In 1960, dr Maxwell Maltz, published an observation in his book Physco-Cybernetics, sustaining that it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit. After these 21 days the chosen activity won`t require additional energy to perform. For example, for me it took more than 21 days, not consecutive, they meant 21 articles written in the last 3 months about performances seen this year in Europe. Now I`m out of stories and starting to miss this habit. :-)

Trying to find a title, I wrote about 2014, meaning:

27 foreign performances of opera or ballet, a new personal record! (Last one was 24 in 2012)

21 cities, in some I have seen more than one (Verona 4, Oslo 2, Stockholm 2 and London 2)

14 countries, most of them in Italy (5), Germany (4), United Kingdom (3) and Sweden (3)

(As a further addition to these countries, Romania, where this year I went only to Bucharest, Brasov and Craiova. These 3 cities for me are called “Home Opera" :-) ).

The most distant places I have traveled and saw an opera performance are:

North-West: Glasgow, Scotland
North: Oslo, Norway
West: Porthcumo, Penzance, England
South: Athens, Greece
The only cardinal point that remains unchanged is the East, Chisinau, the capital of East Romania, since 2012.

For the first time at the opera in 14 places: Oslo, Stockholm Royal Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Zürich, Zagreb, Porthcumo, Penzance, Glasgow, Heidelberg, Bad Herzfeld, Koln, Malmo, Wuppertal, Athens, Sofia.

Spectacles at the big opera halls in South-East Europe: Bucharest, Belgrade, Athens, Sofia, Budapest.

Performances in five different languages: Italian, French (Carmen, no doubt), English (Tosca! weird :-) ), German (2! ) and …Swedish. :-) . From 2013, I can add “My fair lady" in Bulgarian, at Ruse!

I had 4 guests all “outside" (Verona, Wuppertal, Athens, and Budapest, I like to invite people at the opera, until now I`ve reached 65 guests, I enjoyed the moment when I went with 29 people! :) ) - those who come with me like what they see. Of course there are situations when it doesn`t meet the expectations, like one of those four from this year (mentioned above), but remaining three were huge successes- Nikos in Athens can be called a once in a life time experience. The achievements belongs to the Opera, not me. :-)

Meanwhile, I`ve been working at the site (the programming part), translated the first page with the picture section in five languages: English, Italian, French, German and Spanish.

I received help at translating articles from different persons (people who love the Opera and I would like to thank them), 5 in English, 4 in Italian and French and 1 in German! (can be viewed, read and verified on the specific language tab, the flags are on the right).

I wrote 27 articles! That`s an average of one article for every opera I went, for the “Bohemes" at London I wrote only one, in exchange I added another article about the international train Belgrade-Sofia. :-)

I`ve gained 6 kg in the last 3 months, working at the website and writing 21 articles from 27.

The best spectacle and the first saw was “Boema", second would be “Madame Buterflly" both at Oslo and third “Tosca" at Wuppertal. These three performances exceled at innovation and setting up the scene. I would add “Rigoletto" at Bucharest, but I didn`t write an article about it.

The best vocal performance is by far “La boheme" at London with Angela Gheorghiu and Vittorio Gigolo.

The most interesting location: “Tosca" at Porthcumo, on the shore of the English Channel.

The most weird, due to the foreign language that I don`t know, are: “Dr Jivago" in Swedish at Malmo, “Aida" and “My Fair Lady" in German at Bad Hersfeld and Heildelberg and there was “Tosca" in English at Portcumo.

For the year 2015 I intent to ….. lose those 6 kg! :-) With the opera I don`t have any aim; I will wait to see what comes out. In fact when I aim for something I usually get it wrong, so it`s better for me to shut up and wait. This sounds like a superstition, but … I`m not superstitious because it brings bad luck! :-) Anyway it will be hard to surpass this is year achievements, so I`ll go only for the “mandatory" ones: “Aida" at Arena di Verona (doesn`t matter if I saw it 6 times :D), something at Oslo and maybe at Ruse. The last one because it`s near.

As a conclusion, I would like you to answer some questions, the last being the most important one:

- How many articles did u read?
- Which and how many did u like (u can say why)?
- Which and how many didn`t u like (u can say why)?
- Is there a point in writing these articles or should I start gardening? :D

Thank you for the attention, critics, sorry for the missing/wrong “i" (we don`t get along that good), for the patience and the encouragement received.

Happy New Year!

Yours kindly,

Adrian

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