adventures in castleton

a week ago, i came back from the castleton festival in virginia, where i spent two months singing, performing, studying and hanging out on the property of dietlinde & lorin maazel. it was a gorgeous place to spend the summer. here are just a few of my photos of cows, zebras, zonkeys, performing, and people of course!

the maazels have wax figures of tchaikovsky and bach, apparently from madame tussaud's in london. silly drew couldn't resist having a chat with tchaik.

my occasional practise room - my front porch! the farm was deserted!

at the beginning of the festival, we were invited to a wine-tasting...  

this gal, caitlin, was one of my lovely roommates. i was in a room of four girls and boy, did i luck out! i miss those gals already :)

adventures in the nearby town of culpepper, va.

the maazels have a collection of animals including a zebra and one zonkey, a cross-breed of a donkey and a zebra! i couldn't resist some photo fun.... 

here she is :)

i love cows :)

i ended up singing at a lot of outreach concerts - my duet with drew, "tonight" from west side story was always a big hit. this one was at montpelier, the historic home of james madison.

pretty idyllic, eh?

it was really nice having drew there :)

and my best bud andy!

the boys of cottage 1 having a night on the town....

 miscellaneous beautiful sunsets...

a lot of our performances were in the gorgeous "theater house", a very intimate theater with a gorgeous view of a pond and elaborately landscaped gardens.

the farm didn't have much internet service, which meant we had tons of time for  games, including jenga! 

bunnies of castleton.

                              

 celebrating fourth of july in the states! and DC, no less! drew and i were invited to sing at a private party in DC and then were put up in a hotel not too far from the mall! not a bad gig.

in costume for verdi's otello.

for some reason i was fascinated with my shoes....

have maypole, will frolic.

all in all, a lovely summer in the south.