondola up the mountain to take in the sites (pictured) and toured around the village of Banff. It’s stunning! My best friend, Sam Chung, came up to sing an audition for the opera company and we decided to go up to Banff with another friend and take in the Banff Hot Springs. We stayed in the 39 degree Celsius water for almost an hour...probably a bit too long but it was so great to be outside on a cloudless day with the sun shining in the middle of winter.

I celebrated my birthday on this trip and what better way than to see the Olympic Torch come to Calgary on route to Vancouver. Thousands gathered at the Olympic Plaza to welcome the torch to the city (Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics back in 1988). You could really feel the excitement building as the torch approached closer and closer. I also went to see a Calgary Flames - Chicago Blackhawks game. I think I’ll try and make it a habit to see a game whenever I’m on a gig. It’s so much fun - even though they lost.