Yesterday evening I got one of the most special treats since I've come to Toronto. The Luminato Festival hosted an evening with composer Philip Glass at Dr. Stewart's famous Integral House on Roxborough Drive. Hearing Glass perform his own music at the piano was quite special and chatting about his music and future operas at dinner afterwards even more so. I don't usually use this kind of language, but he is one of the coolest guys I've ever met. I'm very happy that Luminato will present his opera Einstein on the Beach in 2012.

In the meantime at the COC we're in full speed for the preparation of our spring season. Andrew Davis and Robert Carsen are both starting rehearsals today for Ariadne auf Naxos and Orfeo, respectively, together with such fabulous artists as Neil Armfield (our director for Ariadne), Adrianne Pieczonka, Richard Margison, Jane Archibald, Alice Coote, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Lawrence Zazzo and last, but certainly not least, Harry Bicket. La Cenerentola is ahead of Ariadne and Orfeo and will start rehearsal on stage at the Four Seasons Centre on Thursday.

Also, if you're interested in this kind of thing, today would have been the great conductor Herbert von Karajan's 103rd birthday. The other day, on my plane from San Francisco to New York, I was listening to his marvelous recording of Tristan und Isolde with Jon Vickers (my favourite tenor, next to Caruso). They also collaborated on recordings of Die Walküre, Otello and Fidelio, all of them more than worth listening to.