Opening night was a very enjoyable night. Everyone was completely ready for the event. The entire performance ran very smoothly, from my perspective. In live performance there is always something unexpected that comes up, and I guess the dripping of the water from the roof was the only thing that happened. However I did not know about it until the performance was over, so if there had been any water on the stage I'm glad my feet never found it!

Often on opening night there is a tradition for some cast members to give out "opening night cards", which is generally a card but sometimes little gifts are added, such as chocolates, little liquors, that kind of thing. For this production, I decided to give out tiny, individual bottles of rum and whiskey. After all, I do portray the god of wine! I have always been one who likes to give a card to my fellow cast members and usually to everyone I can think of, who helped me in the process, but often I find myself giving the majority of my cards out after opening night. I found this to be the case on this project as well. Every singer is different, but for me, writing out cards to cast members is something that I find to be pretty thought-provoking, as I try to make the cards as personal as I can. Before an opening night, I prefer to stay focused on getting the opening night "history" before my mind turns to such activity, as important as I do consider it.

In the last few minutes before my entrance as Bacchus, as James Geier, our wonderful Make-up and Wigs Designer, was putting my wig back on for my entrance, he noticed that I was looking very intense and began asking me if everything was okay. At the time, I was just fine, but there are times when I do become so focused on my work that I shut out everything else that is going on around me, and to James, it appeared that I was angry about something and he wanted to make sure everything was okay. I reassured him that I was fine, that what he was seeing was my "intense look" which I have to admit can sometimes make me appear to be angry. But because it was literally a couple of minutes before my entrance, I did not want to take the time to explain everything to him. I finally said, "Don't worry, this is just my intense look". I suppose that intensity of feeling was a bit of nerves as I anticipated my entrance, especially on opening night, but as far as nerves go for me, that's about as nervous as I get, as nerves have never been something I have struggled with. The feeling I get is more of an inner excitement than nerves. I never worry about remembering my music or the text. In fact, I can't remember ever really forgetting the words when I am performing, even when performing roles in Russian or Czech. This is because I take a great deal of time to define every word's meaning, put it together to form emotional thoughts, and when the words affect me emotionally as I prepare, then the words become "ingrained", almost as if I have always known them. Whereupon I perform the role, remembering the words is natural, and I attempt to portray the emotion of the character and moment, without feeling those emotions with the same intensity as I did during preparation for rehearsals. Wow, have I digressed!

After the opening, we all attended the Horseshoe Ball which was a wonderfully planned occasion of fun for everyone. I had the opportunity to meet many new friends and acquaintances and even try my luck at winning a diamond ring in a raffle, by donating to the Pittsburgh Opera, which of course, was a very worthy cause indeed! (And fully tax deductible for me!)