A little bit of heaven

I am beside myself with excitement after hearing the singers for the first time this evening. We had a very informal sing-through of the material and they are - each one of them - very special. The "comedies" of Moliere are full of splendid songs, ensembles, choruses and dances by the finest French composers of the day: Jean-Baptiste Lully and Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and the music to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Le Malade Imaginaire is simply gorgeous. We are fortunate to have four singers from Toronto - Shannon Mercer, Richard Whittall, Cory Knight and David Roth - who, in addition to being first-rate singers, have a particular affinity for music of the French Baroque. They sang through everything tonight, with me trying to keep up on the piano. Each one's solo voice is beautiful and together they sound simply ravishing. I'm so looking forward to the next step with them: a rather more fulsome rehearsal with harpsichord and cello (Noam Krieger and Margaret Gay) on Wednesday night.

Tomorrow I must switch to "acting mode". I have a small part in Le Bourgeois as the Music Master and have been busy learning my lines and preparing to ham it up with Derek and Marie-Nathalie at the beginning of the show. Marie-Nathalie and Isabeau Proux-Lemire arrive from Montreal tomorrow and we will dive into blocking and rehearsing our scenes together. M-N has been working hard with her Montreal troupe on Le Malade, and we will take the next few days to integrate her work with Derek's and - hopefully! - the pieces will come together.

I sincerely hope we have a run on ticket sales over the next week or so. I am not one to boast, but I think this will be a one-of-a-kind show, with superb dancing, wonderful and funny acting and first-rate music-making. If tonight is anything to go by - and really it was our first music rehearsal! - this is going to be an extraordinary experience.

More tomorrow......