Free2Create

I was completely stunned by two video excerpts I saw yesterday on the ubiquitous youtube of Dawn Upshaw singing Messiaen's "Saint François d'Assise", directed by Peter Sellars. (I'm indebted to Alex for posting one on his blog).

The excerpts show the rehearsal process, Dawn's valiant struggles with the virtuosic music and Peter guiding, encouraging and sometimes being extremely exacting with her.

At times, Sellars appears to be making excessive demands-- why on earth is he asking for such elaborate postures and insisting on such a precise quality of movement when the music is already so taxing? Can't he see that just singing the piece accurately would already be plenty? As a coach myself, I'm an advocate for sensitive treatment of singers, and was at first perplexed.

I recently returned from a trip to Sydney, and was drawn as usual to the fabulous wildlife. Here's my first attempt at videoing my favorite Australian inhabitant-- the duck-billed platypus. When underwater, playpuses (platypi?) close their ears, eyes and nose and navigate by a kind of radar. They are monotremes, which are egg-laying mammals, and are really extraordinary. Wish I could have brought her home!

It's been a long time since I added a blog entry- the main reason is that I'm experiencing a lot of inflammation in my arms which makes it hard to type (recurrence of an old condition). We're also on the edge of an enormous fire in the Sespe wilderness (see my husband's blog for details). All in all, it's been a very challenging year so far.
So I was delighted to see a fabulous video clip
this morning which I think you will enjoy. It certainly made me smile!