February 2002 - Nr. 2
Letter from the Editor
Weren’t we surprised to suddenly be hit by old man winter at the end of January? The record temperatures had almost lulled our good sense into believing that in the beginning of February we might see the crocus and tulips break through the ground. Unfortunately this is not Vancouver, this is Toronto with continental climate only softened by the surrounding Great Lakes. We must put off the choosing of spring flowers a bit longer. Birds and animals still need our help to survive, especially now, where there is not much left to be harvested from the last fall. And finally snow and ice buried what might have been left.
One good came out of the overdue snowfall: I was asked not to take down the decorated trees in front of the house. In full and warm sunshine they started to look out of place, but now, with a hardy blizzard under our belts, we can enjoy this seasonal delight a little bit longer.
With old man winter also comes the opera season and we have our annual visit with Michael Schade to report, as well as two operas to report on. You find all that and my thoughts on the controversy surrounding the opera production of Salome under the title Operatic Tales.
Besides serious cultural endeavours we celebrate the rituals of old with Carnival, or Mardi Gras, as it is called here. I was delighted to attend one of the affairs locally, and Dick reports on all of them. It appears that an old feud between 2 rivalling associations of "Husaren" is really a thing of the past, but another one has been brewing, this time in Hamilton. It should not surprise us that Germans do what they do best: make two out of one! We did that with our homeland and we do it with our groups. But with time we also learned that that is not a good thing and then we unite again. With practise we will become perfect, hopefully before it is too late.
In
other news we reported in the beginning of January in our online version (www.echoworld.com)
about the quite serious car accident of Mark DuBois. On the way to a funeral
service, where he was to perform together with other fine artists, he hit
black ice with his car and found himself in the ditch and unconscious.
Luckily nothing happened at all to his pregnant wife Maria. A multitude of
facial injuries make it impossible for him to perform for quite a while, but
not for a minute did he drop his hat as the artistic director of Opera York.
The Senior’s concert planned by him took place without him, which is not the
same, but everyone enjoyed it. We all know that the show must go on. More
about the concert and other community events separately.
There
are also other community events worth mentioning and I hope you will enjoy
our coverage of it. It was past our deadline when The Forget-Me-Nots
performed an evening of classical music. To do it justice the report will be
in the March Issue.
In the meantime we can enjoy the Winter Olympics and hope that Canada and not Germany walks away with most of the medals. Ah, what the heck, the fun is in the cheering and the watching. We will yell hurrah for whoever is the best!
Until next time
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
Comments to: editor@echoworld.com
