Main objective - to stalk Gerald Finley. Objective achieved, end of blogpost...!
I happened to be sitting next to a woman from Vienna; as we left the auditorium she asked me rather nervously whether 'people' go to the Stage Door. I said she had asked the right person, the answer was definitely yes! So we went together. There were five of us in total. She and me, someone I didn't know, Smelly-Psycho-Weirdo-Stalker (I warned her to avoid him; she said that someone had told her the same thing in the amphitheatre on Tuesday...!); and B. who is a very nice non-malicious person but exceptionally tedious and long-winded, in that she tells me her life story (post-Eugene Onegin, post-Cyrano de Bergerac and post-Nozze di Figaro). She's not an ideal companion for stage-door-stalking because of her long-windedness and her tendency to monopolise singers with her long-windedness to the point of visible (but not to her) irritation. On the other hand, it does serve to benefit me as being, in comparison, relatively normal.
I have to say, Stage Door Stalking is a helluva lot easier when there are five groupies, not five dozen!
In order, they came out Robert Lloyd, Isabel Bayrakdarian and Soile Isokoski - photos below the jump. B. is a massive fan of Robert and announced her intention to get a photo of him, then flaffed around with her camera. In consequence, he was getting edgier and edgier, as most people do when obliged to pose for a photo that is a long time in coming. So I said something like "Ooh, I think she wants lots of photos of you, so you keep on posing and she'll keep on snapping..." I think he realised what my line of thinking was; in any case, he relaxed and hopefully B. got her photo.
Isabel seemed a bit shy, perhaps her English isn't good, but she paused to sign and pose and did so graciously. Then Soile appeared. She comes over in photos and on the TV as visually quite harsh, and not very feminine, but on the stage she was supremely feminine. Impulsively, I said "It was wonderful! Thank you!" I did so enjoy her role. She smiled, and I thought "What a gentle person." and soft and feminine.
Finally, my favourite baritone. He came out and greeted me as if he recognised/remembered me. I asked him about the furniture abuse, confirming, as I thought, that it was inadvertent - and seeming to savour the phrase. I also asked him whether Dr Atomic was coming over here (thanks to Cunning Little Vixen for the prompt). Amsterdam 2007, he said. I queried whether there was any performance planned for England. He said maybe, in 2008. I asked whether he would be in it. He replied that he wasn't sure, he didn't know if he was available, and he might not want to do the part by then. "Amsterdam 2007," he said. I gave a smile, and he stressed again, "Amsterdam 2007..." I'm sorely tempted (but rather nervous of travelling for opera...).
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