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Well, I’m back here in Los Angeles. I left Cate School (Carpinteria) last Sunday, August 17. Steven and I watched Spy Kids 3D. It was ok. Good special effects, although I wished that the 3D glasses were made of softer paper material. It almost cut my ear off!

I actually haven’t unpacked most of my stuff from the 8-week summer school at the Music Academy. I did pick up music from Mona for the October 11 Opera Buffs Showcase, where I will be singing, mainly, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, the Pearlfishers duet and a big scene from Thaïs.

So far, I’m still trying to organize my room. I can’t open any box yet, fearing that I may not be able to organize them quick enough.

Also, I already bought plane tickets to New York. I’ll be leaving September 20th and coming back on the 27th. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sit in (or take) on enough voice lessons to make my trip worthwhile.

Well, check back in a day or two for another journal entry by yours truly… Ro-Ro!

(August 16) Today will be the last day – and night – that all of us students will be hanging out with each other. Tonight’s performance at the Lobero includes Mahler Symphony No. 4, wherein Susanna Phillips (Countess) is the soprano soloist, and Jeffrey Tate is the conductor. The performance was absolutely divine. After the concert, everyone went to Miraflores – Music Academy – and had the last reception of the summer. Everyone was there including Warren Jones and Marilyn Horne. It was a great night. The night hasn’t ended there, though. The party continued at the Rec Center. I left around 4:15am, and from what I’ve heard, people were there until 6am of Sunday morning. Everybody had fun, as well as felt sad because of our parting. Our hanging-outs will be missed. Hurray to all of us.

Today was a laid-back, relaxing day. We had an “Epstein” Masterclass, wherein four (4) singers had to sing for us in an audition like manner, and we were able to critique them about the pieces they sang, their attire and their movements. It was a very knowledge filled experience. Went swimming for half an hour, and after dinner, watched Justin sing some Poulenc songs. For the rest of the night, I just did some packing for Sunday’s departure.

(August 14) Tonight will be Cabaret Night at the Lobero Theater. Had a haircut at Supercuts. Rode with Justin, and unexpected (and unfortunately), we got hit from the back. The car behind the car that hit us was apparently driving fast in a very slow (almost stop) moving traffic. I was a the front seat. To let everyone know and not worry, I am completely fine. I was also wearing a seatbelt. There were 5 of us in car. Gabe (cellist) is currently having some neck pains. Melinda (soprano) originally had some head pains following the accident, but I believe she’s fine now. Justin (baritone) is fine. And me, no worries. I was a shaken a little, but after 20 minutes, I was feeling ok.

Regarding the cabaret, everyone performed really well. Highlights of the program were “The Boy From…”, “Fugue for Tinhorns”, “Where in the World is my Prince?”, to name a few. Reception followed after the performance. I had quite a number of glasses of sparkling wine, and let’s just leave it at that. We had fun tonight!

(August 13) Tech rehearsal for Cabaret in the afternoon and dress rehearsal in the evening. I finished pasting all the photos in their respective signatures/dedications of my journal/yearbook. I still have some people left to sign.

(August 12) I will be singing today at Marilyn Horne’s Masterclasses as a surprise number, singing Ave Maria by Schubert, with text in Latin. For today, I may just learn my music for Thursday’s Cabaret Performance, memorize the lyrics, and try not to converse too much. I still haven’t acquired all of the musician’s signatures for my yearbook, and I’ll try to do that today and tomorrow. Nothing else is planned later tonight. I don’t plan on going to the Tuesdays at Lobero performance tonight. My body is a little tired for some out-of-school activities. I may just watch the 2 videos I rented from Blockbuster, Thirteen Ghosts and Not Another Teen Movie.

(August 11) Today was kind of a semi-tiring day. Early around 10am, we had to do a Cabaret Chorus Rehearsal until 12pm. After lunch, we did more from 1-2:30pm. Before another rehearsal at 4pm, I went swimming at the pool, and went with Elisa (Kaufman, soprano) to Starbucks, and bought myself a “Venti Caramel Frappucino”. We headed back to Cate, had my last Cabaret rehearsal, and hung out at the Rec Center until dinner time. I did a mock audition for Matthew Epstein at 8pm. He liked the repertoire I presented, and he added some more. So far he came up with the following: Podesta’s 1st aria in La finta giardiniera (Mozart), Beppe’s Aria in I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Frantz’s aria from Les contes d’Hoffman (Offenbach), Tanzmeister’s aria from Ariade auf Naxos (Strauss), Thisbe’s aria from A Middsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), Vasek’s stuttering aria from The Bartered Bride (Smetana) and Simpleton’s monologue from Boris Godunov. After the mock audition, I hung out again at the Rec to acquire more dedications/signatures from the other musicians. That’s about it for now.

(August 10) Ate breakfast, went to the pool for some body-swimming warm-up and got ready for today’s opera. I actually didn’t eat lunch, so for the whole performance, I was relying on all adrenalin and concentration. Steven, Darlene, Peter and Peter’s friend, Dale, were there at the performance. In addition, Mr. Parnell and Shawn (from SMC) were also there. All of them loved the performance. It was Peter’s first opera to see, and it was the perfect opera (at the perfect venue) for him to see, as well. It may have been 3 1/2 hours, but because of the great talent on stage, he didn’t notice that 3 1/2 hours have gone by. After the performance, we had a cast part at Joe Ilvento’s house in Montecito. Wow, that was an experience. His whole lawn was half of a park, and his house almost came straight out of a storybook. It was magnificent. The food was great, both main course and dessert. I even rode the swing that was in the playground, and also did some jump-rope. I also had my yearbook/journal, where I had everyone involved in the opera and the Music Academy sign as a remembrance of all our collaboration together. After the party, I hitched a ride with Melinda (Blum, who played Barbarina), and went back to Cate for some after party celebration. I gained more notes and signature for my yearbook.

(August 9) Since it was a break today (no opera), I just went swimming at the pool, picking up some necessities at Rite Aid, and came back to the pool for more water action. Later in the evening, I went to dinner to Megan and Antonio’s compeer, Marion Stewart, and had a fabulous dinner. With us were Joni, Jerome and Tim. We started the evening with champagne, brie and “Wasabe” caviar. I really loved the caviar. We had veal for dinner, and strawberry pie for dessert. I didn’t drink as much red wine, since I wasn’t really a fan of zinfandels. After dinner, we went back to Cate (Rec Center) and hung out for another hour or so.