I have been spending the afternoon with Charpentier, editing last November’s performance of ‘La Descente d’Orphee aux Enfers’ by the Boston Early Music Festival. 

The first embarrassing thing about me editing opera is that I sing along while I do it.  I can’t help it.  This is one of the many reasons I don’t have an assistant currently.

The second thing is that my french is so elementary (literally, I learned in elementary school) that instead of asking the sovereign king of the underworld to spare Euridice, I keep asking him what time it is.

Maybe time to quit for the day.