Opera Melbourne's 'La Traviata' was performed in March 2009. I performed the role of Germont Pere touring to regional Victoria and to Hobart, Tasmania.

I continue to conduct the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir in a series of concerts. Their St David's Day concert in February raised over $12,000 donated to the bush fire fund appeal in Victoria. We felt the devastating loss of one of our members who died in his house along with his wife in the terrible fires of 7 February 2009. Another of our choir members lost his whole house and business, so the donation to the bushfire appeal was the least we could do.

I spent the last two weeks of June watching the rehearsals of 'The Tales of Hoffmann' in Adelaide. I am the understudy for the baritone roles of Lindorf, Coppelius, Dappertutto and Dr Miracle. The production by Stuart Maunder is extremely imaginative and the performances are truly delightful. Fabulous work by all the singers and the conductor.

This year's concerts included VOICES AND BRASS combined concert on Sunday 21 June with the Australian Welsh Choir and the City of Dandenong Brass Band and the upcoming Annual Night Of Song, Singer of the Year Award on 5th September. Bookings at Monash University Robert Blackwood Hall.

VOICES AND BRASS combined concert with the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir,

Australian Welsh Male Choir and the City of Dandenong Brass Band

I will sing in a concert of highlights from 'La Traviata' in Darwin, Northern Territory, on Sunday 12 July. Looking forward to that.

I have been living on my own in Warrandyte now for almost 2 months since my marriage separation and the change of lifestyle has been a big adjustment. I enjoy the company of my children when they visit and the two dogs that I am caring for as well.

I have just spent a week on an island called Ameland off the north coast of Holland where there was a family reunion for the de Jong family. There were over 150 people there. The family photo will be amazing.

Here is a film of the launching of the old life boat drawn by 10 horses to the sea.

I have been to Queensland and back now, completing a season of 'Turandot' as Ping. The tenor was a Ukrainian called Marian Talaba who did a grand job of Calaf and the Turandot was Cynthia Makris, elegant in her movements and assured in the delivery of her vocal line and dramatic intentions. The whole production looked and sounded fantastic! I loved being in Brisbane - the weather was wonderful and having my bicycle with me meant that I had the freedom to travel wherever I pleased. Staying in a house, rather than an apartment, was also a great bonus. It was spacious and comfortable. I had a great chance to spend some time relaxing pnce the opera was under way - lots of time sleeping - knowing that when I returned to Melbourne the pace would soon pick up again.

The Melbourne Welsh Male Choir returned from London and we prepared for a very good concert in Geelong on 28 November. The gentlemen are now far more confident as a cohesive group and I seem to feel a bond amongst them now. I am beginning to introduce some new music and planning repertoire for next year's concerts already. I expect next year to be full of exciting progress.

I had an arthroscopy operation on my right knee to repair a tear to the medial meniscus, aggrevated by the chreography in the Turandot production. It healed pretty quickly and I can walk properly agin, although there will be no bicycle riding for a while. I will not do the Melbourne Summer Cycle in February next year as a result, just because I am not able to keep in shape durng the Summer. The knee healing will stop me riding and I will also be travelling for several weeks.

20 Aug 2008

What a great experience to have on my birthday: my debut in the Hamer Hall as a conductor, this time of the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir at the performance of Morning Melodies. The choir sang so well too, watching every movement from me and responding well. The audience responded very enthusiastically and went away wanting more, so I am told.

A highlight of March was singing solo at the MCG. I conducted the Melbourne Welsh Choir at the opening ceremony of the National Sports Museum and one of the songs was Nessun Dorma which I sang solo. Here is a photo of the big screen taken at the time.

I also sang two exciting performances of La Bohème for Melbourne Opera at the Atheneum in Collins Street. This will now tour to the ACT, Tasmania and around regional Victoria until July.

We've had a relaxing Easter holiday too.

I can hardly belive that I have not updated this page for weeks and weeks. Life has just been so incredibly busy.

Our Summer holidays were quite enjoyable. Anton and Hannie visited from Holland and we took Anton camping and out on the small boat on the lakes in Gippsland. Here are some photos.

		We also took a weekend camp in Paradise Valley with Penne and David which was great. Here is a photo of the camp.
					In February I was in the Melbourne Summer Cycle once more and managed to raise $1,665 which was much more than last year. A great effort from all those who donated. Here are photos of me crossing the West Gate Bridge and the finish line.

The Melbourne Welsh Choir spent all of February preparing for the St David's Day concert. It was a great concert which was a real confidence booster for the gentlemen. The sound is improving and the subtleties and dynamics are on the improve. It's great to see the choir grow. This week the choir will be performing at the opening of the MCG Sports Museum on Wednesday and also on Sunday in an open air concert at Mont de Lancey Gardens near Lilydale.

Melbourne Opera's 'La Bohème' opened last week and my cast performances are this week. Our dress rehearsal with orchestra last night went as smoothly as could be expected and I am really looking forward to the perfornaces. The tour will continue until July and I will be performing in Benalla (May 10), Warrnambool (Jun 21) and Morwell (July 12).

Also this week sees the beginning of the Opera Ensemble at Monash University where I will be teaching the singers the chorus parts of 'Orpheus in the Underworld' which will be performed in August. This is a big project for the year.

This will be a busy week and I will be pleased when Easter arrives and I can have a well deserved break with the family.

Update from Sandy Point:

		Here are photos of some of the improvements made to Sandy Point in the last 12 months, including cladding of the house, hut, rear toilet, new hut roof, pump house, septic tanks, water tank and a sliding door for the toilet in the house.

This is a YouTube film that I made of the song THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN APPLE MACBOOK PRO:

The end of 2007 is here. It has been a year of change for us all - a new job for Fiona which is going very well and a new musical direction for me with the addition of conducting to my interests. I performed a world premiere at Easter tie of the opera 'Nelson' by Stuart Greenbaum, conducted a performance of 'The Magic Flute' at Monash University, took on the MD role for the Melbourne Welsh Choir and I performed Zurga in 'The Pearl Fishers' to an audience of 12,000 at the Myer Music Bowl.

We have had a crazy time over Christmas with so many families to visit and I have been sleeping a lot! I am now studying the role of Marcello in 'La Bohème' the I will be performing in March for Melbourne Opera, and also studying 'Orpheus in the Underworld' in order to prepare the Monash Opera Ensemble for the next performance in August. We will also be spending some time in January camping by the lake in Victoria and I hope that we do not get rained out this time, as happened in November when we went to Lake Glenmaggie. We will be treated with a visit from two Dutch reltives: Anton and Hannie. We will take them to Sandy Point and Anton will come camping with us. We will be taking a small boat so that we can go out on the lake too. I hope that the children will enjoy that.

The next Melbourne Summer Cycle is on Sunday 24 February so I will be in traing for that ride again. It is a 40km ride to raise money for MS patient support. Last year I raised $1,300 and this year I hope that I can achieve that again.

Here is the website for donations:

http://register.melbournesummercycle.org.au/?lucasdejong

With these exciting plans I am looking forward to an exciting year in 2008.

What a week!

It started with a call on Tuesday from Opera Australia asking if I was available for performing the Pearl Fishers in the Myer Music Bowl, which of course I was. When OA ask you don't really say no. So all Wednesday I sat watching the rehearsal in the freezing wind outside in the Bowl wondering if Michael Lewis was going to recover from his cold in time or not. Then on Thursday I was asked to rehearse with the orchestra because Michael was not well enough to rehearse in the cold weather. On Friday morning the decision was made that I would be performing that evening so I rehearsed the last scenes and then rested for the afternoon.

In the meantime I had rehearsed the Welsh Choir for the Saturday night Christmas Concert on Wednesday evening and visited the Guides with my daughter Alexandra for her music night on Thursday playing the guitar and mandolin while she played her piano.

So on Friday night I sang ZURGA in The Pearl Fishers for the Opera Australia, Australia Post Opera In The Bowl with an audience of 12,000 people. It was a fine, mild night and the performance was a great success. The conductor was Emmanuel Joel who was the conductor of The Pearl Fishers when I first performed it in 1995 for Victoria State Opera so it was comfortable and easy. I really loved it.

	Then I spent all Saturday as the event coordinator for the Guides Sausage Sizzle fund raiser at Bunnings. I set up the sausages & bread at 9am and made sure that the whole day went smoothly. I was there almost all day with help from Fiona and after packing up at 4:30 I had to have an early dinner and quickly get off to North Ringwood to conduct the Welsh Choir Christmas Concert which did not finish until 10:30. The concert was very well done by the choir and very entertaining for the audience. In fact, I was pleasently surprised by the whole event. The gentlemen are really learning their songs well now and the improvement is evident in the performances. Now it is Sunday morning and I am feeling the need for a rest and recovery - it's been a big week!
	Lucas as ZURGA and Hye Seung Kwon as LEILA

I can announce today that I have been accepted as the Music Director for the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir, based in Ringwood, here in Melbourne. More information at their website: www.melbournewelshchoir.com.au

This conducting position will mean that I can pursue a carrer as a conductor alongside my continueing career as a singer, bringing important experience to both areas.

I look forward to the development of this very good choir and to an ongoing happy relationship.

Yesterday was my debut as an orchestral conductor. The performance was The Magic Flute and the orchestra was from the Monash Uni Performing Arts Academy. The cast were from the Monash Uni School of Music Opera Ensemble. Together we made beautiful music for two performances. I wish that there were more performances because I was just beginning to relax and do a good job by the time Saturday's perormance came to a close. It was a great experience to learn how to handle an orchestra during rehearsals and help produce a performance that was as secure and flowing as possible. Many people helped bring this all together and they all deserve my deepest thanks.

I will continue my lessons in conducting now with John Hopkins and I am hoping that I will be able to get another conducting job before long.

My thumb is repairing very well now and the nail is back about 50%-60%. I can play the piano again but it does feel a little strange because the sensation has not returned to the whole thumb yet.

The performances of Don Giovanni with Melbourne Opera are over - what a marathon that was! The last perfomance was in a new theatre in Ballarat called the Wendouree Performing Arts Centre and it seems that the architects had not taken into enough consideration the correct acoustic properties of a theatre. It was difficult to hear the harpsichord and sometimes a singer on the other side of the stage produced a disturbing echo from the auditorium which served to confuse the others on stage at the time. I would say that the place needs to be taken down and started again from the drawing board designed by people who know about these things.

Right now I am in Brisbane working for Opera Queensland as an understudy for the role of ENRICO in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR which I have done once before several years ago in London when Alexandra was only 1 year old. I doubt that I will get a chance to perform it since Michael Lewis almost never cancels. It has been a great chance however to work on this repertoire with Richard Bonynge, an exert in the bel canto field.

The carpets in the house look just wonderful and in a couple of weeks I will be back home and getting stuck into more painting.

Fiona has a new job which she starts tomorrow. It has taken a while but she is now doing what she has wanted to do for a long time: training executives to be better at what they do.

Now it is two months since the surgery and my thumb is pretty well healed. I don't use a splint and the x-ray shows a good healing of the bone.

Don Giovanni is performing again at the end of next week in Melbourne and then in Ballarat in September. I am teaching again at Monash Uni for the second semester and pretty soon we will have new carpets in the house. I must finish the painting before that goes in.

At the beginning of 2006 I was heavily into the house improvements. I have painted five rooms and the laundry after all the ceilings and cornices were rebiult. Then the tiling was done in the laundry which has a shower installed in the corner. I have really enjoyed spending all my time on the details of renovation.

In early March I was contacted by Monash University and asked to teach three students this year. It was nice to get the call when I had expected that there would be no students for me this year.

Then in early April I was called to see if I would sing in a Victorian regional tour of Don Giovanni for Melbourne Opera. I agreed to the tour and now I am confirmed to perform 5 shows in Sale, Warrnambool, Frankston, Melbourne and Geelong.

Then the following week Opera Australia called to ask me to be an understudy at short notice for a role in LAKME that I performed in 1996 for Victoria State Opera. Suddenly that meant that I was swamped with work. For seveal weeks I was working long hours trying to keep up with two operas, school drop-offs & collections and teaching. It never rains but it pours!

Now it is mid-May and I will continue rehearsing Don Giovanni and I hope to get back to the renovations soon. I will have to finish the painting soon so that we can order the new carpet.

Plans for the rest of the year include preparing the role of Enrico in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR for understudying in Brisbane on Sep/Oct. I also hope to complete the inside of the house, including retiling the bathroom, so that I can make a start on the outside when Spring arrives.