I am writing this on a calm Saturday afternoon after quite an eventful week.

You can imagine how relieved I am that we were able to solve the casting problems for our Carmen. Not only do we have the wonderful Rinat Shaham for the first eight performances of our run, but we were also able to get the Georgian mezzo-soprano, who just made such a sensational debut at the season opening of Milan's Teatro alla Scala, for the last four of our performances. For the moment, I just call her Anita as I'm unable to either memorize or correctly pronounce her long and complicated Georgian family name. I will have this right when she arrives for rehearsals in a few weeks.

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This morning I realized that it has been more than 10 days since I have put a new post on the blog. There isn't really an excuse, but these past days have been even more intense than usual.

Right after my return from London—on 1st October, exactly one year after my arrival at the COC—we held a big press conference in our wonderful big rehearsal space as a preview to our new production of Stravinsky's The Nightingale and Other Short Fables staged by Robert Lepage.

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