Here are a few highlights from this weekend, which by my quick calculations had about two weeks worth of excitement packed into it.
Friday, October 8th. . . I spent two happy hours on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, teaching my opera class to A.L.L. – Adventures in Lifelong Learning. The task at hand- preparing the 70-some students for the HD simulcasts of Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. I had carved out some time both Wednesday and Thursday to get myself properly prepared, and I walked into that classroom with three DVD’s, 4 LP’s, 5 CD’s, half a dozen back issues of Opera News, and a partridge in a pear tree. I also had a healthy sheaf of notes, but as Bev Friedrich began making her preliminary announcements, I realized with horror that my notes were nowhere to be found! (I actually ran out to the car, in the hope that I had forgotten them out there, but no such luck.) That’s when I remembered that when I ran home right beforehand to fetch my cell phone and laptop, I’d walked into the house with my notes…..dumb dumb dumb …… and evidently they didn’t make it back out to the car with me. So there I was with a packed classroom and none of my notes, and ended up doing what sort of amounts to the academic equivalent of a bungee jump and just hoping that the cable would keep me from going splat. And incredibly, it went fine. I remembered the essentials of both plot lines, the most significant names and dates, and I even spelled “Gesamtkunstwerk” correctly! And then, just to make it a classic Greg Berg thing, I stumbled upon my notes eight minutes before the class ended, when I went into my canvas bag to fish out a CD. It was good for a laugh!
After a busy afternoon of lessons and classes at Carthage, I ran home and mowed the lawn in absolutely record time- 38 minutes- (and evidently singing opera arias at the top of my lungs as I did it, according to my wife)- so we could get to Twisted Cuisine for a delicious and fun dinner with Polly, Mark, Lorelai, and our friends Paula and Sam Waller. But all of that was just a preamble for the single biggest undertaking of the day. . . finishing my column of CD/DVD reviews for The Journal of Singing. I was fairly certain that I would be bumping into Dr. Sjoerdsma (editor of the JOS) at Carthage homecoming the next morning- and I was bound and determined to present him with my next column. . . over three weeks ahead of the deadline! (I planned on having smelling salts in my pocket, just in case.) It was partly to try and make up for being two weeks late for my most recent column- my worst tardiness in the seven years I’ve written the column- and also because I didn’t want to tell him about my Opera News opportunity until I had my next JOS obligation taken care of. So at 9:00 I set up my laptop on the dining table (well away from the TV) and at 2:55 a.m. I hit Save As: NATSSept2010 and went to bed with an extra bright smile on my face.
Saturday, October 9th. . . I can’t say that I sprang out of bed at 8, but the thought of homecoming fun helped a bit. It was a spectacularly beautiful day – sunny, crisp, and perfect- but unfortunately I couldn’t stick around for too much of the festivities, thanks to an important appointment of my own with Richard Wagner and a little ditty called Das Rheingold. It was the first High Definition simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera, and my best friend Marshall was over from Whitewater…. and Trevor and Megan Parker were up from Downers Grove, IL as well ….. and together we were transported in spectacular fashion to a mythical place called Valhalla. Rheingold is the first of four operas which comprise Wagner’s Ring Cycle, perhaps the single most impressive, imposing work of art in the history of the world, and the Met has just begun mounting a spectacular new production. It’s the most expensive and complicated production in the company’s long history (they spent a million dollars just reinforcing the stage so it wouldn’t collapse under the weight of the set) and none of us could hardly wait to see what all of the fuss was about. And we were not disappointed in the least. It was feast for the eyes and ears, and a profoundly moving experience…. the kind where you find yourself whispering to yourself “we are so lucky to be seeing this.”
What made it even more special was that the man on the podium, conducting the performance, was James Levine – who has been a mainstay at the Met for forty years and who will almost certainly will be remembered as the single most important figure in the Met’s history. Unfortunately, he’s faced a series of very serious illnesses that have left him hobbled and weakened and looking much older than 67- and kept him off of the podium for nearly a year. So this was a very special, inspiring performance before a note of music had been played or sung. Just seeing Maestro Levine on that podium brought tears to my eyes and I’m sure to the eyes of many others.
Marshall headed right back to Whitewater, but Trevor and Megan were able to stick around for a nice visit- and then another former student, Caleb Sjogren, stopped by with his wife Susan and their spectacular baby son Aaron. By the time our visitors were on their way, Kathy and I had just enough time to change clothes and race off to Carthage so she could see that marvelous production of “Biloxi Blues” that had so impressed me the previous weekend. Right before the performance began, I checked my cell phone- noticed that I had missed a call…. and as soon as I saw that David Schripsema from the Kenosha Symphony called, I knew that I had made a terrible blunder… and forgotten about the pre-concert lecture I was supposed to give for the KSO that evening. It was one of those awful moments when you realize you’ve forgotten something and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it except groan- and resist the temptation to stick your head in the oven. In this case, I was glad that we were seeing a wonderful comedy rather than a tragedy.
Sunday, Oct.10. . . It was an exceptionally full and meaningful afternoon, beginning with the Carthage Alumni Recital (the final homecoming event), which included a fine performance of two madrigals by my Musici Amici group, as well as a beautiful performance by the band of “American Hymn” by our good friend Tom Vignieri. After that was the very moving funeral of Rev. Bob Tobias, a retired pastor who has been a treasured member of Holy Communion for many years. Pastor Walter and Bishop Jeff presided and preached (it was so neat to have the two of them back up front, like old times), Kate Barrow outdid herself as the soloist, and I was the organist. But what I want to finish with is the highlight of the morning—- singing my song “Mercy and Love” at church. It was inspired by today’s Gospel reading, where Jesus heals ten lepers but only one of them remembers to thank Him. Singing this song always makes me feel better- like I’m breathing richer oxygen- and I think that it has everything to do with being genuinely and perpetually grateful for life’s blessings. And after this weekend, AM I EVER!
pictured above: James Levine accepts the applause and cheers of the Met audience. By the way, this simulcast is rebroadcast on Wednesday evening, October 27th.