Final Performance

Leah's final performance of the opera was on Tuesday, just a couple days after her first performance, so we took Monday pretty easy. We originally were going to climb a local mountain to check out a fortress, but we hadn't made it out of town yet before I could hear Leah sniffing, sneezing, and coughing. I figured that didn't sound like a good thing to be doing the day before an opera, so I turned the parade around and we headed back to the apartment, much to Leah's chagrin (ok, not really).

The rest of the day we took really easy, as we did the next morning, since performance evenings go pretty late. We just spent the rest of the day packing and getting ready to leave, since Leah had found out she didn't have much to do after the performance, and I had found out we could go back to Perugia and stay for a few days with the Whitmans.

The night of the performance was actually pretty tense and exciting, as this was the last show and it was in the town where we had been the whole time. The evening was sweltering hot, as it was one of the hottest days of the year so far, and it hadn't cooled much at all before the performance, and then with sold out (tickets were 10 euro!) attendance it just made it hotter, muggier, and stinkier. BUT Italians don't seem to mind the heat, so everyone was happy.

I wish I could give you a blow-by-blow account of the opera, but all I can say is Leah and the whole cast did the best job I had seen yet! Everyone was more comfortable, more free, and more expressive than I had ever seen before.

At the end, I was able to surprise Leah with some flowers when she was bowing and everyone was giving her a standing ovation and shouting "BRAVO! BRAVO!"

I have to give the flower shop credit - those were probably some of the prettiest flowers and best arrangement I had ever seen. The picture here truly doesn't do it justice. If you are ever in Novafeltria, check out the floral shop just south of the piazza - they even speak a few words of English!

One of the coolest things of the evening was when we realized our landlord and his wife came to the performance! I went over during a break and asked them if they could stay after to take a picture with Leah and I. They were really great landlords!

After the performance, Leah took her time changing, since we didn't have to go anywhere or do anything. When we stepped out of the teatro door, there was a group of people clustered around, chatting. One of the instructors grabbed Leah and said, "These ladies have been waiting out here for you since the opera was over. They wanted to talk to you!"

The two ladies started talking a mile a minute, smiling and laughing, but unfortunately Leah couldn't understand hardly a word! They paused for a moment, expecting a response from Leah, but all she could respond with was "Grazia!" because she knew they were being complimentary. Everyone realized with a smile what had happened. The ladies, after hearing Leah sing for two and a half hours of nearly flawless Italian, had assumed she actually KNEW Italian! Everyone got a chuckle out of it, and started dispersing. I looked at my watch and realized that these two elderly ladies had stood waiting outside for Leah until nearly 1 am! She was very thankful and touched by their kindness and undoubtedly kind words.

Here is Leah with the La Musica Lirica program director, Brygida Bziukiewicz and Maestro Joseph Rescigno.
I (again) didn't get a great seat, but it was closer this time, just way off to the side. Unfortunately the recording quality was even worse than the previous performance, so I'm not even going to take the time to post it, sorry!

Well, that's all for this entry, check out the next post to hear about our time in Perugia!

God bless,
Dave and Leah

'Leah's Performance Clips' and 'Fowl Language'

Leah's Performance

Thank you if you have been checking the blog faithfully, waiting for the promised video clips - we've been packing and unpacking, traveling, and working on things and haven't had time to get them uploaded until now.

Sunday was Leah's first official performance of the opera. It was in yet another nearby town, and the surprise waiting for us on this one was that instead of performing in the outdoors like it was originally planned, they got to take it inside the local opera house because they suspected rain. This was very good news! Outdoor locations tend to have a lot of noise, temperature and weather-related problems as you can well imagine.

Here are a couple shots of the street just around the corner from the theater (teatro):


This is a shot of some pretty flowers we saw along the sidewalk:

And we stopped to get a bite to eat at a little restaurant on the sidewalk. It was very good lasagna, even though Leah doesn't seem to be too excited about it in this picture.

The teatro was great! It was just a little bigger than the teatro in Novafeltria, but very similar in all regards. Here is a little video and a couple pictures showing you from the stage what the inside looked like:



Here are a few shots from the performance - I apologize, but I had to sit in the very high balcony because they were selling tickets and those in the program had to sit in the leftover seats.

Below is what many of you have been waiting for! Videos of Leah's performance!
I uploaded three short clips from the opera (La Traviata).
Enjoy!

Act 2


Act 3 part 1


Act 3 part 2 (goes through the end)



Fowl Language
Ok, just when we thought we were done with weird experiences in Italy, this one comes up.

You aren't going to believe what is in this video.

Children - don't try this at home.




Well, we hope you enjoyed this! We have a ton more to upload, and a lot of stories to tell, so keep watching the blog for more updates in the near future!

God bless,
Dave and Leah

'A Day Off!' and 'The House that Dave Built'

A Day Off!

Last week, we had a day which didn’t include hardly anything in the schedule, so we took a day off from our regular routine.

Highlights from our day off:

Went for a walk to Talamello:

Just “above” Novafeltria on the mountain is a small town called Talamello. Depending on the route you take, it can take 10-20 minutes to walk up to it. It is very scenic, and you can see the Novafeltria quite well. We found a cool looking “shortcut” up some old stone stairs that we decided to take. It was pretty cool!

Here are some pictures of our walk. Obviously Leah had the camera this time…

Novafeltria is in the valley.

Part of Talamello.

A fountain in the town square.

Just a cool shot.

Made popcorn:

Ok, I know that doesn’t sound exciting. But since we don’t have a microwave or butter, just attempting it was pretty exciting. But we DO have popcorn, a gas stove, and olive oil. Oh, and some salt that is kinda clumpy.

I had made popcorn on the stove as a kid, but we used a special pan that had a crank that stirred the corn and oil. I had never used a regular pan. But, never fear, because Leah and I aren’t afraid to try almost anything! On my first attempt, I actually got the corn to pop, and didn’t burn it! We sprinkled salt on it, and—I’m not exaggerating—it was some of the best popcorn we have ever had…in Italy.

Ok, so it’s the ONLY popcorn we have had in Italy, but it WAS pretty good.

I ran across this picture the other day—I should have included it in one of the first blog posts, but missed it.

This is the rental car we had when we first came to Italy. Ahh, the memories that picture stirs up…makes me want to cry. It is smaller than it probably looks. There was just enough room for us in the front, and our luggage in the back. It was a good thing we didn’t bring the cat, it wouldn’t have fit.

Actually, it’s a good thing we don’t have a cat at all.

The House that Dave Built

Ok, it wasn’t a house that I built, it was a church building. And I actually didn’t build it either, I just did some mudding and painting on the drywall, but you get the idea.

I haven’t had a chance to update this blog the last few days because I have been working very hard. I showed you already the first few projects that I got done/started, but I haven’t made enough visible progress the last few days to take pictures. I was mudding the joints on the drywall, and that takes time because it has to dry between coats, and in several spots I had to do many coats to correct problem areas. Then I had to sand between coats… it all took a lot of time, and it was rarely below 90° in the building, so it wasn’t exactly comfortable. Before I left, I got all the mudding done, and the first coat of paint on it.

Here’s some pictures from before:

And after:

With all the drywall dust, I also had to spend some time keeping things clean.

While in Perugia, I stayed at Whitman’s in a room with their nephew, Ryan, who was from … Michigan, I think. Anyway, he spoke English, so it didn’t matter to me where he was from. We had one of the two rooms in the house that were air conditioned to any degree. They have these small units that are similar in concept to a window unit. That is the only kind of air conditioning that I have seen, because Italians don’t use air conditioning, even if it’s available, even when it is really hot outside. I don’t know why they like to suffer in the heat, but it doesn’t seem to bother them too much.

Anyway, here is a picture of the Whitman’s home:

It looks like a commercial building of some kind, which I think it was originally. In fact, the front part with all the glass is some kind of shop. The Whitmans have all of the second floor. They have furnished it to where it makes a very spacious home, complete with the Christian radio station that they run.

While I was there, they let me use this car for whatever I needed...which was only running over to the church and back, but it was nice to go whenever I wanted to, and not have to worry about someone taking me.

Here is a picture of the church building, outside and the main auditorium.

The festivals that they have in Italy (and I think they have quite a few) normally run about 10 days each. Since it was still going on, Jeremy and his wife, Francesca, along with his brother Jon, their cousin Ryan, and I headed down to the Centro (center of town) to see more of the jazz festival last night.

Here’s a short clip of what the music was like, and how many people were there – and it got much more crowded as the evening progressed. This group was from CA, I think it was a music high school of some kind - the video doesn't do them justice - they were VERY good!

Everywhere you turned, you saw a jazz group performing, even along the street! Italians like to stay up late. They said that most people don’t show up to these events until 11:30 pm! They will stay up until way early in the morning before they go home. We left “early” and still didn’t make it to bed until 2 am!

Changing of the Plans:

We got to talking with the missionaries and decided to change some plans because I noticed they have a lot more that needs to be done, and the combination that Jeremy and his wife Francesca, who both know English are about our age, AND because Leah found out she doesn’t have anything after Tuesday evening.

Instead of taking the bus to Rome with all the other students of La Musica Lirica, we are going to take the train(s) to Perugia on Wednesday, then help them with the church and do a little bit of sight-seeing until Saturday! We already have housing lined up and a few activities while we are there as well.

We are very excited about this change of plans, and it will actually end up costing us less (ok, so we are actually pretty proud of ourselves for figuring out this little plan, but that’s beside the point)!

I’m also glad for it because this will give Leah a chance to see some of the countryside that I have been able to see on the trains while Leah has been “stuck” in Novafeltria.

Sunday evening is Leah’s first performance (they changed the order of performances, so Leah didn’t perform yesterday, but will Sunday and Tuesday), so come back soon for more updates, and I’ll try and post some of the performance!

God bless!

Dave and Leah

Working With the Whitmans

Yesterday morning, I left early to go to Perugia, where I was going to help out the missionaries with some construction work. I got on the bus in Novafeltria to go to the city of Rimini (one hour), got on a train there (45-min wait) and went to Falconara Maritti (one hour), got on a different train (hour and half wait) to Foligno (another hour and half ride) and made a quick flying leap onto the waiting train headed to Perugia for the last leg of the journey which was only a half hour. So, by the time I made it there, it was 1:30 in the afternoon. Fortunately, I was able to email the missionaries while I was on my journey, because not all my tickets had the train times (they issue tickets that be used for a block of time, not to a specific train), and I didn't know exactly when I would arrive. Rachel Whitman was there waiting for me, and so it was then a short drive to their home. We ate a quick bite to eat, then headed over to the church to start working!

Unfortunately for me, Fred Whitman actually took a trip to Brazil while I'm here, so I won't be able to meet him, but his son, Jeremy, is the one that is in charge of the project, so his absence won't be impacting my work very much.

Here's what I did yesterday:

I installed the handicap bar next to the toilet - a challenging task because I didn't know exactly what what the construction of the wall was, and didn't have "my" tools...so I at times had to be creative.


Took down some old plastic "raceways" that some abandoned wire was in along this wall. We will fill the holes and paint it before I leave.


Did some drywall on the stage. We aren't done yet, but we called it quits for the evening at about 7:30. Then Jeremy (Fred's son) and his wife Francesca had me over for supper. We had a great time, great conversation!
They then took me to what I think was "downtown" to check out a jazz festival that was going on. On the way, they showed me several things:


The bottom section of this arch dates back to the time of King David! The top part of the arch is from the Roman era (roughly the time of Christ), and the arches to the upper left are from the Medieval era. There are other walls from these eras all throughout the city too.

Probably one of the cooler things that they showed me was a city that had been open-air at one time, but then for the purposes of protecting the city, they enclosed the ENTIRE section of city...and then built buildings on top of it! So you can look up and everything has arched ceilings in this (now) "underground" city! Hard to explain, but if I get to go back, I'll take more pictures and figure out the history. VERY cool!


We then got to the concert. It was nice, but very loud, and lots of cigarette smoke. We stayed about 4 minutes, then we were ready to go. It was getting late, and I needed to be up in good time today to get a lot of work done.

Thanks for reading! Leah is doing well, but very bored as her schedule has changed some, and won't be performing until Saturday. That means fewer rehearsals during the week.

We both want to thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. Give us (especially Leah) a holler on Facebook or email. Her email is leahbeth08@yahoo.com. She would love to hear from you!

God bless!
Dave and Leah

First Opera Performance

On Friday, we went to a nearby town called San Marino for the first opera performance. San Marino is actually a different country! They are a separate province, surrounded by Italy, that hasn't become a part of Italy. This province is about 30,000 people, all living on one mountain. It is mostly an old castle/fortress that has been very well preserved, lending itself to a lot of cool pictures!


The performance itself was located in an outdoor theater space.


There are two casts for every opera. This performance was the other cast, so although Leah (and I) were there in case something happened to the other cast members, she didn't have to perform, and we were free to scout out the town for several hours. We did some shopping, grabbed some pizza for lunch, and then climbed the hundreds of steps to get up the mountain to the lookout above.

The view was incredible! We found that we could see the Adriatic sea, probably at least 20-25 miles to our East, and then dozens of smaller mountains all around, and mostly to the West. There was a light mist hanging in the air with the afternoon sun, creating a really mystical look to all the far mountains.


The peak we were on seemed to be the highest in the area, and at one point was a sheer cliff down to the base of the mountain, and a consistent breeze was blowing off the top. We sat on a ledge with a bench for a while, cooling off and enjoying the sights. Eventually we left and continued exploring.



The sun was in our eyes and a little bright, so we just decided to close our eyes and take the picture anyway.


The performance was very good, and the Italians seemed to take a liking to it. They filled all the chairs set up, and stood around the sides, stairways, and upper levels up the mountain side. Sorry the pictures are kinda dark, but the people are there, trust me.


It was amazing that they stayed for the whole thing. In Italy, if the program says it is to start at 9 pm, it means everyone will finally arrive and the show start by 9:20 or so. If there are 15 minute breaks, they will be 30 minutes. The opera finally wrapped up at midnight, and we were on the bus about 1 am, and walked in the door to our apartment at 2 am. Ugh! We were glad we didn't have anything the next morning, and could sleep in!

The next picture needs some explanation...

It hit me the other day there was something fairly normal in the US that we hadn't see at ALL since we got to Italy.

Pickup trucks.

This is the ONLY truck that we have seen since we left the US:


Well, I'm on a train to Perugia to go help the Whitmans, so I had better wrap this up before my computer battery dies.

God bless!
Dave and Leah