Brian Dickie

Quiet at work this week

I am back in the office with a skeleton group pof colleagues getting some important things done.  The others are taking a well earned break from a stressful period and getting their batteries recharged for the push of the next three months before our season begins.

I had the treat of lunch with one of our enthusiastic young board members in the excellent Naha Restaurant on Clark and Illinois Streets. The snow began around noon so my walk over the river was a chilly one - I took refuge from the flurries in the shadow of Mies van der Rohe's IBM building at 330 N Wabash which has now been overshadowed by the new Trump Tower which has risen from the old Sun-Times building.  You gotta hand it to Trump - he chooses fabulous locations!

My board member, Suzanne Wagner, chairs our strategic planning committee.  So apart from her priceless attributes of commitment and enthusiasm for the company's work, she is the keystone of the process we are currently embarked on.  And a fine job she is making of it. And in addition she is a wonderful lunch companion.

I then had a skirmish with the devils at the Apple Store - my iPhone has given up part of its function.  And AT&T and Apple are competing for the greatest villain prize.  Apparently it is hoped by the manufacturers that modern technology fails just weeks after the 12 month warranty has expired.  However the man next to me at the so called Genius bar was on his fourth within twelve months.  Mine had the temerity to last 14 months so I have to pay an expensive penalty.  Something wrong with this picture?  Grrrrrrrh!!

And then on to another Board member's place for a lovely holiday celebration.  And home in good time quite early to do the blog........and deal with the jet lag.

Home now - but a small world

I braved the much advertised challenges of air travel today and am now back home.  Actually getting through the initial security at Heathrow was a breeze - the problems came at the gate.  But the silver lining was the old spirit of camaraderie that comes out at these times, and I had an entertaining conversation with an ancient British beachcomber living in Puerto Rico who in the last two weeks has been to Houston, Las Vegas, London and Devon. And complaining all the way no doubt.  

And then - and this is where the small world bit comes in - the young Englishwoman next to me in line for every conceivable search procedure turned out to be a designer at the very same celebrated fashion house that designed and made Danni de Niese's amazing wedding dress.  So of course she knew all about it and was thrilled to have a first hand account........as will her colleagues when she sees them tomorrow.

And this is my excuse to put up another reminder of that wonderful December 19 event!  Click it to enlarge as usual.

Chicago looked crisp and cool and very beautiful as we came in to land.  The lovely dry cold is a good change from the bone chilling dampness of London. Back to work tomorrow - we are nearing the end of our major strategic review so the next few weeks will be important in determining the future of our fine company!

In Kensington Gardens

Kensington Palace Noon December 28 2009

It has been a holiday today - a substitute for Boxing Day (December 26) which fell on a Saturday this year. So this was a perfect opportunity to get out and about on a crisp clear morning. The crowds were not massive in this beautiful park which is the western extension of Hyde Park and ends at Kensington Palace which was the home of Diana, Princess of Wales until her death in 1997.

The Round Pond is a popular meeting place in Kensington Gardens and has a splendid collection of birds large and small including these swans who obliged by doing a quick circuit for us.  We then wandered off to the east towards Hyde Park where more domesticated wild life were waiting sedately (below)

I am returning to Chicago tomorrow morning (Tuesday) and braving the new security arrangements at Heathrow around 7am in good time for my 10.15 flight home.

Children's Classic

I have spent part of each of the last six evenings or so reading, a dozen pages at a time, the great English children's book Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, first published in 1908.  The copy I was reading from was the 66th edition printed in the year of my birth 1941.  It might be thought to be old fashioned for a 21st century child - but its simple messages of some importance ensures that it remains enthralling.  And the 1931 illustrations by EH Shepard, who illustrated AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh, are a joy which transcends time.

I hope you have all had a happy few days with your families and friends.

A Happy and Peaceful Christmas to all my readers!

St Mary Abbots Parish Church, Kensington 4.30 pm December 24 2009

Children's Festival

So a Christmas Eve expedition to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland fair was inevitable.  And pretty scary too with lots of rides, at enormous price, of extreme unpleasantness. But I was never very good at the roller coaster either in life or anywhere else.  But the worst was a thing called the Black Hole - appalling in every respect.  Couldn't see anything and tossed around like a ball.  What is the point?

The above one was relatively benign, the one below way too exciting to even try.  We then went to the Crib service at St Mary Abbots Parish Church in Kensington.  

One of the many pleasures of London

Carluccio's South Kensington 12.30 pm December 23 2009

Having lived out of England for much of the last twenty years the major improvements that have occurred in life in this remarkable city are much more obvious to me, and maybe all the more pleasurable to observe. One of these little things, trivial really I know but still a good thing, is the rise of Antonio Carluccio's wonderful business which has brought really good food to the mass market at mass market prices.  These great caffès, as he engagingly calls them, have been spreading widely, but clearly with discrimination, over the last 20 years. This is all very good for civilization........

This morning was the opportunity for a little "child appropriate" recreation so we went off to the Natural History Museum - likewise amazingly transformed in recent years.  The Darwin Centre is a spectacular addition. We spent time in the Cocoon, and in the David Attenborough Studio.  And of course in the Museum Shop.....six year old girls already love shopping!

It occurs to me that my Oklahoma friends may not approve.  This is a Darwin-centric institution, like all serious scientific centers involved in Natural History.  Creationism hasn't reached these shores yet but no doubt, like other American cultural phenomena, will in due course.  But I suspect it will get pretty short shrift.

Not sure about my blogging schedule over Christmas.  Maybe some down time, maybe not......

An excellent Pig opera

The Royal Opera has been wowing the holiday crowds, those with children anyway, with an enjoyable production of an opera based on a myriad of fairy tales ending up as The Enchanted Pig. The composer is Jonathan Dove a far from insignificant figure who has a large output of extremely successful work.  In fact he seems to have the magic touch and this delightful piece shows a skill and sensibility which combine to produce something that "works". That is what matters.

Anyway our daughter, aged 6, and I had a great time having begun the day belatedly with lunch at the Café des Amis, colloquially known of course as Café Dez, haunt of the greatest and best of the more bohemian employees of the Royal Opera. And Jean-Luc looked after us splendidly in the basement bar where the fries were up to the standard of Chicago's Park Grill.

A spin off of the wedding party last Saturday was the opportunity for three of the living Glyndebourne General Administrators/Directors to be photographed together, for the first and probably the last time!  So I thought that I would share this with you. On the left is David Pickard the incumbent, in the middle Anthony Whitworth Jones who succeeded me in 1989. (Nicholas Snowman was absent!)

Between us we represent an almost continuous presence at Glyndebourne since 1962. If you really want to enlarge us you can just click the photo.

A working morning at Covent Garden

Covent Garden Market 2pm December 21 2009 

I had a very long session at Covent Garden this morning with Christian Curnyn and Justin Way, conductor and director of our Giasone production. We established ourselves comfortably in the Amphitheatre Bar and got through all we needed to to resolve some outstanding scheduling questions and complications. And we then moved on to get ahead with their projects with us for 2011 and 2012.  So all in all a productive morning.

The Covent Garden has become an enormous tourist attraction as well as a sprawling shopping center.  At Christmas this is something of a nightmare.  But is is all very colorful as you can see above!

I then had the pleasure of lunch with an old friend and colleague whom I had not seen for decades.  I have effectively been living outside the UK for 20 years and he spend a good many years in Australia.  This is the very fine musician Peter Robinson.  We had a lovely time full of reminiscences - very tiresome for anyone else no doubt, but fun for us!

I then returned to the opera house to spend some time at the tail end of the Royal Opera's staff directors' Christmas party.  It was so good to see Jeremy Sutcliffe, Andrew Sinclair, Dannie Dooner and others.....this is certainly the season of goodwill all round.

There will be more operatic activity to report tomorrow when I am back at Covent Garden for something special.

Wedding Bells

Danni de Niese and Gus Christie got married in great style on Saturday - we were on parade to get the flower girls dressed at 2.30 pm and finally got home from the party at 1 am.  It was of course a wonderful happy event with their friends and family travelling from all over the world to be there.  Above you see the bride and groom, the flower girls, bridesmaids, pages and best man.  

After the service three hundred or so guests left for the Blackfriars Pier on the Thames to be ferried on the good ship Erasmus down river to the Lighthouse opposite the Millennium Dome (below) where the party continued until the small hours. 

Photos © Brian Dickie

A 12th century church

We spent some hours today at one of the oldest churches in London, Saint Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, the antiquity of which is clear from my photograph above.

We were at the rehearsal for the wedding tomorrow of our friend Danielle de Niese and Gus Christie. Our daughter B will be one of 12 child attendants for this extremely happy event so we came along for the ride.  It was so good to see so many Glyndebourne friends today - tomorrow will be a major class reunion! Just the thing to kick off the holiday festivities.

The church is perfectly adapted to music of course - so the joyful proceedings will be accompanied by some high class stuff in that department. 

Meanwhile London is being treated to some snow.  So we are dreaming of a white wedding!

Life goes on......

I may be out of the office but there are still things to do - and I have been dealing, by remote control from London, with a couple of issues relating to our 2010 season.  This is naturally par for the course.  But let it not be thought that "out of sight is out of mind."  If it were out of mind inconvenience, though probably not disaster, would quickly follow.  So I try to deal conscientiously with all that is thrown my way.

However that did not interfere with a seasonal visit to Fortnum and Mason. Here our primary destination was The Parlour - like no other in the world and enjoyed by this large party of children of all ages. But Fortnum's (founded 1707) remains an indispensable part of London. And it represents the pursuit of excellence as an art form as well as a commercial strategy.  They will survive the "era of cheap". 

Maybe I will have some of the beauties of London in pictures tomorrow.  No time for photography today......

Down time over the holidays

I will be somewhat spasmodic over the coming days - but don't despair, or hold your breath!  But you never know what might pop up!

Office party day!

We had our holiday party today - somehow the only time we could get everyone together before the Christmas break. So here above is the gang that gets the show on - what a team!  Raise a glass to them please - they are amazing.

So that was really my day - apart from an emergency visit to the dentist to repair a chipped filling.  An unwelcome expense at this time of year.  But if any of you are out there looking for a great dental office you need look no further.  Go to Water Tower Dental - you will never fear the dentist again!

Thats all for tonight.......

It is the season.......

So in the midst of Mammon is God.  And this was the scene at the base of the Hancock Tower at 5 pm this evening.  And very good music making it was.  I then went to have my hair cut in Truefitt and Hill in the Bloomingdale's building across the street - this was pretty well the sum total of my activity for the day although I made a nice trip to Hyde Park for lunch. Back to proper work tomorrow though.

Back to Katya

It was a tremendous treat to go to Katya Kabanova again at the Lyric Opera this evening.  This short opera has an overwhelming effect, the extraordinary score matched with Lyric's fine orchestra under Markus Stenz's sure hand, and a committed cast of serious talent.  Karita Mattila gave this last perfornance of the season's run the intense concentration that she always brings of course - but given that she was hand in hand with an outstanding cast that has been together now for eight weeks or so, we were privileged to witness a great night of music theater.  What a masterpiece this is. Aaargghh!

Earlier today I had a quiet Saturday getting domestic stuff done while the rest of the family are in London.  I am off there on Wednesday for Christmas for just less than two weeks.  Meanwhile there are lots of useful tasks to get done which somehow always get forgotten - like filing and general desk tidying......

I will be down in Hyde Park for lunch with friends tomorrow.  Otherwise another leisurely day - though I expect that I will be lured to the Michigan Avenue shops.  This penultimate weekend before Christmas is a shopping bonanza given what I saw on my way down to the opera this afternoon. I will report.....

Photo: Lyric Opera © Dan Rest

And apart from the family excitement?

The family excitement is below.  

The COT excitement was seeing the Mose set and costumes for the first time today - Andrew Eggert and Anka Lupes (above this morning at the Harris) have developed something wonderful.  We met together at the theater at 9, and then returned to the office for the revelation of the model and the costume designs. Below we have Anka with our Production manager Claude Binder and Caryn Klein, Steppenwolf's Costume Director who also looks after COT's needs. I believe we have a show in the best tradition of COT - book NOW!

I then went for a lunch date with one of Chicago's finest journalists.  He didn't show up, calling at the appointed hour as I was settling down at our table to tell me that he had an emergency.  Well there is unreliable and VERY unreliable.  I already knew that he was the former but......

Anyway I enjoyed lunch on my own and received the phone call with the happy news of my new grandchild. So things somehow even out in the end.

Tomorrow I am at Lyric for Katya Kabanova again. Endless pleasure!

Its a GIRL!!

I have seven grandsons ranging from 10 years to 3 months.  Now I have a grand daughter - born at 1.15 Chicago time, less than an hour ago.  I am ecstatic!!  This is the fourth child of my younger son Edward.  God bless them all!

Frigid!

Skating at the Millennium Park Rink 7pm December 10 2009 

Ohime! It did not rise above 11 degrees Fahrenheit today and for much of the day was around 6 - that is about minus 16 celsius.  And that is without the wind chill.  So I bundled up - lovely cosy coat, gloves, fur hat.  No problem!  And the brave souls above were well protected as well.  I love the Chicago winter - well for the time being anyway!

The day started at the dentist at 8.30, in the office by 9.30.  There was a huge pile of contracts to sign - I hope the last major signing session of the year. Thereafter a mixed morning of stuff in the office before going to lunch with Gerard McBurney - our great friend as well as supreme Shostakovich resource.  For we are to make our first excursion with Shosty in 2011 thanks to the votes of the people in our People's Choice election last spring.  To have a leading authority here in Chicago is invaluable as well as a pleasure since Gerard is a fun loving scholar. How great is that?!

And of course Chicago is also blessed having the world's leading Rossini scholar - Philip Gossett. I popped down to see him briefly in Hyde Park this afternoon.  Philip has been a huge help of course as we prepare for the Mose in Egitto production which opens our 2010 season in April.  He just got back from a week in Rome - his second home professionally.  Was entertaining about Opera Chic of whom/which he is a huge fan!

And then on to the Park Grill for a light early supper with David Holloway - some good discussion of the mock auditions I did at the CCPA yesterday, as well as news about the great things going on in Santa Fe where he leads the Apprentice Program so inspirationally.

And then home for a busy session tidying up some Bertelsmann stuff left over from this year's Neue Stimmen.  

Tomorrow Andrew Eggert and Anka Lupes, director and designer of Mose, are in town for a preliminary set and costume delivery - rather more the work in progress than the final result I expect.  We shall see......news about that, all that is fit to print, here tomorrow night!

Mockery

So I had a fine time down at the CCPA this afternoon - greatly enhanced by chance encounters, before I began my Mock Audition session, with three immensely distinguished singers who have been friends as well as colleagues for forty years.  There were Richard Stilwell, David Holloway, and Judith Haddon.  They are the foundation of the faculty at the CCPA and since they love and respect each other so much they create a collaborative spirit that may very well be unique.  I remain depressed by the general bitter poisonous attitudes that tend to permeate the academic world.  There is none of that nonsense here with these splendid and distinguished people.

Anyway that's my hobby horse for the moment!

My session today was with Dana Brown's second year Masters candidates.  They will be finished in May next year.  And I have the impression that this is a fine class of capable singers a good many of whom will do well. Of course it may be that the majority will not.  That is the way of the world.  I was much struck by this horrible fact of life as I was perusing the class photos at Curtis, hanging on the walls on the third floor corridor leading to the black box theater where I had my auditions last week.  There were a few names that popped out - such as Leonard Bernstein, Anna Moffo, Lee Hoiby, Anthony di Bonaventura......  But 90% are now unknown - no doubt happy and alive pursuing rewarding musical or other occupations.  But they are away from the international spotlight.  That must be the destiny for most.  And that is just fine......but it maybe difficult to accept at the twenty-something stage.

Anyway we looked at some of the little details to bear in mind when preparing for an audition.  Detail - yes, that is where the devil resides. I hope that I was of some help in introducing them to some of the realities of life.  For example - if you are auditioning just before lunch and the auditions are running late do not announce with pride that you propose to sing a twelve minute aria for your first number.  No, go for Doretta!  And much the same applies at the end of the day, even more so.  Its grossly unfair, and wrong.  But its a fact so there you are!  And I went on, and on, and on.......very satisfying!

Tomorrow I begin at the dentist at 8.30.  Then a proper day's work.  I will let you know.

Both sides of the coin today

I have had a morning in the office with some nice planning activity looking forward with my colleagues through to the end of the calendar year 2013.  COT may, nay will, have some exciting things in store for y'all!. This is the fun stuff that I relish so much.

At noon we have a development committee meeting.  These I enjoy for the company - some wonderful board members and a terrific development staff.  It is just that the issues are more vexing.  These are not good times for opera companies....

And this afternoon I will be at the CCPA for my annual session of mock auditions - singers auditioning but not auditioning - the feed back being about how they dress, what they choose to sing, how they present their resumes, and the quality of their "headshots".  All important stuff you will surely agree!

More about this no doubt when I get home this evening - if I do.  Snow and ice and wind is going to be a challenge today!

Good stuff all round

A great time was had by everyone at the After School Matters event this evening.  The energy and enthusiasm were infectious (as you may well gather from the above) so I bounded down to Symphony Center afterwards full of the joys of life.  And in good time for the short intermission free concert consisting of Hans Werner Henze's 8th Symphony and Schumann's 3rd.

Speaking of Henze, I was reminded of the fact that on the evening before Princess Diana's funeral in London on September 6 1997 I attended the first performance in London of Henze's Venus and Adonis at a Promenade Concert in the Royal Albert Hall.  It was conducted by tonight's conductor Markus Stenz.  The concert was much disturbed by the helicopters hovering overhead as the procession from St James' Palace to Kensington Palace passed by the Albert Hall.

An already weird evening became even more bizarre.  At the end of the concert, I was speaking to Henze backstage and someone came up to him and whispered in his ear.  He looked appalled and rushed off.  The news? - Georg Solti and Mother Teresa had died within hours of each on that very day September 5th.  

And another thing about Henze  - he was born in Gütersloh, the very same small town in Westphalia which is home to Bertelsmann and Neue Stimmen.

But above all he is a remarkable composer and Stenz is a persuasive advocate.  And the Civic Orchestra did him proud. A very satisfactory evening all round.  I am glad to say that I will be seeing more of Stenz on Saturday - I am returning to Lyric to see another performance of the Kata Kabanova.  What  a treat!

After office matters

Today I am having a late night - firstly straight from the office to Gallery 37, part of the City's Cultural Affairs Department, for the COT contribution to After School Matters. We have a long standing relationship with the City, the Public Schools, and Gallery 37.  And also of course with ASM.  This is all part of our extensive program of educational activities. 

I go on to something completely different - the Civic Orchestra concert.  The Civic Orchestra is the training orchestra of the CSO and this evening have an ambitious program of Henze and Schumann.  The excellent Markus Stenz, who was responsible for Mahler 4 last week and the Lyric's run of Kata Kabanova, is conducting.  How great it is that visiting conductors work with this group of young players.  Haitink, Boulez and Barenboim have all worked with them in recent seasons.  No doubt Muti will be doing the same on a regular basis - Markus Stenz is somewhat nearer their age group......

We are bracing ourselves for a fairly serious winter storm - snow and extreme cold way down below freezing on Thursday. But hey - this is winter in Chicago!

A dusting of snow - but tons to come!

Snowy Bean at 8.15 December 7 2009

We had an inch or two of snow overnight - so it was a pretty ride through Lincoln Park on the bus this morning. And above you see the extent of it in the city. That little black speck in the middle is me of course! Click the pic to enlarge.

Apparently there will be a proper snow storm tomorrow evening.  That will be fun........

We have a quiet week ahead - welcome as far as I am concerned.  Our development committee meets on Wednesday, basking somewhat in the success of the party on Thursday evening at the Casino Club. That was a fun party which made new friends for COT. 

And on Friday our director and designer of Mose in Egitto will be in town for an early, but far from premature, presentation of the set and costume designs. I am not sure that there will be anything ready for publication here - we shall see. We are running pretty late on this and continually increasing budget constraints do not help matters.  But that is the name of the game these days.  The important thing is that we are still here, and pursuing the concept of excellence in all things with our usual passion and energy.