Santa Fe fires!

OK, no worries (so far). Just in case it made the news, the Pacheco Canyon fire that started today is not (relatively) near the Opera. It's to the east, and with the winds out of the west, we're not in any imminent danger. (The Opera house has burned down once or twice in its 50+ years, so it wouldn't be the first time!) It was pretty amazing to come out of work at 5:30 today and see this immense plume of smoke rising over the mountains to the east. We've been dealing with the smoke from the Arizona fire for the last week & a half, the entire state is under major fire warnings, and there's no rain in the foreseeable future. About all we can do is pray that some yahoo doesn't carelessly flick his (or her) cigarette butt off into the brush or something equally stupid!

So, on to more pleasant subjects. I get to see "Company" after all! They've held it over here, and there's a show at 11Am tomorrow (Sunday)! It may be blasphemous, but I remarked today, that I'll gladly worship at the Church of Sondheim on Sunday morning! Then I plan to treat myself to brunch/lunch somewhere (I got paid for Week 3's overtime yesterday!) and THEN go see Sir Derek Jacobi (in person!) perform readings & music from/inspired by "The Tempest". Well, there's a music ensemble who will perform the music, but Sir Derek & Richard Clifford will perform also! (OK, it's getting late! Time for bed?) I also need to shop for groceries for the coming week. The first 2 operas start dress rehearsals on Friday (Faust) and Saturday (Boheme). So lots of long hours are in my immediate future! (But we get off at 6PM on Thursday--the Rodeo's in town! Woo hoo!) The summer events are really starting to gear up. I've been here 5 weeks, and I have 5 more to go--so I guess tomorrow's "Hump" Day, in a manner of speaking!

There was a great article in the local paper yesterday about Faust, which has never before been performed at Santa Fe. It was great, IF you're a carpenter or props artisan! Several photos of them, creating carousel horses and fake pies! No costume pics though! I felt slighted! Paul Horpedahl, the Production Director, said some nice things about the Costume Department in the article. That was lovely. We're ALL busting our butts to make this show spectacular!