sneaky opera news

I don't usually make it a point to google-search myself THAT often (except when my website was being built and I wanted to see if it was the first thing that would pop up).
Today I received an email from an opera subscriber who attended the Lakme matinee. He said that he was a regular poster to some online forums that discussed productions and performances, etc--so I naturally assumed it was either Opera-L or Opera News Standing Room, and that there had been some nice discussions and reviews of me not only in this but in two previous roles I've done- one here and one 2 yrs ago.

I'll sometimes check in on these websites (once or twice a year for a specific production if I hear there is chatter about it), but they are not pages I go to very often.

He emailed out of the blue after finding my website and congratulated me on my performance. Which was of course so lovely and nice, and I wrote him back thank you email, since it's always nice to get these kinds of comments from strangers ;)

And then I made my way over to those forums, and google-searched my name inside their archives along the way.

All I have to say is WOAH! That's pretty cool. First of all, I found an online review of our Hoffmann that I had NO idea was even written!!! So I get to add that to my website "press" pages--and it's from Opera News!!!

And second, it was refreshing to read reviews, thoughts, impressions not only on the voice, but on production, costuming, and conducting.

So often I just get a review of myself vocally from my coach, conductor or boss.
And of course I KNOW how I THINK I did, but I'm not sure if it got across to the audience.

Well, on Sunday it did.
Hurrah.