I DO MY BEST WRITING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

It's 2:07 a.m. Monday morning. Yesterday was an intensely busy, but enjoyable day, highlighted by a 3-hour rehearsal at Lark Musical Society in preparation for the Southern California premiere of the fourth operetta by Dikran Tchouhadjian, the father of Armenian opera. Zemire was first performed in Constantinople in 1891 by a French theatrical company.

Lark is collaborating with the AGBU Ardavazt Theatre Company to produce this opera semiseria in three performances, May 30 and 31, and June 1, 2008. I'm having fun participating in the performance and also translating the libretto from Armenian (translation done by Vatsche Barsoumian, Lark's executive and artistic director) for supertitles to be projected during the performance. I'm also writing the English language news releases and articles for the program book.

Of course, all of this is part of my self-administered therapy (SAT) to counteract the stress of dissertation-writing, which I am trying to work on every day. Another facet of this SAT is my addiction to Facebook and LibraryThing, about which more later.