Wednesday, May 14, 2008

May update

Well, I've decided that this blog needs to have a decidedly less formal flavor. I think I'll start using it for updates on just how things are going at the opera... starting with today!

We had the marvelous opportunity to visit Hearst Castle with the SLO Visitor and Conference Bureau today. Our trip included a quick tour of the gardens at Cambria Pines Lodge (which has a marvelous potential venue for a small concert!) as well as the Hearst Castle tour. Our tour wasn't a public one - we saw some of the public rooms & gardens, but also got to visit the vaults and see the sheds where the restoration materials are created for outdoor restorations - tiles, mouldings and the like. We also made some good contacts for the future, which was, of course, the whole point of the event.

I also had the interesting (yet all too common, I'm afraid) experience of meeting an opera lover from our area who has season tickets elsewhere and yet had never heard of Pacific Repertory Opera. Yikes! What do we have to do??? I'm open for suggestions here - although one of them is to publish a bookmark that we can distribute to every single hotel and inn on the Central Coast... Now to find a printer who can do it for a price we can afford!

Lastly, I thought I'd mention that we are a very short two weeks from our "changing of the guard", when Jill steps down as General Director, and Robert Ashens joins our team as Artistic Director. I'm so excited about the coming months - a new vision, new challenges. We're beginning to plan the season brochure for our 2008-2009 season, which is always such a fun process. As soon as we're ready to give you the news, you'll see it posted here!

Best wishes for some lovely spring days -

Mikele... Mikele Hushing-Kline, Managing Director, Pacific Repertory Opera

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