The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Amanda Zoe Vest & Chelsea Kolić Joined Michael Urpí & Nickolas Urpí On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Amanda Zoe Vest & Chelsea Kolić, of Ader Emerging Artists Program for Charlottesville Opera, joined Michael Urpí & Nickolas Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Charlottesville Opera and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning everyone and welcome to Today Manana. I'm Michael, happy to be joined by Nick on a very muggy morning I'd say. Very muggy. Yes, I woke up this morning, usually sometimes I like to get up and swim laps and I woke up and it was dark and it was really muggy and I was like, you know what, I swear, I've done that for like the past seven days in a row, I said I'm due for an off day so I took my off day today. It was an excedrin morning.

Yeah, oh for you, yeah, exactly. I had extra long coffee. So, you know. Plus, I know I have to do the show. I need to be like, we need to be ready for our guests because we've got fantastic guests. We're going to be joined soon by Amanda Zellvest and Chelsea Kolich from the Charlottesville Opera. As always, we are happy to be presented by Emergent Financial Services, sponsored by Charlottesville Opera, Matis, Realty, and Faba, the premier Latino networking group here in Virginia. I know you're excited about it. You got to see the dress rehearsal.

I saw the dress rehearsal on Tuesday. The review of the show for Today, Manana is already on the Today, Manana Facebook page, so go read it after you watch the show, of course, but Will you put spoilers? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, until we're done with our interviews, you know. Yeah, but maybe when we're talking, people will be like, oh, this is a great way to kill 10 minutes to introduce the guest. Yeah, not wait 10 minutes. Exactly. Well, you know, I listen to it. Who knows, you know, either way, maybe your reviews not that long. I don't know. It's pretty good. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, no, Nicholas usually has very good in depth reviews. I mean, that's a every once in a while they're very long I tried to cut this one nice and short so that it was more condensed. Yeah. I mean, it's probably better than when Alex writes reviews because- No, mine was longer actually. Alex did a wonderful job. Oh, really?

So check out Alex's review for Carmen because he wrote the review for Carmen. Yes. It was also really good. Yeah. I was lucky enough to see Carmen. It was fantastic. Yeah. Everyone was pretty amazing.

They do such a wonderful- Chelsea, were you? I was blonde. Yes. I thought so. When we introduce our guests, we'll do that. Carmen was fantastic and we all really enjoyed it. The performances were phenomenal. I really liked the set and the costume designs were really interesting. I like the stylistic choice of having Carmen in red, you know, kind of like standing out and then all the other women were like in like an orange

or something like that. So it's kind of, you know, that was. Yeah, choices like that really make a difference. I mean, we were talking about that before the show, just briefly, like a lot of this stage, and Pirates was the same thing when I went to go see it on Tuesday. One of the things I noted in my review was that the set design and especially the choreography, which I'll probably touch on when we go into our interviews,

but it was really well done to both enhance the comedy but also not detract from what was going on on the stage. So that it was all very subtle, so that wherever you were looking, something funny was happening, but just to keep the humor level up without necessarily distracting from what was actually going on. So it was really well done. I was very impressed.

And it's always impressive too because I remember watching Carmen and it was like we said, because sometimes obviously Carmen may be singing, or one of the other characters like Don Julio might have been singing, right? But all the other actors and actresses on stage, right, they're also also kind of performing within this. You can kind of sometimes, yeah, you're supposed to focus on Karma every once in a while. Your eyes may switch with someone else, they're like, oh, they're also kind of like laughing or they're kind of like doing a gossip thing or, you know, they're still like in the performance. So it's not like everyone's just watching

Karma and everyone's still, you know, on stage and, you know, contributing. So that's always like very engaging. Yeah. And they do a really good job with, I think that was Carol Concilvio, I think, was the director of that show. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah. And she did a wonderful job last year with Elixir of Love. So I was glad to see her return because she was phenomenal last year. She did a great job this year. And Kyle did a great job with Pirates.

I thought it was a lot of fun. So anyway, that was... Yeah. So that was our quick little spiel about Carmen. So now I... If you missed it, too late. Yeah, but you have a chance to see Pirates. That's the key.

That's why we're here. And exactly. And now we're very happy to be joined by two very special guests. We're going to have Amanda Zilvest and Chelsea Kolich from the Charlottesville Opera. Thank you both for... Did I say Kolich? Did I say that right? Kolich, yeah.

Kolich. So, you know, what happens is now I'm introducing names for the third time, so now my mind's already... It's starting to register, right? Yeah, exactly. He let down his guard. The coffee's already wearing off is what's happening. Oh, well, you got to get another coffee.

I know, yeah, but probably after the show though. But we're very happy to be joined by Amanda and Chelsea. Thank you so much both for coming on. Thanks for having us. No, it's our pleasure. So before we kind of get into Pirates, why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourselves and kind of how you started getting into opera. Well, I am very lucky because I was

raised in a very musical family. My grandfather, in addition to being a full-time practicer of medicine, played in the Virginia Symphony when I was a young girl. And as a result, I got to go see a lot of those performances. So I have a very sweet moment, actually. When I was about three years old, I was at the symphony. And my grandfather took me to the symphony

and took me backstage. And the timpanist for the Virginia symphony at the time was a man named John Lindbergh. And John Lindbergh stuck me on his timpani stool, and he sang to me, you must have been a beautiful baby, and proposed marriage to me. And at three years old, I said, yes, I will absolutely marry you. This is pertinent to pirates and to our being in Charlottesville now because I told one

of our costume people, our wig people, Jim, this story after he sang me the same song in my first day in the makeup chair for pirates. I said, Jim, you know, this happened to me when I was three years old and John Lindberg sang me this song. And Jim goes, oh, I know John. He's a dear friend. So my journey to opera has been very much about these little connections of this world being so small and coming from a symphonic space and having a great love of music and an early foundation and just loving to sing. So that was me. Chelsea? Okay. So my experience was a little bit different than yours.

You were proposed to at three years old? No, no, unfortunately not. I did not marry John Lindbergh, just for clarity. So I'm originally from just outside of Toronto, Canada, and now I sort of move around wherever the gigs are, but anyways Canada is home. And I come from a family that was really into athletics and academics and thought I was going to go into that sort of health science realm as a kid, but my mother actually studied piano and had sort of picked up on my theatricality, for

lack of a better word. I love to sing along with Disney movies and I would always get the old VHS, the song would end and I would make them stop it and rewind it and then do that four or five times in a row and the dress-up box and standing up and performing. So my mom thought that I had the aptitude but also just more importantly, the desire to share that with people. And she thought it would be a good idea to have me audition for a children's choir. So I sang with the Hamilton Children's Choir from the age of eight. And we went on tour a lot throughout North America and over to Europe.

We would do international choral competitions and that discipline of how do you take care of your voice, what foods do you eat or not eat before you perform, how to take care of your body in a way similar to how I trained as an athlete. There were a lot of parallels there and when it came time to apply for schools, when I was 17, I did the health side thing. I applied to all the programs I expected to, you know, apply for and I applied for a couple voice programs just on a whim and won a spot for McGill University in Montreal. And just looking at the offers, I realized that somewhere along the way in my youth,

it had gone from being an extracurricular activity to just something that I just had to do. And my family was really supportive. They were surprised, but supportive. And I enrolled in voice and that took me kind of down the opera path. And I've lived in Europe throughout my 20s, met my partner over there and moved back to Canada for the last couple of years. But just this is my first contract in the US and I've just had a lovely time, great

experience sharing my love for performing with like-minded individuals. Now, how was your introduction to opera? Because you talk about how you introduced singing through Disney movies, which probably a lot of us are introduced to that musical aspect. But how did you get introduced in some ways to opera? Because that's a stark difference. In opera, in today's age, it feels like Charles's opera is trying to bring it back, but the musicals

kind of took over a little bit of this fear of entertainment and now opera is trying to make its way back. Well, I think that with a lot of us, the 16 EAs that are here with the company this summer, we all come from different backgrounds. Some of them very choral, music heavy. Some of us have degrees or multiple degrees in classical music. A lot of us got our starts in musical theater. So when I was in the children's chorus, it was sort of that

classical style of singing. That was what was taught to me. But in high school, I did a lot of musical theater and just really enjoy like the dancing and the other aspects, the spoken dialogue, which you'll see a lot in Pirates. But I think the classical thing, just it was part of my degree and it fit. I did my first opera as a member of the youth chorus. It was Labo M when I was 15. That was a local company just looking for youth singers for the production.

I was just fascinated by the costumes and the lights and the set and the other actors. And Muzeta had a dog on stage, so of course all the kids freaked out when the Pomeranian came out. So it was very, you know, very fun. But I think especially with modern day performers, we have dabbled in musical theatre or choral music or jazz or pop and I don't think you can be a one trick pony in this industry, certainly not in today's world. I also don't necessarily think that it's easy to create a huge distinction between this is a musical and this is an opera, right?

And I'm not sure that there is such a strong distinction. Yes, there are different stylistic requirements and different elements of storytelling. But at the end of the day, we're all creating this suspension of disbelief that we're going to tell a story and song, right? And there's something very core and human about that. And you mentioned what Charlottesville Opera

is doing in terms of introducing kids to this art form. I've been privileged not only to be an emerging artist with this program, but also to work with the education outreaches. And I think that something that Charlottesville does better than any other company I have been with is that they bring real opera, the real spectacle of full-blown performance.

They make that accessible to the children of this community. And it is extraordinary to be in the Paramount for a Sing Me A Story. The energy of the Paramount filled with elementary school aged children, and then walking out of the stage door behind the theater, as those same kids are loading up their buses, I have never felt more like a rock star in my life than when I had that experience. But there's something so incredibly compelling

about the opportunity to see the real deal of opera, not just a pop-up performance in your school gymnasium, but everything, the technical theater, the incredible singing, the orchestra, and understanding what goes into making these things. Were you there for the Sing Me a Story for Carmen and Pirates? So Sing Me a Story and Kids Fest are two different things. Yes, Kids Fest is wonderful and it's another similar project, same vein.

Bridget does an amazing job with the outreach programming at Charlottesville. But the Sing Me a Story is an outside of the summer season thing that's geared towards school-age children in Charlottesville. I don't know exactly the statistics, but I think somewhere around 900 to 1,000 kids were reached in Charlottesville this year by the opera and Sing Me a Story. I did not do that this season, but I was in the previous season, the first season of Paramount. Yeah, very cool. And you mentioned the ADER Emerging Artist Program.

So why don't you tell a little bit about viewers kind of what that is and how you kind of got involved. Yeah, absolutely. Well, emerging artists need support and opportunity to grow their craft and to get to apprentice and to learn from people that are more established, right? And all opera companies, pretty much without fail, have some sort of program in this vein.

Charlottesville is so privileged to be supported by Tessa Ader, by a generous gift that supports this program. And every season it means that Charlottesville Opera is able to bring 16 young and emerging, many of us really already emerged having performed major roles with pretty major companies, but speaks to the level and caliber

of the singers in this program. To the company for the duration of the season, where we are participating in the main stage productions, but also in a lot of other programming, song recitals, master classes, also supported by other generous gifts from the community. It's a very community grown experience here in Charlottesville. These opportunities for artists exist because of the investment of Charlottesville, people

that live in Charlottesville in having a rich and robust program that attracts singers from all over the United States and Canada. And South Korea as well. And South Korea. I can't forget Jen Park. No, we can forget Jen Park. So I don't know if you have anything to add about that, Chelsea. Yeah, I know you've done the AIDER program multiple summers.

For me, this was my first time. And as a Canadian coming in and not really spending any time in this part of the US before, I've just been blown away by how a smallish community, not a big metropolitan area, is just so invested in their arts here. The many people involved with the ballet, the symphony, Charlottesville Opera and the local theater companies and it's just been, there's a personal connection

that the company has with the community. And I was lucky enough to sing at Monticello last week for the naturalization Independence Day celebration. And thank you. Yeah, it was super fun. But just- Did you get to dress up in like colonial garb? No, no, I wore red and white with a blue headband.

Okay. But just to be there and get to connect with members of the community on stage through my voice. But then being a part of the celebration afterwards, chatting with people, hearing about their experiences with the opera and their excitement for, I've already got my tickets to Pirates and I'm, you know, I'm actually coming twice. I'm bringing one set of grandkids one day and another set of grandkids the next day. And I'm like, I love that. Like that is, I think as artists, we all want to connect.

And the willingness and openness of the Charlottesville community to embrace us while we're here for the summer. It's just, it's incredible. I don't know if I've ever experienced something quite like this here. Yeah, no, Charlottesville's great about its... Its excitement for big events like this, you know, and the very cultured community despite not being one of the... It's not even, I don't't think nearly the largest city in Virginia, not by a long shot. Yeah.

It's not even as big as Harrisonburg. And yet we have a really robust classical music community, which is so amazing. A patron, an opera patron at a dinner last night described Charlottesville as a city that punches above its weight. I really liked that. That's a nice description. Shout out to Gail Kitsch for that one. There you go.

And that's a really good description because honestly, it's true. It's one of the things that even when we were deciding to move here that we liked was they've got a symphony, they've got an opera, they've got a sport. They have all these amenities, like one of the highest restaurants per capita in the United States. I think it's amazing what Charlestown is able to provide for such a... Distilleries, craft breweries. I mean, they got it all. Wineries, yeah, everything, yeah.

Yeah, mountain views. I mean, the mountains... But then they're missing as a little beach, but, you know, what are you going to do? Yeah, you have the river. You have the river. The river is not the same as the beach. It's not the same for Sicilians. There's no sand.

I don't like sand. Wow. So, a river, you go to a nice beach, it's not the same as everything. A rocky beach. I can go with a rocky beach. A rocky beach. And you can crash into the wave. I would rather have all the sand. So good. But there's a lot of sand. Pirates. I mean, you got pirates.

There's not actual sand. No, I think you're missing the show is actual sand. You mean the boats don't sail and there's no water? I'm so glad you found it so convin- you haven't seen it yet. I'm so glad you found it so convincing. It was very good. That you thought there was sand on the set. I didn't say that. I thought there was sand. He thought there was sand on the set.

I don't know what he's talking about. I haven't seen it yet. I was smart. My imagination, that's what I was trying to say. I was trying to lead into you describing why people should go, what makes pirates special? I thought you would take the sand. That's accidentally a good segue. It's not the sand that makes it special, I have to say. I would say that I've been on a lot of sets, but the tech crew here has really outdone themselves.

This is one of the most spectacular sets that I have been on to date. It really, the colors, the detail to it, and even just throughout tech week, we come in each day to do different runs and they've added more layers. They've added more frills to our costumes. There's a giant mural on the back

that wasn't there 12 hours before. Shout out to our one set painter who probably pulled it all night to get it done. It's so much easier as an actor to put yourself in the shoes of the character when all of these visuals, the lights, the set, the sound, all of that is just enhancing your experience. And it's, yeah, I mean, we'll get into the singing and the dancing and the actual show itself, but even before that has started, you're transported into another world. And I feel like audiences old and young

are really gonna love it. Do not miss, this is the best set I've seen. Yeah, it's really fabulous. As an actor, I read, do not miss the show. If you love a beautiful set and beautiful technical theater, it's really, really beautiful. As soon as you start, like I was sitting down

and the lights have that kind of watery look to them. Just before the show opened, you're like, it feels very, I would say beachy, nautical. I'm trying to come up with a nicer word rather than beachy. But like in the very water, there's an effect of water, right before you started, like the color is already setting the tone that you're not, you're in the paramount, but you're not in the paramount anymore.

You're gonna be sailing soon. You're gonna be, and everybody, I told not in the Paramount anymore. You're going to be sailing soon. You're going to be... And everybody... I told Caroline this when I saw her. Everybody loves pirates. Oh, yeah. Everybody loves pirates. What was it like dressing up as pirates?

Because that's got to be kind of fun. I mean, you're kind of reliving a little bit of childhood. This has got to be one of the top 10 Halloween costumes, right? Oh, yeah. Well, neither... I mean, I suppose I sort of get to dress as a pirate in the second act. Yeah, you definitely second act you were definitely a pirate. Yeah. That was my assumption when you came out the second time,

dressed as a pirate. Ruth's track is so funny. She's trying so hard to. So I have had the privilege of performing the role of the pirate maid of all work, Ruth, and the Pirates of Penzance. And her track and story is very much like she starts off, I am a prim and proper Victorian who's

been on this ship full of dirty old pirates for a while and I'm trying to make that work, but also I'm in love with the child that I nursed from childhood who's now a grown up and I won't give away too much of the plot, but that's important. But in the second act I show back up and I've shed the Victorian space and all of a sudden I've been pirate tarted up, I suppose. You've been pirated? Pirated. Yeah, I suppose.

Yeah. I mean, and to Chelsea's point about details, I mean, every time in the theater there was some change to my costume, some tweak, making it better through last night when we had our final orchestra tech, or orchestra rehearsal before we opened tomorrow. Did the tattoo show up yesterday? Yeah, the tattoo showed up yesterday. That was new. Not just for you. Obviously, I do not see the tattoos.

A lot of, yeah, the hair and makeup department, they got really creative with adding tattoos to a number of the pirates and it's just very funny. They really went all out and it just makes that show, the show that much better, really elevates it. Me too. Yeah, and even for me, I'm not playing one of the pirates for this. I'm playing one of General Stanley's 12 or 13 daughters. And without giving away too much, we all have the same style of costume. It is very larger than life.

We have compared it to, you know, dancing around in tents, which is always an experience. Classy tents. Yeah, classy tents. Elegant. Elegant. Prim and proper. Beautiful tents you wouldn't sleep under. Yeah.

But all of our costumes are different in color. We have different accessories. We each have our own prop, which when we were given these props in one of the earlier rehearsals, it kind of inspired us to say, you know, is my daughter more prim and proper than the other daughters? Or am I a younger, more adventurous daughter? Am I a tomboy amongst the daughters? And it really allowed us all to sort of create, even though we are an ensemble, we still have our moments where we get to shine as individuals, which was really cool. And so thank you, costume team for, for, you know, bringing that out. They did a fabulous job. Anthony and Ava. Yeah.

Those little moments, like it was stuff like that, especially one of the things I think that jumped out to me the first time I saw it was the, well the only time I saw it so far, but I will see it again. I will see it again. Friday with my wife because it sounds like you have to go. You have to go. I have to go so I told my parents you're not watching it because you're gonna watch the three month old. Social event of the season. Yeah, but anyway, so one of the things I loved is the moment when the pirate king comes out with a piece of cake. Oh! And it was just like, I was like that was just such a clever piece of directing because it's just like he comes out

he makes his way around the stage that everyone can see him and then he just quietly disappears. It was like it's a touch of comedy during a musical moment that was really great. It's like things like that, that just make the show feel more real and more believable, but also just humorous. I think our director, Kyle has had so much experience with this type of stuff. He's done pirates a few times. That his ability to bring the vision to life and to think about it as not just

what character is singing or speaking in a given moment, but what is everyone else on stage doing? And how do we just create these little journeys for each character, the arcs? And even I've told people, if you can see it more than once, you most definitely should, and you should make sure you're sitting in different areas maybe you could have an in completely different experience sitting on the left side of the house for performance a and the right side of house for performance B and be like oh yeah I didn't even realize that those five characters were doing that because I was watching the other side of the stage in the previous show and it really for the cast it's been wonderful to just it never feels stale we as

actors are constantly adding things to it Kyle is constantly adding things to it and it just makes it refreshingly funny even for people who have been rehearsing it now for three weeks and so if we can feel like that as the people who have seen it a lot, then audiences are just gonna lose their minds. It is so funny. I can't say that enough. It really is a hilarious show. One of the things that I thought was also funny, that was also great touch, and this is gonna lead into my question,

was that there were times when the music would do something like a quick jab, and then especially your ensemble would just move and do something. Oh yeah, the head turns. Yeah, and it was perfectly timed, it was wonderful, and it was humorous. But my question is, does timing it with the music make it easier to remember and do all the stage?

Okay, interesting. Absolutely, yeah. Because visually it looks harder, it's like, oh man, they have to move right when the musical cue is. But. No, I think it just, it really allows us to that sort of coordination, you know, the tapping of your head while rubbing your stomach thing.

That is what we do as actors, especially in a show like this. And I think that, yeah, assigning these movements to certain musical cues, it allowed us to A, learn the music a lot quicker, but it really turns it into a full body experience. It really is not just about singing, like the here to here sort of muscles, it really is head to toe and everything in between. It's definitely the most choreography I have done in a show. And I do not do as much as Chelsea does. But I mean, the women's chorus,

the major general's daughters are just, oh my goodness, there's so much dancing. It's so fun though. It's extraordinary. You moved a lot on stage though. I'm so glad you think so. Oh, you have a sword fighting? It's done, not to that's hilarious.

I don't have any sword. Well, I do draw my knife. I do draw my knife. It's a fun little moment. Boy, I am so grateful to have a director like Kyle who has such an incredible background in choreography. He was a dancer. That was how he found his way to directing.

And the precision of thought and construction that that choreography background brings to that space is amazing. I mean, I remember early on in the rehearsal process, he said something about how he loves to watch the, sorry, Kyle, if you're watching, hope this is something you want people to know, that he likes to watch the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders show.

And there is something so, that's so similar, this concept of core group movement, of it being snappy and precise and expressive and showy. It's the core of showmanship. So now the expectation is that you're going to be dancing like Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. It's the Pirates of Penzance, not the Wild Wild West guys. So the pirate version of the movie. I was gonna say, not quite, but now that you say that, I can see the influence, especially again with the ensemble group, when they're moving in all in step, and Major Stanley doing his bit, he was funny.

Oh my gosh. Kurt has done this role like 14, 15 times. And then another 13 or 14 times as the pirate king. Yeah, no, he knows the show so well. And he's directed it. Yeah. It's just amazing to get to watch these caliber of actors in these principal roles who know these roles so well, who are constantly reinventing it between runs of the show, and it's just, it's so funny. That's been something that's been a trend this season.

Yeah. Because this season we've had principals who have, professional principals, who have lived in the roles that they're playing. Audrey Babcock as Carmen, of course, who's done like over 200 performances of Carmen. Yeah, 250 shows or something. And then Kurt Olds, who has done

what we've just spoken about here in Pirates. It's fascinating to be in a rehearsal room with people who have done these roles so many times, because at our stage of our career, we're generally doing a role, I mean, maybe if we're lucky, it's the second, third time. Well, I think for both of us being EAs who were given these roles in me and Carmen

and you in Pirates, this was my first Michaela. And it's a role that I've wanted to do for a long time. My voice teacher, it was one of her quote unquote signature roles. And getting to play opposite of Audrey who has done as many shows of Carmen. I think it gives both of us a lot of hope that we throughout our careers will get to really perfect these roles and live them to the point where when we hit that stage in our careers, we have done them 200 plus times

or 14 different productions, and yet we never get tired of them because we connect with these characters. It's really a privilege getting to do what we do as actors and get to try on different costumes and wigs and putting on a new skin of a character that can be so different from who we are in the real world, but also finding to figuring out how to draw the similarities to and relate to our characters is super important.

I really agree with that in the global sense of how being around people who are so seasoned helps emerging artists. Oh Oh yeah, definitely. In like, in a long-term way. And that's critical for what Charlottesville Opera and the AIDR Emerging Artist Program is providing for people at our career stage. In a more immediate sense, just in the rehearsal room, it is so exciting to watch a seasoned performer

get an instruction from a director that says, well, how would you do this? Or what do you have in your toolkit of how to solve this problem? And to see Richard, who is playing the toreador, say, I've got this way of doing this lift fall. I've got this way of doing this lift fall. And here's how we end up solving that technical problem,

because it's coming out of his toolkit. Or Kurt Ohls, his modern major general is so precise and he's got all these little bits and he's got six or seven in his back pocket and Kyle just gets to choose one of these fantastic things. I want to be that performer that's done the role so many times that I've got 15 things in my box of tricks and a director gets to say, I like that one. All of them feel natural and authentic. It's not like, oh yeah, I've got one or two that really suit, but then to say, I like that one. And all of them feel natural and authentic. It's not like, oh, yeah, I've got one or two

that really suit, but then the others, I just sort of make it work. It's like, no, they are so committed to all these different ways. And it's just a testament to the work they've done and the success they've had in their careers thus far. It's pretty fabulous. I was gonna say, those guys, yeah,

a lot of the leads, every moment that they were on the stage, they were doing something that made you really convinced. Oh yeah. Of the, like, again, that's part of what you wanted, right, for you to lose the sense that they're actors, and like, be able to actually believe that that's it. Like, for a second I forgot that Kurt was not as old

as Major Stanley looks. I was like. The wonders of hair and makeup. Yeah. And a wig. Yeah, I totally lost sense. I was like, this guy must be, in your head I'm like, is he British or something?

I can't remember. I couldn't figure it out. Yeah. I'm like, whatever, it doesn't matter because he did such a great job. I mean, were you surprised to meet me today that I don't look like 50? No.

You did look much younger. Yeah, I 50? No. You did look much younger than when you were playing. But I will say though, like you still, again, that part where you played, you did phenomenally as Ruth. It's a beautiful job that you did. And it's hilarious and quirky, and meeting you now, you do have a different personality from Ruth. But again, that just is a testament to just not only the fact that you have to be great singers, which you clearly are, but also the fact that like your acting has to be convincing because you're now you're playing a role as well.

And like all these little things go into that. Yeah. I mean, we have the best job we get to show up and play pretend. You know, it's fun. It's, it's awesome. Yeah. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that when we get to do this job, it really is the best thing in the world. And we are so incredibly grateful to Charlottesville Opera and the team for having us here and allowing us to, you know, play pretend for other people.

You still get butterfly stuff? Oh yeah. I think it's about, someone once told me that if you don't feel any nerves before you do something like this, it means you're just not invested. And it's all about channeling those butterflies, making them fly in formation, as it were. That's well said. That has just been something that I've kept with me since my days of Youth Choir. And yeah, just using my nerves to channel it. And it really helped with playing Michaela because she is a scared,

you know, she's a scared 17 year old who's in love and she just wants to bring this guy back and you know redeem him, bring him back to the path of the good and you know that doesn't happen obviously but she puts herself in this incredibly scary vulnerable position and she finds courage and I think in our world it's so important to have faith in something whether it's you know a deity or a person or faith in yourself. And I think Michaela really finds that on the journey. And as actors on this crazy path, it is something that we have to think about is, yeah, why always taking it back to the why do we do this?

And it's because some little kid wanted to sing and be on stage. And we all still have that in us. It's funny. Micaela is so good and Ruth is so not. Can I teach you guys something? Absolutely. Would you guys enjoy that? So my way of causing my butterflies to fly in formation, as it were,

my thing I do before I go on stage every time. You guys want to do it with me? Okay. Okay. So cover your left eye. It has to be your left eye. Totally cover your left eye. Without lifting your head look up at the ceiling and then with your right eye and then just take a couple of breaths and sink into the feeling of whatever is there as you're looking up. And then once you get settled, you just sit down and you go on stage. And this is what I do. Always, every time.

I love that. And it's this little thing I can do no matter what I'm wearing, no matter what my costuming is. Sometimes if I'm in a situation where I'm on stage, I can even just shut my left eye and look up and it's pretty subtle. It comes from some neurology things. It's something my voice teacher gave me and it's, that's my ritual.

I think a lot of people have rituals of that kind. I think about basketball players with their specific number of bounces before their free throws. Right? Tennis players used to put the water bottle a certain way if it got messed up during the match they go and have to fix it. You have your process, right? And it's part of your routine, your pre-shot routine of how you settle yourself and get your butterflies to fly in formation. Even with this show, before we open the house to the audience, we have a Settle yourself and get your butterflies to fly in formation. Right? So interesting. Even with this show, before we open the house to the audience,

we have a dance call. And it's just about the particularly difficult parts of the show, prop things. Or any time there's any form of stage combat, they always have to run it beforehand to make sure everyone is on the same page. We have the beats. There's a few truss falls in this show, so the team has to run that.

It's just so important to just get your body the same way that elite athletes do with their warm up. It is something that we do. Some of it is our own individual moments of rituals in between, and sometimes it's a group effort. And I think my favorite part of being an opera singer is just the collaboration between everyone, and every production is going to be a different experience,

a different family dynamic, because you add or you take away one person and the whole dynamic shifts. So every show I've done has been just radically different in that way. And it's great. I have family, performance family all over the world now. And I'm still very early in my career,

which is really cool that we have that community. Can I ask you a question? I guess. Usually we're asking questions but I don't know. What do you think, you haven't seen it yet, what do you think is going to happen? Yeah. What do I think is going to happen? What's going to happen in the Pirates of Penzance? What are you expecting? I'm not really sure. Be honest, I've never heard any songs from it nor have I ever seen it. I'm you actually know one of the songs because I was there. I was like, ah, yeah the festival. Yeah

Not that one we've heard another one spoiling all the song Like at the beginning of the show they have this thing called an overture Yeah, we're slightly we know some things yeah, not as much as everyone else but we know what an overture is? Yeah, yeah, no, we know what an overture is. We've got Unifoc or whatever it is, right? We're slightly high. We know some things, yeah. Not as much as everyone else, but we know. No, you know many things. I would never impugn your intelligence intentionally. Only unintentionally. I would say I'll do that myself.

There's an overture at the beginning of the show, and in the overture they play a snippet of every song. It's like a Gilbert and Sullivan mixtape at the beginning of the show, a guide to what you're going to hear for the whole night. So you kind of have a sense of what's going to happen. You know, you're going to hear a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit play a snippet of every song. It's like a Gilbert and Sullivan mixtape at the beginning of the show. A guide to what you're gonna hear for the whole night. So you kinda know the whole plot of the show

at the very beginning. Without realizing it. Without realizing it. Musically, I know the whole plot. Musically. Not the plot, plot. I feel like there's a really cool party game in there somewhere.

Like listen to the Overture of an opera and like make up what the story is going to be. Yeah, that would be interesting. Maybe that's how you introduce Pasquale to opera. We'll go back to Wagner. Try Wagner again. Listen to the overture.

Well, that's what my dad likes the best anyway. One of his funny stories, I know this isn't a side, but his funny story was that he used to try to take my mother on dates, he took her to Tannhauser because he liked the overture. But they stayed for the rest of the performance and she was like, not, she was not her favorite outing, let's say that way. But she said the overture was nice. I feel like Wagner can do that. But this is not Wagner, we have the Pirates of Hanzan. That's like about as far from Wagner. do that. This is not Wagner. We have the Pirates of Penzance. That's about as far from Wagner.

It is a fun thing. This will be fun, happy. Yep. Pirates, it leans much more towards the musical side in terms of the melodies, the dancing, the spoken dialogue. It's not something that I know sometimes sometimes audiences, especially those think like, oh, Charlottesville Opera, like it's gonna be opera and I can't understand opera, that's not my world.

With this, it is a perfect stepping stone for youth that come out, for people who are getting into theater and musical theater of any genre for the first time. It's definitely a show for that. And you will be walking out and you've got these little earworms of, oh yeah, there's this song and I'm, you know, all of a sudden you're going do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, and you're doing that as you're driving the next morning. You're like, how do I have this melody in my head? Oh yeah,

the show. And there's just moment after moment of that in this production. And our shout out to our orchestra and Brian, who is a fabulous conductor, he conducted Carmen as well. And they're just, they're slaying it. It sounds fabulous. And also just adding that all the colors of an orchestra as a performer, it's really fun to hear that and it brings more to our character. It elevates everything.

It's so much easier to sing with orchestra than it is with piano, especially operas. I mean, the joy of getting to get into our zits probe where we sing with the orchestra for the first time. It's like all of a sudden your voice as a singer is just like on this cloud cushion of sound. And John Mayhood who played for us in the rehearsal room is a fabulous pianist, like amazing that he's here in Charlottesville and he's wonderful but there's this incredible thing about opera performed with orchestra.

Right? I mean you know this, if you're an overture lover or a Wagner lover, I mean like can you imagine Wagner played on a piano? I have tried and I just put it aside. I audition with a couple of Wagner and like Wagner Light Humper doing things. And it's just it's so difficult to get all of that onto a piano.

Yeah. It's not the same. Yeah. And that's the other thing too is I don't think people realize like you may have seen a lot of these musicals as movies or as like even just recorded from like BBC whatever. When you go live and you're at a live performance, it's like even just recorded from like you know BBC or whatever. It's not that when you go live and you're at a live performance it's completely different. The immersion is so much more palpable. You're just absolutely lost to

everything. It really just touches something inside I think the human soul and condition of we all grew up with these stories, these fairy tales and we some of us grew up with our parents singing lullabies to us. Some of our first memories or human experiences had to do with music. And I think that in our society, especially now with technology, we are all about instant gratification, and our attention spans have sort of... Hey, speak for yourself. I have a very long attention span. Well, you need it for opera. Yeah, this experience, this experience of being in a theater and watching live performance

and experiencing live performance, it's just so important. It really takes you back to your inner child and how you experience the world before everything became on a small screen. This is a very family-friendly. Oh for sure. You cannot get more family friendly than this. I was gonna say it is literally the epitome of like what you would want to bring your kids to. It's like pirates and fun and there's jokes that go over the kids heads but then there's- But the adults will love it. It's a Disney movie. It is a live action Disney movie written by some Victorian dudes.

Who could write good music? Who could write? Like, it's super catchy. It is, it's, on a personal note, I have a, I'm blessed to have a young nephew, Finn, adorable child. His very first opera experience, my sister and her family live in London, Finn's first experience was Pirates of Penzance at the Royal Opera House, similar to Charlottesville Opera, doing the full experience kid-oriented production and he just was obsessed wearing the pirate hats for days after when he found out that I was singing Ruth in in this opera he went oh my gosh aunt Amanda you're going to be the pirate mate. Of course he has a British accent because he lives in London. Are you gonna sing in a British accent or talk in a British accent?

I do. We all do. Another reason to come see the show. How was the practice on it? Did you have to binge watch PBS or something? I think the instruction was to binge watch Downton Abbey to get it in your brain. I had the interesting experience of trying two different accents for this character in the rehearsal process. So I actually started out in a cockney. Can you demonstrate for us?

Yes. No, no, no. I have to open the show on Friday. I have to do it in RP. Hold on. Okay. No. Okay.

Ask Chelsea a question and come back to me. Okay. We need to let her sit in the performance. What kind of accent do you do? I mean, I'm one of the daughters of the modern major general. It's very prim and proper and, you know, British. Yeah, it's funny. It's basically taking all the ah vowels and just making them that much more like ohs,

like over darkening everything. We have a couple ahs where we might flip them, like very, instead of saying very. And my personal favourite is the endings of words, just sort of dropping them, so instead of opportunity, it's like opportunity. And Brian had told us, he's like, just let your mouths hang. Every time it's like, we miss the opportunity of escaping with impunity. And so it's 40 people just being like... Which is very funny. It's harder to sing then if you're trying to sing in a different accent?

It is certainly like muscle memory and having to rewrite our habits that normally would not fly. And, you know, we rehearse. We are professionals. We have put a lot of time and effort and money into learning how to do what we do. So it's not something that we wing. Live theater, there's always the idea of improv and reacting to certain things that could happen

in a live theatre situation, but for the most part, we train and we have an idea and a track and we try to stick to that. I was surprised they didn't ask you to watch My Fair Lady. We did that. We did that as well. So actually for the cockney, for me, I mean, Eliza Doolittle is absolutely a great model. So my first line in the cockney, for me, I mean, Eliza Doolittle is absolutely a great model, right? So my first line in the show is, nay Frederick, long has my mind been gnawed by the cankering

tooth of mystery, better have it out at once, right? So if I were to do it in a cockney, it would be something like, nay Frederick, long has my mind been gnawed by the cankering tooth of mystery, better have it out at once. But if I do it in an RP, which is more what I'm getting in the show now, I get, nay, Frederick, long has my mind been gnawed by the cankering tooth of mystery. Better have it out at once. Bravo. Yeah, beautiful. Thank you.

We got a sneaky performance today. Yeah, I love it. And we got to see both sides. Yeah. Who made the final decision on that? That's the director's call. And some collaboration, right, of course. RP received pronunciation, which is

what you think of as a traditional Downton Abbey British accent, is more traditional for Ruth. But the flavor of adding Cockney is often something that we used in theater to give somebody a little bit gruffer, rougher, working class vibe. Think Peaky Blinders or Mrs. Lovett in, uh, and actually like Ruth, as I, we've been thinking about it,

Ruth has a lot of Mrs. Lovett vibes from Sweeney Todd. Um, this Ruth in this production. So I see that the Cockney could have been really cool, but the RP, I think. There's something, there's something stuffy about an RP. You know, it's really nice. You don't have to tell me about the stuffiness. I was going to say stuffiness.

But I think it's interesting because it creates a very bizarre opening contrast when you have Frederick and Ruth juxtapose against the pirates, and it opens right away with all of them like, we're all friends, and you've got Ruth and Frederick have these like very prim and proper accents and you're just how did that happen? Two of these things are not like the others. Right and it creates that impression right off the bat so like I can see where you're coming because I think that it would that would have been hilarious if Ruth was Cockney

yeah but I can see like it makes it kind of bizarre when you're hearing the story right off and you're like oh that makes perfect sense for why these two are like, do-de-de-de-do, and the pirates are all like, ah. Well, you and Chelsea were talking about how you hope to have like these kinds of times when you could be the look back and say, oh, I've done this performance 50, 100 times. Maybe at some point you'll be able to done 100 times, like 50 times I did it with 50 times with the goth. Hey, I mean, maybe so.

And it's up to the director's choice, you know, it's like, hey. You know, the great thing I think also about like playing a role where I'm, barfing 50 times and then with the coffee. And it's up to the director's choice. The great thing, I think, also about playing a role where I am in pretty significant age makeup because I'm 34 and I'm playing 47 in the Victorian area, which is essentially one foot in the grave at that point. So it's very rare that a person as young as I am is singing Ruth. So I mean, this is a role I could do truly to the end of my career, given the right circumstances. That's cool.

There's a tremendous energy that you bring to Ruth. So I wouldn't have thought that they would have given it always to somebody on the other side. But it makes sense because of the age, but now that I've seen you do it, it's hard to imagine somebody older doing it who couldn't bring the physicality to it. I really appreciate that you say that, because I think the humor of that character

is that she is an older woman who is very much trying to be younger. That's her whole story. She doesn't want to believe that she's old yet. But our costumer and makeup artist were all saying, our makeup team was saying that he has never had a Ruth younger than 50. Oh, interesting. So I'm quite young. Wow. Wow.

Ooh. Ooh. You got another 16 years going. At least. I mean, hopefully more. I'd like to, I hope I don't kick it at 50. Well, you said it's one foot in the grave. Well, that was in that time.

Now it's golden years. Oh, not now. I mean, for a bit. It's like, my father must be dead. No, but the life expectancy when this premiered was very much that, right? So I mean, Ruth talking about being 37 or 47 or whatever she believes herself to be,

I mean, we're talking about a much, much older person in modern times, which is always an interesting thing to solve in theater. When is this show, right. Right. So when do you think this our show is? Oh I well the fact that he mentioned 1940. Yeah. For mm-hmm. I don't want to give away the plot but like the fact that he mentioned that made me think oh it's got to be early 1800s. Mm-hmm. At the very you know. Yeah. Because it has I mean just I didn't try to do the math in my head. I'm like,

well, especially since I was sitting there watching it, I wasn't like, well, how much, so then when is this taking place? I was just like, got it, long time, move on. But yeah, that's what I, that's not to mention pirates. So I'd assume that it had been something like the early 1800s. There was really no reason for me to believe otherwise because of the costumes.

Yeah, exactly, the costumes transport you. We're very Victorian with some really cool little modern moments, which I think is so fun, because sometimes we can use anachronism in theater. Sometimes we can use something that belongs to another time in that transported space to create something that's more than just the timeline.

And that's another thing I think that a layer. Like the birthday cake with the candles. That would not have been Victorian. But it's a modern reference. For a comedy like this, too, it also just shows the audience that we're in on it. We're in on the joke. We're being cheeky here. And it's just, it's part of the fun.

Cheeky, very like British postures. Well yeah, but also like, yeah with the cape thing. Yeah, we know this is preposterous, but this, Kyle said it in the best, this is a cartoon on stage. It's those, I'm dating myself a bit here, but it's those like Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. It's the Road Runner and Coyote and like those moments that you have in these cartoons where it's like, okay, the coyote is holding a stick of dynamite. He blows up, but he's still alive. And he's still continuing on into the next episode.

Like there are some really far-fetched things plot-wise, visually, dramatically that happen in this show that we all know are ridiculous, but that's what makes it fun. If you can come here and escape to the theater for two and a half hours and leave real-world problems at home for that time, that's why we do what we do. It allows people to just transport themselves to another time, another world, another reality. And it's just... To be pirates for a little while. To be pirates! To be pirates again!

To be pirates for a little while! Oh gosh, I mean, like, and be what? Like, I love, there's this awesome thing happening at the Met now in New York where oftentimes for opening nights or like just really any performance people are dressing in themes sometimes like in themes related to what the themes related to the show so I mean that happening tomorrow night I mean if you want to come in your pirate costume I would be so excited get some cut you know I mean maybe not the art we might be a little worried about that you want me to yeah maybe there's a tattoo parlor around the street.

Please dress up. Please dress up as pirates, guys. If you feel so inclined, it will just make it more fun for us to look out in the audience and see everyone dressed as pirates. Just theater etiquette though, remember to remove your hat during the show. Yeah, maybe don't bring the fake sword, leave the fake sword at home. I was thinking real sword at home. No weapons in the fair mouth. No, the real sword you should maybe leave. Unless you want the pirate to sign it after. Authenticity. We have so many notes backstage about no weapons beyond this point.

Really seriously guys, we mean it. No weapons beyond this point. Make sure you put your fake pistols in the props box before you go down to the dressing room. We are not allowed to have pistols in the dressing room. I repeat, no pistols in the dressing room. Just use it in the dressing room. That's my garment. Duel.

We can't have duels in the dressing room. No, no duels. That's not allowed. No, the space is tight. We got to, you know. I know we're in, we're in, we're in Jefferson's town, but we can't have any, you know, steps at dawn. Yeah, no jitters at dawn here. Sorry, that was so bad.

You both kind of answered, because I have one last question I want to ask you, kind of both answered, but I was going to say, what do you want people's biggest takeaway to be from seeing pirates? I know you kind of already kind of answered a little bit before the phone. We can do a summation. Yeah. You want to go first or you want me to go first? from seeing pirates. I know you already kind of answered it a little bit before the fun. We can do a summation. Yeah. You want to go first or you want to go first?

A couple bullet points. I don't know, I would just say come on out, have fun, be a kid again, and expect the unexpected. Sorry, I just got the little real voice in my head doing, I did, I did, that's like the unexpected. That's the unexpected. I love that actually, because any time, any show I do, I want an audience to have like a real, authentic, meaningful

experience that can be comedic, that can be dramatic, that can be something resonant, having a, remembering something from your childhood, sharing a great memory from your childhood with a kid in your life, right? That kind of opportunity. But specifically to this show, I hope you come away with an earworm.

I know you're gonna come away with an earworm. This is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I hope that there's something stuck in your head because this show does something I think is really important which is that it has those little catchy memory tunes that you come away with and I hope that there's something that you see on stage that gets cued by that memory and then when you hear this that earworm again a year from now,

you remember how the ship moved across the back of the set. Or- Oh yeah, keep your eyes open for that, that's pretty funny. Yeah, or just the feeling of being in that space. Like that's my big hope. And then also just, oh please come enjoy seeing this incredible cast because I have been, as a professional,

I have been so inspired by this cast and creative team. And if I feel that way, oh gosh, I mean, like I can't even imagine what it would be like to be, to get to be just in the audience for it. I'm never gonna get to see the show in its entirety, so I'm really jealous of the audience. So please enjoy on my behalf. You want us to film one or not? You're not allowed. I know. Theater etiquette. Theater etiquette. No hats. No swords, no films. What are we going to show? We just have to sit there and have fun. But just we have to take it off when the performance starts. Yes you have to take it off when the performance starts. You are allowed to laugh, you are allowed to clap, you are

not allowed to have a conversation with the person next to you for the entire show. That would be easier for me. I'm not talking to you. I'm not saying next year. I got stuck in the back. That's right. I forgot. Enjoy the popcorn, enjoy the special drink. The Paramount does this thing for all our shows. Pirate beer, ale. Pirate beer. I don't know what the special drink. The Paramount does this thing for all our shows. Well they have Pirate Beer, Ale. Pirate Beer. I don't know what the special drink is.

I don't know what it's called but they... It's not Pirate Punch. Pirate Punch. I mean I hope it's a Pirate Punch. I think that's what it said, right? Well you have to come and get a ticket and get some and find out on your own. Please enjoy it for us because you know we... You can't. What about after the show? I mean after the show I'm sure we can arrange that. Pirate Punch. Tell the Paramount, leave a little pirate punch for the pirates at the end. We've got to do two more shows after opening night. Maybe at the cast party.

The Paramount, what a perfect space. Yeah. It's so lovely for the audience. The old fashioned theater feel, it's pretty special. It does make you feel like you take a blast back in time to like watching movies. Especially for this one, considering when it takes place and then you see all the decorations, you're like, it's perfect. It really works. It really, really works. It really enhances. You've got the show itself, you've got this venue, you've got your pirate punch or your barrel of popcorn and yeah it's not just about the show it is a fun afternoon or evening out it's a

whole experience you know dress up it will be even more of an experience but yeah it's just this is how you know memories are created in performances like this. So what are the three performances? I know Tomorrow Night at 7 is the first one. Then you have Saturday at 2 and Sunday at 2. Correct. Okay. And the best place to get tickets? Directly through the Paramount, through their box office.

I think they do email calling. I'm not sure of their hours off the top of my head. But I know that Tomorrow Night show is selling very, very well. So if you want to go tomorrow night, get your tickets ASAP. And then... Yeah, I was so scared about the ticket that I've actually bought one for somebody that's coming because I couldn't get in touch with the box office to release my comp. So I wanted to make sure we had a ticket.

So get your ticket now. It's doing extremely well. I think that the community, this is the first time Charlottesville Opera has done at Gilbert and Sullivan in their 48 years. And I think we and the company have been blown away by how excited the community is for it. I think that they're ready for this sort of show here in Charlottesville. I bet. So 7 p.m. Mm-hmm. 2 p.m. on Saturday. On Saturday. 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets at the

Paramount. Get them quickly. There are a few left. Yes. Feel free to dress up as a pirate if you wish. No real swords. No swords. Probably no fake ones. Probably not. Let's not, yeah. You have to track them at the door. Just dress up like a bunch. Just dress up. Just dress like, yeah. If you wear the eye patch, I will be very, very happy.

You can also come in jeans or a suit. But if they come with two eye patches, you won't be very happy. Two eye patches? No, no, you gotta be at the watch. That one, that one. They won't be very happy. Yeah.

No. It's not about me. They'll be like, I love the music. What is the rock music? They'll be like, I was promised bright colors It's not about me. I love the music. I was promised bright colors and costumes and I'm just not getting that. They never turned the lights on. It was dark the whole time. But yes, so Amanda, Chelsea, thank you both so much for coming on.

Thank you for having us. It was an absolute pleasure. Our pleasure. Thank you so much. What do you say in the music industry when you're watching? Is it break a leg? There are a couple different things. Okay.

Break a leg works. Break a leg works? That's quite recognized. There's also the old Italian toy toy toy. Toy toy toy. You can say that. Toy toy toy? Which?

Or the French mad. You can say that as well. That's a big dancer one. My personal preference is in poco al lupo Oh, that's also that's one which is great. So it means in the mouth of the wolf the audience is the wolf you are the wolves And the appropriate response is typically crepe crepe So in poco al lupo I'm just a stick of break a leg.

It's easy to remember. You know what? Toy Toy Toy. We love it. Toy Toy Toy is crazy. I don't really feel like a wolf, more like a beached whale. Well, in this heat, it's hard not to, right? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying.

But do we have any viewers we want to give a special shout out to? Just Lucrecia Morales was watching Rosalia de de Rosalia Cordaro, and actually lost the last one. But thank you so much all for watching. Yes, thank all our other viewers and they were streaming on like five different channels. Thank you to all our viewers for watching. Big thank you as always to our sponsors, Emergent Financial Services, Charltsville Opera, Matisse on Realty, Fabba, big thank

you to Judah for being behind the camera making us look good, the I Love Sivo Studio, big thank you for Nick for being my co-host today, it was good to be back on the same team. Good to be back, especially for the Opera. Yeah, I know, that's what Gauze always gets him on the seat. Yeah. You know, he's like, yeah, Opera's like, oh, I'll be there, I'll be there. I schedule myself in when I book a... And next week we're going to have Matthias Jung for Matthias Jung Realty, our good friend

Matthias. It's always great having him on. It's always good to catch up. It's been a while. It's been a while. And he said that he's going to try to make it a good one, so we'll see. Ooh, good. And they're always good, but obviously he's trying to get a surprise.

Hopefully a surprise. But always thank you to our viewers for watching and making this show possible. We look forward to seeing you next time, but until then, hasta mañana. Thanks for watching!