I am writing this after tonight's piano dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly. A piano dress is a complete run of an opera in full costume, make-up and lighting, usually it is the last rehearsal where the director can make changes before the orchestra comes in and the conductor is in charge of the remaining stage rehearsals.

Many of you have probably seen our production by Brian Macdonald, but it is new to me and as we perform it at the Four Seasons Centre for the first time I have to say it looks as if the production—with its beautiful sets and costumes by Susan Benson—was designed for our new theatre. It's a perfect match.

Usually, singers don't sing at the piano dress to save their voices for the following days of orchestra rehearsals and most of our cast didn't sing a lot today. The rehearsal was uneventful in the most positive sense of the word. We are ready for the orchestra tomorrow. Before the opening on Sept. 26 there will be a total of six orchestra rehearsals for our two casts.

On a completely different matter I was lucky to get to know Atom Egoyan's The Adjuster from 1991 at the Film Festival yesterday, a hilarious farce on what must have been one of Toronto's early real estate booms.