War wounds

Okay, what other opera singer out there on the internet will pull down her pants and take pictures of herself just to share the magnificent injuries she incurs while on the job? Who but me will show you the spoils of my clumsiness??? It's probably called over-sharing and something I should discuss with a therapist, but nonetheless, ladies and gentleman, I would like to introduce you to opera bruise number 2,347:



It's like I wrote the last blog post just so I could show you that I wasn't kidding. It was probably the day or so after I wrote that post about the fact that I can't stop myself from needing my own stunt-double, when I had this brilliant idea to jump up on the sofa arm as if I were a kangaroo. The director just suggested I jump up onto the regular part of the couch, but I thought it would be even more dramatic if I jumped up really high onto the arm of the sofa. We were trying the scene for the first time, and the entire rest of the cast was standing just offstage watching, which is why their horrified gasps were audible to me when I leapt up onto the arm of the sofa, miscalculated the distance, slipped a little, and went barreling head first downward with my feet splayed in the air. It all happened really quickly, and I stood up and brushed the incident off in order to continue the rehearsal. But then I started developing this immense shiner on my thigh, and realized that I really need to stop acting like a drunk person at Mardi Gras who misjudges distances and falls down a lot.

It's not just that I fall down a lot on the job. I actually fall down a lot in life as well. I think it's possible that my arms and legs grew a little too long or something, and they don't always know what to do with themselves. It's totally miraculous that I haven't ever broken any bones, but that could be because I avoid sports like skiing and skateboarding for precisely this reason.

In other news, we have already moved onto the stage, and the set looks fantastic. The stairs that lead to the platform in front of the pit concern me a bit considering my gift for falling down, but I'm being careful, I promise. Being on the stage with this much time before the premiere is SUCH a luxury, and I LOVE IT! We also have something like 6 stage orchestra rehearsals and 4 sitzprobes - that kind of rehearsal allowance makes all Americans drool with envy. Plus during all those sitzprobes I will probably be sitting, so I might even be able to avoid injury. Might.