Turkey and Family make for a fun weekend

Houston proved to be everything anyone could want out of a Thanksgiving weekend! Food, family, and fun! We had the opportunity to learn the games of "Bacce Balls" and "Spinners". Fun fun fun.

I'm now back in the mid-cities of Dallas and Ft. Worth and time is drawing near for my trip to NYC. I will be in Manhattan Dec 12-20 for auditions, coachings, etc. One of the things that I will be doing is some prep coachings for my OONY debut in February with the conductor...so, this week wil no doubt include translating and crunch work on act ii and iii of L'Arlesiana. Other upcoming excitement includes my one Messiah performance this year with the Omaha Symphony on December 9. Should be fun!

We started our kitties on anti-anxiety meds last night. It seems that 6 1/2 years of brotherly bliss can all be destroyed by an outside cat peeing on the wall. About a week and a half ago my wife and I were suddenly awoke by 2 cats screaming and hissing at each other like they wanted to kill each other! Since then they have yet to kiss and make up, thus the need for meds. Usually this behavior stops after an hour or so, but they insisted to hate each other for over a week. What does go on in a cat's brain? Uggh.

Today we are headed to look at the new house...or at least a model of the one that we want. Its pretty exciting, the thought of owning a home, and having a yard and getting a dog! I know that I said in a previous post that we may have to wait for this, but hopefully we will be able to do this sooner than later. We shall see. :)

Getting the call...

One of the last things I expected was to get a call from Opera Company Philadelphia this past Saturday evening at 10:30pm! It was even further from my mind that they would ask what they asked. The conversation went something like this: OCP: "Hi, can I speak with Weston?" W: "This is he." OCP: " I'm sorry to be calling you so late on a Saturday evening, but it seems that we are in need for a Dandini for our matinee performance tomorrow." W: "Ummm, ok." OCP: "Would you feel comfortable coming in and singing this role from the side of the stage?" W: "Ummm, sure." (thinking to myself...hmm, I think I could do that!)

This is the type of thing that every singer dreams of. The problem was that this was VERY last minute and we just couldnt get a contract worked out. My manager was attending a performance and an after party and was unavailable, and neither myself or OCP felt comfortable going forward with such a thing without the guidance of my manager to work out fees, etc.

This all being said, this was perhaps the best outcome. I was ready and willing to help them out and because of that, I hope that they will look to me for something bigger and better in the near future.

Exciting, to say the least!

Since being back in Texas I realize I havent been blogging all that much. I'd like to say its because I have been so busy working on music and planning my attack for fall auditions. Sadly to say, I havent heard about too many auditions at this point other than just one in Dec and feel very comfortable with the arias in Messiah which is my next gig. I'm sure that I'll start in on L'Arlesiana next week with translating and listening work. One thing I have been busy with is working out at the gym, and my new hobby, song writing! My new buddy Alan and I have been busy working away at coming up with new songs and trying to finish up songs that we have started individually. Its actually quite fun to be singing in a style that is anything but opera! :o) Be on the lookout, a song about you might be next! (we tend to write songs about friends of ours)

Other news at the Hurt house (or rather apt) is trying to get out of Apartment living and into a real life grown-up house!! It seems that this will be postponed a bit as we need a little more time to save money so that we can actually put 20% down and have the 3% for closing costs, upgrades, etc. So, hopefully 2007 will be a transition year in many ways. It will kick off the creation of my new management company (formerly ICM Artists), will be my LAST year living in an apartment, and hopefully will see many new career opportunities! Maybe even Weston jr. in the future? heehee.