October 26 - Bacchanalias Americanus / Europus

Our revels are now begun. Up reasonably early printing out the recent Antigone transpositions for Tisha (who will be down next week to share the title role with Eliza); then two more pages of Moses and Aaron: XIII. "This Gold Image", before heading out to Chamber Arts for more rehearsals of


John Billota's The Quantum Mechanic and my


Antigone (with Meghan, Alix, Eli-


za, Dalyte, Kim,



William, Erin, Michael, Adam, Micah, Terrence, and Lisa),



then home past the evening-tinged North Lagoon Mountains,



to finish The Golden Calf orchestration and begin the same for XIV. Postlude: "Be gone"

October 12 - Places

If it's Sunday, it must be another John Bilata Quantum Mechanic and Mark Alburger Antigone rehearsal at Chamber Arts in Berkeley, with the cast assembling for the latter, including Meghan, Alix, Eliza, Kim, Erin, Maria, William, Michael, Micah, Adam, Terrance, and Lisa (with Harriet directing [and doing general blocking today], Keisuke at piano, and Dinuta on her way) -- our first full-cast practice, and the music is sounding!




Somehow the rest of the Opera Apocalypse postcards get addressed, I sight-read some Mozart before and after, and H has a choreography meeting with W, who we drive home to Oakland. Since we're in the neighborhood, Harriet at I check out a local Italian bistro for dinner, with a flight of wines and spaghetti di mare. Long talk with Loren on the way home, the Harriet's up for more Irish R.M., while I finish off orchestration of Moses and Aaron: III. Battle - "And He Spied" and begin IV. Chorus and Aria - "Moses, Moses" (the latter inspired by Arnold Schoenber'g Moses und Aron).

Oh, yes, early on, make copies, for entire Antigone cast, of transposed (down m3) Take Her Away and do the transposition of It's You (up m2), run up a copy of entire piece on an automatic setting at Kinko's, and decide that the 2008 revisions merit a new volume.

June 29 - Audition Time and the Singing Is Easy

Here's Keisuke Nakagoshi all ready to begin round two auditions for the 2008-2009 Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera season.


Many talented singers -- an even larger number of auditionees than last week, with more to come.


Meanwhile, here are Eliza O'Malley, Kat Cornelius, Harriet March Page, and Keisuke at ease at the end.


A swing up through Marin, past fog clearing from Mt. Tamalpais, and publication preparation of page 7 Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 C upon return.

May 4 - Catch Your Death Horsing Around

Cold day today -- sunny in the hinterlands and clearing in Berkeley -- for a warm last rehearsal of Horsewomen of the Apocalypse: The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray (this Friday at 8pm, St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, San Francisco - goathall.org / markalburgerevents.blogspot.com). It's the San Rafael News Deathsongs, again, and all's well.



It's another day of recording, too.


Eliza records Death Catch, Immortality, The Reproductive Organs, and Rain-Death Fugato; and


Janet checks in with the former and latter, as well as Pontoon Tattoo (In Memoriam Sonny Bono).


Then it's off to what turns out to be the final walk, south of Castro Valley, on Fairview Road (and as schedule will change next week, this seems appropriate), where the looming views are pastel hazy



and geometrical, as the chill fog attempts to clear, bookended by equines


west


and east.




Arrive at the upper Hayward boarder, with a Great Wall of Suburbia now sunsetward,



and peekaboo views inland, which one hopes will continue to experience a dearth of housing. Eventually head back north, arriving home to mix versions of Death Catch, including below, of Eliza, Kristen, Elizabeth, and Janet.