France!

So after a week of wailing and gnashing of teeth and burning of the rejection letters, things are looking up. I was at choir last night and one of the other girls said to me, "hey, I got my rejection letter from the Jardin program, did you get yours?" and I realized that I had not been home all day. So I called the fiancee and asked him to look through the mail.

After one rejection form letter, one postcard (how gauche!) and an email (at least I can read it in the privacy of my home), I was sure that this would be the final blow, just in time for the holidays. So I ask him to open it, fully prepared for the standard "we had a lot of candidates, we were more than happy to take your application fee to Starbucks, good luck with your career, blah blah blah" response.

But it wasn't there.

No dear friends, instead was a lovely letter telling me that Le Jardin des Voix has accepted my application and passed me on to the next level of audition, a live audition for William Christie in NYC this February. For those of you who have no idea what this is about, here's the reader's digest version:
William Christie is the big guy in charge of Les Arts Florissants. LAF is THE premiere baroque opera company. They do productions of baroque opera with big name opera stars and fantastic orchestras at houses like the Opera in Paris. BIG deal. Jardin des Voix is the young artist program for LAF, run by the same guy. It's two and a half months in France, and they only audition every two years. So I get to sing for these people in person in hopes that they will see fit to accept me into Jardin. (ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease) And should they do this, I will spend spring of 2007 in FRANCE!!

And that said, I'm going to do my happy dance.