She's Here!!!!

The long six weeks have finally passed...and my beautiful daughter is HERE! My parents and daughter arrived in Graz last night, and I was able to touch, hug and kiss my little girl after six long weeks away from her. It is so good to be with her again. Although she looks a bit taller than last time I saw her, she is still the spunky, funny, sweet girl I know so well. It is a little surreal to have her and my parents here in Austria. Life is a little crazy some times. I showed them my tiny cell - I mean dorm room - and then we had a nice dinner at a local Italian restaurant called Fontana. Today I took them up to the top of the Schlossberg, where we had lunch and wandered around. This evening was my very last operetta concert with orchestra, and I am so incredibly grateful that my parents were able to attend and see me perform!!! It almost didin't happen, as the concert was supposed to take place outside in the open air in front of a church in this beautiful down called Frohnleiten, and the weather forecast was calling for serious rain and thunderstorms. The clouds looked ugly all afternoon as we went through sound check. The word was that if a single drop fell down, the conductor would stop the concert, since any sort of rain would damage the instruments in the orchestra and all of the sound equipment. So...we all waited patiently, and the concert started, and halfway through the very first number some drops started falling. So the orchestra rushed inside and put away their instruments, and I was praying for the rain to stop so that my family could see the concert. Fortunately, the bigwigs in charge decided to move the concert inside the church. After a 30-minute break to allow the stage crew to rearrange everything inside, the show went on! Us singers sat in the back of the church and walked up the aisle when it was our turn to go. My duet went well with my partner, and the ensemble numbers went well too. I had so much fun! And the audience loved us!!! One of my favorite moments was when the 80+ year old woman in the pew next to me started singing along. Fabulous experience. I asked my daughter what part she liked best and she said "the part when you sang, mommy." I have her trained well. :) I'm so glad my parents and daughter were able to see the show. Tonight I realized how wonderful all of this operetta has been for me. I've struggled with being animated on stage in a sincere way prior to Austria, but operetta has required me to be very animated and over-the-top. Singing operetta makes it easy to have fun on stage - and I love it! I wasn't nervous at all tonight, and had a really good time.