Back to the opera

Today was the first post-New Year's rehearsal for the TOR.  Performances start next month, and now we're going on stage!  I remembered to bring my checkbook to pay $50 of additional expenses, and my ticket money. (My parents and sister are seeing both shows, so I sold six tickets.) But I forgot to bring indoor shoes, so I went on stage in my sock feet.

We were rehearsing TALES OF HOFFMANN, and did the opening and closing scenes set in a pub.  We also did the greater half of the scene with Olympia, but didn't get to the scene with Giulietta. (The  chorus isn't in the scene with Antonia.) For the pub scene we get to hold metal mugs and long pipes.

I mentioned before that there were a few cameo roles that I was being considered for.  It turns out that they decided not to include them.  Part of me felt relieved at not getting the extra responsibility--I was too polite to admit it, of course--but I felt stupid about being the last to find out.

Speaking of Hoffmans, in the afternoon I saw Dustin in the William Goldman-John Schlesinger thriller MARATHON MAN at the Young&Dundas.  It's one of the older movies they've been showing on the Event Screen there.  That's the one where Nazi Laurence Olivier keeps asking Hoffman "Is it safe?" before torturing him with dentist equipment.  I'd read that it was crude, and it was. (Did the book make more sense?) Frankly, I only saw it so I'd have something to write about here.