Trevor Bowes, 3rd from the left and EQ's Elizabeth Karani is 2nd from the right

I'm really looking forward to my first EQ summit in a few days in Paris as we prep for the La Monnaie/Klara, Ojai Festival and Aldeburgh performances of The Rake's Progress. I'm also excited that between these EQ engagements, I will sing my first Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Opera de Toulon; a recital of Strauss, Zemlinsky, Pfitzner, Korngold and Schreker with Julius Drake in Madrid; and workshop the new Jennifer Higdon opera at Opera Philadelphia, which we'll be doing in a couple of seasons.

I also wanted to share a beautiful and unexpected experience of transformation: at the end of 2018 I was engaged by Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg for seven weeks. At the start of our show on December 11th, the terrorist attack at the Christmas market occurred, and the opera house was placed on lockdown until 1am, so we had to perform the opera in spite of the general sense of anxiety on and off stage. At our subsequent performance two days later, we again felt the heartache emanating from the audience at the top of the show and several members of our stage crew knew one of the victims and were consequently in mourning. But on both nights, as a team on stage, we all instinctively zoned into our individual and communal sense of social responsibility as artists -- in the deepest possible way -- and delivered performances of maximum honesty and joy (thankfully we were doing an Offenbach comedy!). At the curtain calls, there was a palpable warmth and appreciation that flooded both ways between audience and performers for sharing in this healing experience together. For me, it was powerful reminder of why I love to sing and the beautiful responsibility we have as artists.

My life has changed quite a bit as I had my second child in December. That means a lot more planning, but instead of "taking it easy", I'm working more as I'm not willing to give up the interesting performances offered to me. Luckily, my little baby boy loves (my) singing, so I spend many hours practising while he's in a carry cot on my belly. We're both getting ready for the Mozart Requiem performances in March and April. I don't have much to sing there, but it is such an important and meaningful work that I try to dig deeper into it. And I generally try to understand what a requiem as such means to me personally.
My March is quite full as we'll fly to Munich for the Requiem, after which I'll have one day to rest and I'll be going to Liepaja (Latvia) to sing Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with Risto Joost conducting. After that I have one day to rest again and rehearsals for a concert with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Peter Spissky will begin. The program there is totally different:  Vivaldi and Händel solo cantatas and arias. It is an interesting month, because I'll be jumping from classical era to romantic and then to baroque. April will have new challenges and good old Requiem with Equilibrium - but this time with different soprano, tenor and bass.

After The Rake's Progress in Gothenburg, I jumped into rehearsals in Berlin for my first baroque role as Belinda in Sasha Waltz's Dido & Aeneas for Teatro Real. I also had the great chance to sing some of Berlioz's Nuits d'été for the films of Eric de Kuyper in Amsterdam.
Recently I was invited to become columnist in a Greek music magazine, writing articles about singing and how can we progress with kindness. I also had my song "Arrival" for voice and piano published.
I've started memorising Vivier's Lonely Child for the upcoming performance with Ludwig in Ojai and also, started getting back in shape for the second EQ Rake's Progress. Revisiting the nest of EQ in Paris was an amazing experience. I had the chance to notice how far I had come since the first time in November 2018. This time we worked with Barbara on refining details and finding more colours for the role of Anne Trulove. I also had the chance to dive deeper into Jackie's #friendlyeyes exercises and techniques. Last but not least, meeting with this "wild card" cast of singers was extremely inspiring and I can't wait to bring on stage what we are preparing!

The Rake was great! An intense and inspiring rehearsing process led to the three brilliant performances in December. The production team in Gothenburg was so helpful with everything, the orchestra was the best and we (the EQ-singers) really got together as a team, thanks to our wonderful and inspiring Equilibriumers (Barbara, Linus and Jackie). Being on stage all the time is a challenge for us singers because we can’t prepare in our own way until the very last minute before we go on stage but it also gives you the benefit of knowing the whole show in detail and that this show is totally owned by all of us performers together. A very pleasant feeling and always inspiring to see your colleges doing such a great job, rehearsal after rehearsal, show after show.
So what has happened since then? I rehearsed and did a number of performances of the opera Kopernikus by Claude Vivier (the modernist Canadian composer who Barbara also has a close musical relationship with) at Staatsoper Unter den Linden here in Berlin where I’m a part of the International Opera Studio. I also jumped in and sang the role of Zweiter Geharnischter Mann in the premiere performances of the new staging of Mozarts Die Zauberflöte here at Staatsoper. Apart from that it has been a lot of coachings and personal practicing and now I am so excited to travel to Munich next week and sing the Mozart Requiem with Barbara and a brilliant EQ cast. After that it’s back at the Staatsoper for performances of Die Zauberflöte again (this time in an older staging), Puccini's Tosca and Verdi's Rigoletto.
I also can’t wait to go on the EQ Rake-Tour in May!

photo credit: Marco Feklistoff
from The Rake's Progress premiere with the Gothenburg Symphony, pictured with Aphrodite Patoulidou