My stint in Boston began with a very beautiful event at the Museum of Fine Arts. BLO has organized several events with the MFA, including a series of multimedia concerts called the “Signature Series” that precede each of the operas. As this one anticipated Midsummer, it centered around themes of the night, dreams and the moon. Four singers, myself included, were joined by two actors who read poems between the musical numbers, and projections of works from the MFA collection were shown behind us throughout. It was all conceived by John Conklin, the esteemed designer, along with Nick Russell, BLO’s Director of Artistic Administration. These two picked an intriguing variety of musical selections, including but not limited to Purcell, Rossini, Handel, Schubert, Barber, Porter, Britten and Chausson. Titania’s spectacularly ethereal “Come now a roundel” was the only excerpt from Midsummer, and nearly every piece was sung in English. Combining the music with the images and spoken poems, one felt as if a new idiom emerged, a continuous and meditative experience that was so much greater than the sum of its parts. I came away from it feeling deeply satisfied, a gift that can really nurture the traveling artist.

In addition to its aesthetic achievements, I was glad to see BLO joining forces with other arts organizations in town. These collaborations, in my limited experience, seem to happen more often in smaller markets, where the symphony and opera might be under the same administration, for example. It was clear in this partnership that both the Opera and the Museum benefited from their collaboration and that the public enjoyed seeing a unique and locally-produced performance. Museums often present musicians in recital, but typically the museum just serves as a spectacular venue, like the Temple of Dendur or the Pyramid at the Louvre. It’s rare that the content is so organic and that it relates to the museum itself. Opera companies need to be innovative in asserting their cultural value in their respective communities, freeing themselves from the unfortunate stereotype that opera is static and aging into irrelevance. Events like this present music as part of a living and deeply interconnected artistic continuum, as it should be! I hope to be part of many more.

On a lighter note, as I mentioned earlier, I’m staying with my parents for this engagement. I’m always more inclined to stay in a home rather than a hotel when I travel, mostly since I enjoy cooking so much. It’s been great to be back home and to have the daytime company of my parents’ Airedale terrier, Reilly. I’ll also look forward to spending some time with my grandmother, who lives about 10 miles north of Boston, helping her get her garden ready for spring and maybe sneaking up to the North Shore for a picnic by the ocean. The old maxim of New England weather is at its truest in April, we’ve had snow and 60-degree weather in the five days I’ve been here, so I suppose we’ll play the picnic by ear.

For those of you unfamiliar with Boston, I have two recommendations: first, the MFA’s “Art in Bloom” is an annual event that brings scads of fresh flowers into the galleries, a very beautiful change in the typical museum experience. And those of you familiar with Brookline will chuckle at this next one, but no trip to the area is complete for me without lunch at Anna’s Taqueria. You’d think a local boy would be pushing an august institution like the Union Oyster House or some jewel gastropub in the South End, but no. Anna’s is no fine dining, just great, authentic and freshly-made Mexican fare. Start with a browse through Brookline Booksmith (although I almost never leave empty-handed) and then pop into Anna’s for a bite, you’ll be hooked.

I am working with the Castleton Festival which is in the northern part of Virginia (not far from Vienna, Virginia where I started my summer season) and the beautiful landscape of the countryside makes me want to carry my camera around all the time. I can’t help but take a picture every time I see something beautiful and unlike anything I’ve seen before. Even when I am driving, I stop the car to pull over and take a picture. While it is impossible to do that on the busy highway, it is easy on the peaceful back-roads around Castleton.

When I arrived in Castleton, I heard people talking about a zonkey. I have never seen one before and I didn’t even know what a zonkey was. As soon as I did see him, I smiled – he is funny and certainly unique. I have never seen such striped legs in my life. And now I’ve seen a cross between a zebra and a donkey!

Well, I’ve learned there really isn’t that big a difference between the countryside of the States and Korea. But, never disappointed because I am always glad to find areas where nature has been less disturbed than in big cities. I am a lucky person to have these new experiences around every corner and I am glad to have my camera with me to help save these beautiful pictures and memories!

The next bloated step was to venture over to the Old Idaho Penitentiary. Built by inmates in 1870, this old prison received 13,000 prisoners throughout the years until, after complaints from the inmates about safety hazards in the facilities were ignored, a final riot broke out, ending in a fire which destroyed the oldest buildings, thus making the penitentiary useless for anything but a historic landmark. Talk about a chilling place. There are many haunting features about the old prison, but I must say when I walked into the solitary confinement ward, my heart stopped. How frightening it is to imagine your only source of daylight being a tiny sliver in the bottom of your doorway, just barely large enough to slide a plate of food through. Just when this place can’t get any more curious, all you have to do is go outside the prison walls. There you will find the Idaho Botanical Gardens. That’s right. They are on the same property, which is an interesting juxtaposition, to say the least. The gardens, spread out over the rocky foothills, are quite beautiful, or so I am assuming, since I was there in February.

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