Yesterday was one of the longest, hardest days I've had in awhile. I started teaching my normal load in the morning, then had an evening rehearsal for my recital, and went from there to a symphony rehearsal in Springfield. 11 hours of work, start to finish. I'm grateful that, unlike years past, it was all work in the music industry. No staring at lines of misbehaving javascript. By the end of the day, though, my chops were tired! If I'm going to have days in my schedule like that, I'm going to have to learn to plan for them and pace myself!

Anyway, things for my recital are shaping up. Come hear my friends and me on Sunday, March 4 at 8pm. It's going to be a really exciting show!

Today was the "Live in HD" broadcast of the Met Opera's Götterdämmerung. This is easily one of the most emotionally taxing (and yet emotionally rewarding) pieces ever written. It lost some of its visceral power in the theater; the flicker of the screen and the canned sound don't really do the artwork justice. That said, I really like this production; it's much better than the "light saber" production I saw last time. There aren't many good recordings of the complete Ring; there are a few decent audio-only recordings, but very few that attempt to capture the stage. Of the ones I'm aware of (and I've done my research), this will easily be the best when it is released commercially.

The prior installments of the cycle deal with topics like the limitations of the rule of law, the difference between mental and physical maturity, the corrupting nature of power, and the conflicting responsibilities of family. Wagner apparently decided he'd taken it easy in the first three, and holds back nothing in the last opera. It takes on humanism vs. deism, the difficulty of ascertaining guilt, the friction between romantic and fraternal love, the mutually exclusive responsibilities of duty and passion, and plenty more.

These universal themes are important reasons why the Ring cycle continues to be so powerful. In no way can one boil down any part of the operas to a simple moral or lesson. But, there are a number of rather obvious points on the surface of Götterdämmerung. First, love doesn't guarantee anything, but it can help keep life in perspective and bearable. Second, nothing is certain: neither Wotan's spear nor Alberich's ring are infallible, and even the powerless can overcome them in the right situation. Third, there are no easy answers, but sometimes knowing what is coming causes despair and submission when continuing to muddle through could make all the difference.

Just as true today as in 1876.

Well, this was an eventful weekend. On Saturday, Katy and I travelled to Cincinnati to visit with my parents and make dinner for them. Like always, not everything turned out as I had planned, but most items were edible.

Sunday, all four of us made our way back to Columbus, where we were joined by Katy's family. In the evening, Blood Sweat & Brass had its second performance, this time on campus. The show had a very different feel, but it was still a real success. The students and I had a good time, but more importantly, I think we all learned something in the process.

In other great news, my friend Doug Rosenthal won the Utah Symphony job. He has a trial with the orchestra coming up later this year!

Last night was the first performance for Blood Sweat & Brass. We played at Brothers Drake Meadery, a trendy winery/bar in the short north, and I was surprised how many people (that I didn't know) were there. We played a good show, and the crowd really got into it. I love it when my ideas work, and I can create a really great learning experience for my students that also has artistic value in its own right!

Our next gig is on campus at Woody's on Sunday Feb 5 at 6pm. I just discovered that we've double booked ourselves with the Superbowl, but fear not. Woody's is a sports bar with plenty of TVs. We'll have the game playing (muted) from kickoff at 6:30 til we finish our set around 7:30, and then we'll turn on the big screen and the sound. Perhaps we should advertise this as a Superbowl party that we're opening for?