Fall Colors in the City

It has been a lovely crisp autumn day in Chicago -- such a pleasure to find this on my return after 12 days away.

We are doing battle at COT with some tricky issues -- all in a week's work but sometimes tiresome.

And we have our colleague, Michael MacLeod, General and Artistic Director of Glimmerglass in town for their annual auditions. Their Young Artists Program is long established as one of the two best such programs in the country. (Now someone is going to dispute that...!) It has a remarkable track record and there are distinguished alums singing in companies all over the world.

Michael is a Scotsman who contributed hugely to Sir John Eliot Gardiner's many successful enterprises, including his successful operatic ventures. He is a great colleague and a fellow board member of Opera America. It is always good to see him. As is right for a Scotsman I will be poaching some salmon for him when he arrives for supper after his long day. We will have a lovely gossipy evening I have no doubt.

But now back to the stove!