Winner...and still Champion!

I seem to remember this quote in a newspaper article about me after I won the Dallas Opera Competition...but, alas, this is not what brings joy to me this evening. I have come back as the underdog, with one hand nonetheless, to defeat not only an Italian earlier in the day in the Maryland State PING PONG Invitational (ok we were invited to have dinner in Maryland with our Italian language coach...but, I did beat her son at ping pong...and his dad at one time was in a ping pong club...so, need i say more?) , but THE Ryan McKinny on my home court under the brite lights tonight!

So...it seems that opera singers do have other things on their plates besides the opera staring at them in the face. Speaking of, we open in less than 2 weeks. Wow. We are getting there, but, we havent even begun to stage act iv yet! I'm just a little nervous...maybe its because I also havent memorized act iv yet! :-O. Oh well, it will come. It always does.

Now we get to the ever-so-witty title of my blog. Juggling is tricky...and with one hand, well, its even trickier! Is that a word? I think it is. Oh well, you get the idea. So, yeah...while we are staging and learning/memorizing Le nozze di Figaro, I must also get started on Die tote Stadt...which is an entirely different opera in German. I start rehearsals for this opera on the 21st of August, just one day after I finish my contract here at Wolf Trap. Thus, the juggling act begins! I'm getting used to it from my insane schedule this past spring. I think that in the future I'd like to have less gigs that paid more rather than many gigs that pay ok. Makes sense to me! But, for now I'll be studying German and performing Italian for the next 2 weeks.

Speaking of...I hear Frank calling my name. Thats the role I'll be making my debut at New York City Opera in Die tote Stadt in September! (I'm pretty excited!)

Tschus!