Thankful

Greetings readers! It's been an eventful (and short) week here at Opera Columbus.

In a few minutes I'm getting ready to leave the office and head back to the farm for Thanksgiving with the family (pray that I survive some of my crazy aunts and my grandmother asking me when I'm getting married - I just haven't met the right bull yet, ok).

As I sit back and think about Thanksgiving I have so much for which to be grateful. I have my health and my wonderful family. I have the best co-workers and fantastic blog readers. Plus, I'm always thankful for opera in general and the fabulous city in which I live, work and play. Speaking of great co-workers, we celebrated Eric's birthday today with a lunch at Northstar Cafe in Clintonville. I highly (HIGHLY) recommend the veggie burger. I'm told it tastes just as good as the real thing.

Enjoy the photos. Happy Thanksgiving!

With chef Matt. He was glad to hear we love Northstar!

With the adorable birthday boy, Eric.

With the handsome duo of Kevin and Eric.

With our funny and fearless leader, Press.

Susan and I know how to work the cute.

Hang on Sloopy

I've been excited all week for the big game tomorrow. I will join thousands of other OSU fans and brave the cold to root on my beloved football team. I even traded in my pearls for a beautiful buckeye necklace. Mooooooooo! Go Bucks! Beat Michigan!

We Gather Together

Yours truly (with the best head piece -
sparkles and feathers!) getting ready to dive
into the delicious bisque.

Besides loving Opera Columbus, a good party and a yummy cocktail the Opera Columbus staff is nuts for good food. On a typical day talk of "What are we having for lunch?," begins anywhere between 9:01 and 11 a.m.

On Thursday, Jeryl, OC's activities coordinator, wowed us with her culinary skills and made pumpkin bisque for the staff. To get in the mood for the fall season we decided to declare it a Pilgrim Lunch. And being opera folks we couldn't just leave it at that, we had costumes as well. I, of course, had the best headpiece and we even made one for Clooney, the office dog.

Never a dull day at the Opera Columbus office!

The Pilgrims

The Native Americans

The Pilgrims and Native Americans
gathering together for a photo op

Clooney, thrilled to be a Native American

Two adorable Native Americans begging for more food

We take our roles very seriously at the opera (and of course,
the Pilgrim ladies couldn't have boring hats, so I bedazzled
them and added shiny silver ribbon).

Kevin modeling his Pilgrim hat

It's a Celebration

I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again. Opera people like to party (hence why I love opera people). To celebrate The Pearl Fishers' opening night, Opera Columbus hosted a party at Due Amici. The evening was filled with fabulous friends, talented artists, amazing food and several delicious libations.

Wanna be a part of this fun? Don't miss our Turandot Opening Night After Party on February 20. Pencil it in, more details to come.

With Opera Columbus Board President &
all around great guy, Jay.

With Nick, from Power Shack (our artist fitness sponsor).

With Rebekah, hair stylist and make-up artist extraordinaire.

Vale recognized my talent and insisted I call my agent.
He let me use his phone and gave me some tips.
That Vale is a great guy. The next singing cow role
in opera is totally mine.

With the talented Philip.

With two of my Opera Columbus favorites - Brian and Elise.

Learning a new dance step from our choreographer, Tim.

With new fun and fabulous friend, Julia.

With OC's Director of Production and Pearl Fishers
Stage Manager, Kevin.

With Director of Marketing & PR, Lisa, and our friend, Ben.

Pearl Fishers Photo Recap

As you've read in my blog, we are very lucky to have some great partnerships. One of those partnerships is with photographer Will Shively. Will is an AMAZING photographer and takes stunning photographs of each of our operas. The photos from our most recent production were so incredible, I just had to share them with you!

So in case you missed it (and shame on you if you did) enjoy my photo recap (and, of course, my personal narration of the story).

Click the picture to go to our Flickr album

With a Tweet, Tweet Here

Please forgive me, loyal readers. After a busy week and and even busier weekend I took some vacation days to recover. But, I'm back at it and have a ton of exciting things to share.

First, let's talk about the Tweet-up. For those of you saying, "A Tweet-what?," let me explain. Some of the staff members are active on Twitter (Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Thank you, Wikipedia.). Twitter allows us to share all the fun stuff that goes on behind the scenes with our friends/followers. Twitter people are cool and like to get together face-to-face thus resulting in a Tweet-up. This is a time for Tweeple (Twitter people) to network, socialize and enjoy some food.

To share our love of opera with our Twitter friends we decided to host a Tweet-up before our Pearl Fishers dress rehearsal and invite everyone to stay and watch the rehearsal. We had a great turnout with about 55 people in attendance. Special thanks to Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and The Refectory for providing us with door prizes for the event. We heard a lot of people saying it was their first opera experience and where surprised to find out how much they enjoyed it. Some of our friends even wrote a few blogs about it (to read them click here, here and here). Check out some of the great Twitter feedback here and here.

I like to start with dessert first

Posing with Twitter-er extraordinaire Rocky (@rockson)

Providing our friendly bartender with a little help

Smiling for the Camera with Jason (@blantonious)

Press and I marveling (and sampling) the
amazing food spread

Let's Go on with the Show!

It's Pearl Fishing time in Columbus! Our set has arrived, we've moved to the Ohio Theatre, the CSO is back and it's almost show time. Tonight is an exciting night because not only is it our final dress rehearsal, it's also the night of the Opera Columbus Tweet-up. I can't wait to meet all of our Twitter friends and see what they think about the artform we all love. But, I'll have more on that tomorrow.

So, I was helping Lisa with some media relations items on Monday (that girl would be lost without me) and decided to snap a few behind the scenes shots. And, after watching rehearsal, I promise you an amazing show. Order your tickets today. And just because I'm a generous bovine I'll offer you 20% off single tickets. All you have to do is call 614-469-0939 and mention you'd like a G-Type ticket. Enjoy!

Look at that marquee! I love seeing our name in lights!

Eric and I marvel and the beautiful Ohio Theatre.

Posing with Assistant Stage Manager, Alicia, on our awesome set.

Props table. Lots of fun stuff here!

This is basically command central for the Opera. From this
perch is where Stage Manager Kevin makes all the calls.

With prop man extraordinaire, James. Props are very important.