Eddie Wade’s Blog

Here I am again after what seems like an age!!  I finally have a couple of minutes to myself to write another blog…!

What have I been doing recently?  Highlights include the birth of my second child, Archie, who was born on the 7th March and is now 13 weeks old (wonderful!!)  and singing the Baron in La Traviata at Covent Garden with Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Jonas Kaufmann. I lead a strange double life it seems….a real one in Somerset with my wife and sons and a surreal demi-existence which involves me travelling all over the place, working with scores of different people, some of whom I’ll meet again and others who won’t ever see me again or even remember me in three weeks time! I’m sure there are there stranger ways to make a living…

Other recent opera highlights include my debut in the role of Peter (the Father) in Hansel and Gretel for Welsh National Opera which was a great success and which continues for two more shows on the 13th and 20th June.

I have also recently taken up photography again (it used to be a hobby of mine, back in my college days) and have decided to go digital, which is proving to be a steep learning curve…!  I have bought a Canon EOS 40D as my weapon of choice, as I figured that it would be a good starting tool, being not too technically difficult to master and yet having sufficient spec to be able to take really great photos…I’m enjoying using it when I find a little spare time!!

More soon…(I hope!!)

Eddie x

Well, I survived the South of France and the harsh conditions of having to sit on the beach in glorious wather and watch luxury yachts (including Roman Abramovich’s) sail in and out of the bay while learning Macbeth for the Glyndebourne tour.

So now it’s Glyndebourne all the way through to Christmas and having been in the thick of the rehearsal period for many weeks, I am now back at home and waiting for the call…..  I enjoy the intensity of the rehearsal period at Glyndebourne - there’s no better place to consolidate and really get to grips with a role.

I have had the joys of the builders in my home for the last few months (these things do drag on and on…) and now I finally have my new office/studio in which to work in peace, away from the eager cries of my two-year-old who would play all day with his daddy if he could (I would play with him too, but then who’d pay the bills?)

I’m spending time learning several new pieces at the moment - Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the Barbican at the end of December, Hansel and Gretel for WNO early next year and also singing through my Baron Douphol music ready to start at the the Royal Opera in January. Oh, I suppose I should start to look at the Puccini Messa Di Gloria which is coming up soon too….

Well, the countdown to Christmas has started in earnest, although, to be honest, it started in many retail outlets well before the summer was over!!  It seems that each year Christmas decorations, mince pies and all the trimmings land on the shelves of the shops earlier and earlier - at the rate things are going, I envisage that eventually we’ll be able to shop for Christmas items all year round and that’s not all…my local garden centre has just taken stock of its new range of barbeques and garden furniture for the new summer season.  Fancy turkey on the barbie this Christmas?  Happy Easter!

E. x

I have been so busy lately that I’ve neglected my blogs… a combination of lots of time travelling away from home and when at home the need to spend all of my quality time with my wife and my little boy, who is growing up so fast it pains me to spend even a day away from him in case I miss some aspect of his development. He is babbling away now in what is mostly gibberish interspersed with the odd word or two. He can say words like mama and Dad-dy, yes and no and makes all the sound effects for his various toys, including a diverse selection of animal noises, both domestic and wild!

So what have I been up to? Well, mostly I’ve been travelling around the UK and Europe singing Germont Pere in La Traviata for Diva Opera and that has been interspersed with concerts in the UK and time spent learning upcoming rep, including Macbeth in Italian for Glyndebourne in the Autumn and the Father in Hansel and Gretel for WNO which is coming up for me in the Summer next year.

I am writing this blog from my laptop in a hotel lobby in Saint Jean, Cap Ferrat in the south of France… if you do have to be away from home then I could think of places a lot worse!! Got here on Saturday night and performed on Sunday to a sell out audience which included Michael White of Opera Now magazine (I’m hoping for a favourable review!!)

Spent yesterday on the beach and swimming in the sea and then Lobster and a lovely bottle of Sancerre for supper - all in all not a bad way to spend your time…. just two important things were missing to make the day perfect - bet you can guess who they are?

That’s it for today - more soon!

I was singing at the sixtieth birthday party bash of a local hotelier on Saturday.  He runs a chain of Brasseries as well as a stonkingly posh hotel in Somerset.  We were treated to night’s accomodation and a wonderful meal in exchange for a few arias and duets - really singing for my supper, I suppose you could say……My wife and I enjoyed it and it was actually her first night away from our son since he was born 16 months ago so I think it tested her a little, but she really did have a good time.

I’m just about to start a really busy patch; will be singing for Diva Opera next week, rehearsing Traviata for a long run through May, June, July and August and also singing in Cav & Pag in Aberdeen and Tosca is coming up in May and June as well…. better get my skates on and look at some music, eh?! 

So, I’ve been a bit busy lately…. was covering in WNO’s Madama Butterfly and as usual, come first night, thought little about it. Until the phone call came. Now, this was the first time that I’ve been on in a cover role for WNO (and only the third time ever as a cover) but I felt strangely calm and ready for it. The show seemed to fly by and to be quite honest I can’t remember that much about it now, though I did get some very complimentary reviews. I have now been offered a couple of lovely roles for WNO in their coming seasons and so I’m looking forward to those.
My little boy gets more gorgeous by the day as he’s trying desperately to talk and to make himself understood. It must be frustrating being 16months old and no-one understands you… Still, he’s very proud that he can now get in and out of the armchairs and the sofa now and likes to sit with the tv remote control in one hand, pressing random buttoms… a taste of things to come I think?
More later as I’ve got to go learn some more music for upcoming stuff…..