Christmas in Belgium

Simone and I are thankful to be celebrating Christmas and New Year's in Denver with family and friends, but also really enjoyed our Thanksgiving and the first few weeks of December in Belgium.  We had a suitably gluttonous Thanksgiving in Brussels at our friends Chris and Jeanette's home, along with friends from all over the world. The evening was replete with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and football on the T.V. . . . courtesy of Chris' handiwork streaming the recorded game from the internet to his TV.  Here we are at the table feeling stuffed from all the food.

Perhaps Brussels doesn't have the number of tourist sights that other European capitals enjoy, but the Grand Place is arguably the most magnificent square in all of Europe, and Brussels does a great job of highlighting it with festivals such as the bi-annual Flower Carpet, and the celebration of the holidays that illuminates the square with a light and sound show.  Here is a picture of the Grand Place and a video of the show.

Belgium also has great Christmas Markets where we were able to do most of our Christmas shopping this year.  Brussels has the largest Christmas Market in Belgium, complete with food, drink, ice rink, and a carousel that was far and away the coolest carousel of all time.  When I saw it I immediately said to Simone, "If Nick Duran designed carousels, that is the carousel he would design".  Here is a picture of it followed by a really bad visual quality visual video, but the sounds adds a lot to understanding just how cool it was.

Tartiflette is not exactly traditional Belgian fare, since it apparently dates back only to the 1980s, but the potato, cheese, herb, and bacon concoction has quickly become a tradition at Belgian Christmas Markets.  After missing out on it at the Brussels market due to a funding problem (we had spent all our cash on gifts by that point in the evening), we were happy to find it at the Christmas Market in Namur, a slumbering little Wallonian town on the banks of the Meuse.  Here is a picture of Simone standing in front of the Tartiflette stand and next to her you can just barely make out the 3 foot diameter iron skillets in which the Belgians cook the dish.  It was worth the wait.

Check out the rest of our Belgian Christmas pictures - Click Here.  Merry Christmas!

A Royal Wedding

My second performance of the season was on December 6th. The BCS sang as part of a wedding, and it was not just any wedding, it was a Royal Wedding. Archduchess Marie-Christine of Austria, daughter of Archduke Carl Christian (a descendant of the Hapsburg dynasty) and Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg (sister of the ruling Grand Duke Henri), married Count Rodolphe of Limburg-Stirum, a member of an illustrious dynasty dating back to the ninth century. Indeed.

The wedding was held in St. Rumbolds Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in Mechelen, a small town located about 30 minutes northeast of Brussels. The choir was placed high above the entrance, in the organ loft, next to a beautiful, massive pipe organ. I had a seat right next to the railing, which meant I was in prime viewing position for the entire ceremony. The Mass was conducted in German, French, and Dutch, and there were even a few words in English, owing, one presumes, to the fact that the bride was educated in England.

Music was a large part of the service, and we sang selections by Mozart and Schubert, along with Gregorian-esque chant pieces from the traditional Catholic Mass. We were joined by a soprano soloist with a lovely voice who, among other things, sang a gorgeous Ave Maria, the particular arrangement of which I had not heard before but immediately loved. To close the ceremony, we sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah accompanied by the organ. The soaring spaces and high stone walls created wonderful acoustics, and the whole experience was really pretty amazing. 

I must admit that, as an American, it was both completely fascinating and a bit off-putting to be part of an occasion marked by such pomp and circumstance. Queen Fabiola (sister-in-law to King Albert of Belgium) was in attendance, along with her nephew and heir-apparent to the Belgian throne, Prince Philippe, and her niece Princess Astrid. The entire royal family of Luxembourg was there, as were a whole host of other nobles from throughout Europe. It was easy to get momentarily caught up in the swirl of royals and titles and dynasties and glitz. And hats -- lots of fabulous hats graced the heads of the society ladies. It felt very...exotic and foreign.

And yet, even with the fascination, it was also kind of uncomfortable to see the rows of "commoners" lined up behind the velvet ropes, straining to get a glimpse of the aristocracy. If you think about it, the whole concept of hereditary titles, dynastic monarchy, and nobility runs counter to the very founding of the United States. Admittedly, that's kind of a deep philosophical tangent for what was in reality a just a lovely day. But still, I'm just saying.

All theoretical nuances aside, it was an honor to be asked to sing at a Royal function, and it was a fun experience, one that I will not soon forget.

Here are some pictures of the wedding:

Wedding Album #1

Wedding Album #2

Belgian Singing Debut!

My first concert of the season with the Brussels Choral Society was a performance of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra at the Palais des Beaux-Arts aka Bozar (say it out loud and you'll get the clever branding moniker). Anyways, it was a fantastic concert, if I do say so myself. We sang well, the orchestra sounded great, the soloists were superb, and the venue was really wonderful. Plus the concert was nearly sold out, with an audience of over 2000 people!

In the dressing room - a quintessential Simone picture.

Photo - G. Charneux

In the dressing room - some of the lovely Alto section.

Photo - G. Charneux

I was lucky that Troy and our friends Jeanette and Chris were able to make it to the concert. Their seats were pretty high up, so some of the pictures are a bit blurry, but you can still get the idea.

I am on the far right side of this picture, in the 2nd row, third from the end. Use your imagination.

I got to present the soprano soloist with a congratulatory bouquet after the performance. That's me at center stage, to the left of the podium, facing the blond (the soloist) doing the European 'kiss kiss'. You might need to squint.

The Henry Le Boeuf Hall has lots of lovely Art Deco elements.

Me at the stage door after the concert.

Signage in Dutch on the left, French on the right. Trés Belge.

I always love performing, love being on a stage, love singing. But there was something really special about this, my first concert abroad. I had a moment standing backstage, hearing people whispering in a dozen languages, hearing the orchestra play the overture, where it suddenly hit me "You are in Brussels, about to go on stage in front of a paying audience, in a Victor Horta-designed hall, to sing one of the world's great choral works. Holy crap!" Perhaps that's slightly dramatic way of putting it, but then I've always been wont towards drama.

If you would like to see/hear a little bit of the concert, Click Here. The sound quality is not fantastic as it is someone filming from the audience, but you can still get a good idea of how it was. This particular movement that features a baritone solo, which was really powerful.

Quiet November

After all the planes of the previous few months, we were happy to spend November on the ground in Belgium, plus a short weekend in Amsterdam. Our two days in Amsterdam were quiet and relaxing. We visited the amazing van Gogh museum, the sobering Anne Frank House, and strolled about the canals stopping in a café now and then for a drink, a coffee, or a bite to eat. It was a great weekend. Our favorite café in Amsterdam is Café 't Smalle. We discovered it last year when we were touring the city with a longtime friend from Colorado who lived in Amsterdam for several years. It sits directly on a canal in the beautiful Jordaan neighborhood, and is the perfect place to lose a few hours in the quiet of the afternoon. Here are a few pictures of Café 't Smalle.

    

The weather was cool and cloudy, but we still had some good light for pictures on the canals.

   

Later in the month, we went to our first concert since moving to Belgium. DCFC (Death Cab for Cutie) scheduled a show at Les Halles de Schaerbeek in central Brussels. A really cool venue, the building is almost 150 years old, and was formerly a covered market. We arrived about 45 minutes before the doors opened and surprisingly found ourselves nearly first in line. We scored spots in the front row for what turned out to be a great show. Take a look . . .

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Being home in November means we also got to see our first Belgian snowfall.

Ireland in Pictures

Thankfully, we got things straightened out with Picasa and can now once again upload pictures to the web - hooray! Here's the link to our Ireland photos that, unlike our posts, is not separated out by area, but shown all together in one long lovely green album...

Click Here - Ireland Photo Album