VO animation contest comes through with a bunch of last minute entries

Well I called it: The Vancouver Opera "Operabot" animation contest that I've discussed before has a whole bunch of entries sliding in just before the deadline. There are some really great ones so you should go and take a look at what people have been creating and vote! The VO blog is listing them as they come in here. I won't share which is my favourite, (not yet at least,) but I'd love to hear yours! Let us know in the comments.

COC short at budget time, but we can all hear it on CBC

It's a strange season when you can completely sell out one of the largest opera houses in the country for an entire season and still come up short at your AGM but the COC has managed to find a way to do it. The company announced last night that they were $1.6 million in the red after projected individual donations to the tune of $1.1 million didn't materialize this year. They made up the money from a rainy day fund built up from previous years of surpluses.

via The Toronto Star

It was also reported this week though that for the first time in 20 years the CBC will carry the whole COC season on radio and for the first time ever will have the broadcasts up on it's website for at least a year - yay!

Unbelievable, amazing, and altogether incredible Deutsche Grammophon deal

Okay, I don't use iTunes. I don't own an iPod (I use an iRiver iHP-120 which doubles as a moderately high-end recorder,) and I take umbrage at the propitiatory format thing. But when I heard about this deal tonight, there was no escaping it - I was off to download the iTunes client.

iTunes Canada has just released the 55 disc Deutsche Grammophon 111 year anniversary compilation. Nothing special there. Except that while the iTunes US is listing it at $119, (Amazon has it at $134 but you do get the box and the physical discs,) iTunes Canada has it for, wait for it....

$9.99

I don't know if it's a promo price or a typo. What I do know is that, as we speak, 7GB of recording history covering everything from West Side Story to von Karajan's Beethoven 9, is making it's way onto an external hard drive in my house.

Well, what are you waiting for? To the iTunes store!

Updated: As of last night, iTunes has changed the price. It's now listed at $120. I'll keep my eyes out for other deals though!



Still here? Here's an abbreviated disc list pilfered from an Amazon review:

1.CD Claudio Abbado: Brahms, Ungarische Tänze Nr. 1-21 (Wien PO/1982)
2.CD Amadeus Quartett: Beethoven, Streichquartette Nr. 7 & 15 (1959 / 1962)
3.CD Martha Argerich: Chopin, Preludes Nr. 1-26; Klaviersonate Nr. 3 op. 35 (1976)
4.CD Daniel Barenboim: Ravel, La Valse; Daphnis et Chloe-Suite Nr. 2; Pavane (Orchestre de Paris / 1981)
5.CD Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: Debussy, Preludes Heft 1; Images I & II (1977)
6.CD Leonard Bernstein: Berstein, West Side Story / 1984)
7.CD Karl Böhm: Mozart, Requiem KV 626 (Mathis, Hamari, Ochmann, Wien PO/1971)
8.CD Pierre Boulez: Strawinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps; Der Feuervogel (Cleveland O, Chicago SO/1991)
9.CD G.Carmignola: Vivaldi, Violinkonzerte RV 190, 217, 303, 325, 331 (Venice Baroque O, A Marcon / 2005)
10.CD Placido Domingo / Carlo Maria Giulini: Opera Gala (Los Angeles PO, Giulini / 1981)
11.CD Gustavo Dudamel: Mahler, Symphonie Nr. 5 (Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela / 2006)
12.CD Emerson Quartet: Bach, Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080 für Streichquartett (2002)
13.CD Dietrich Fischer Dieskau: Schubert, Winterreise D. 911 (Gerald Moore, Klavier / 1971)
14.& 15.CD Pierre Fournier: Bach, Cellosuiten BWV 1007-1012 (1960)
16.CD Ferenc Fricsay: Verdi, Requiem (Stader, Radev, Krebs, Borg, RIAS SO/1953)
17.CD Wilhelm Furtwängler: Schumann, Symph. Nr. 4 / Haydn, Symphonie Nr. 88 (Berlin PO/1953 / 1951)
18.& 19.CD John Eliot Gardiner: Monteverdi, Vespro della beata vergine; Magnificat a sei voci (Monoyios, Pennicchi, Chance, Tucker, Robson, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists / 1989)
20.CD Emil Gilels: Beethoven, Klaviersonaten Nr. 21, 23, 26 (1971-1974)
21.CD Reinhard Goebel: Bach, Orchestersuiten Nr. 2 & 5 / Pachelbel, Canon & Gigue in D/Händel, Sonate für 2 Violinen HWV 399 / Vivaldi, Sonate für 2 Violinen RV 63 (Musica Antiqua Köln / 1982)
22.CD Hélene Grimaud: Credo: Pärt, Credo for Piano, Choir & Orchestra / Beethoven, Piano Sonata Nr. 17 "Tempest"; Chorfantasie op. 80 / Corigliano, Fantasie (Swedish Radio Choir, Swe. RSO, E-P Salonen / 2002)
23.CD Hilary Hahn: Bach, Violinkonzerte BWV 1041-1043, 160 ((BWV 1043 für 2 Violinen; BWV 1060 für Violine & Oboe) (Hilary Hahn, Margaret Batjer, Allan Vogel, LA Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane / 2003)
24.CD V. Horowitz: In Moscow: Scarlatti, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Chopin, Schumann,etc (1985)
25.CD Eugen Jochum: Orff, Carmina Burana (Janowitz, Stolze, Fischer-Dieskau, O der D. Oper Berlin / 1968)
26.CD Herbert von Karajan: Beethoven, Symphonie Nr. 9; Coriolan-Ouvertüre op. 62 Berlin PO/1962)
27.CD Wilhelm Kempff: Beethoven, Klavierkonzerte Nr. 4 & 5 (Berlin PO, Leitner / 1962)
28.CD Carlos Kleiber: Beethoven, Symphonien Nr. 5 & 7 (Wien PO/1974 / 1975)
29.CD Magdalena Kozena: Handel Arien (Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea Marcon / 2006)
30.CD Rafael Kubelik: Dvorak, Symphonien Nr. 8 & 9 (Berlin PO/1967 / 1972)
31.CD Lang Lang: Tschaikowsky, Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 op. 23 / Mendelssohn, Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 op. 25 (Chicago SO, Daniel Barenboim / 2003)
32.CD Lorin Maazel: Mendelssohn, Symphonien Nr. 4 & 5 (Berlin PO/1961)
33.CD Mischa Maisky: Werke von Saint-Saens, Faure, Respighi, Dvorak, Glasunow, Tschaikowsky, Bruch, Strauss, Haydn (Orchestre de Paris, Bychkov / 1991)
34.CD Igor Markevitch: Cherubini, Anacreon-Ouvertüre / Auber, La Muette de Portici-Ouvertüre (Lamoureux Orchestra / 1958)
35.CD Paul McCreesh: Praetorius, Christmette (Lutherian Christmas Morning Mass ) (Gabrieli Consort & Players / 1993)
36.CD Marc Minkowski: Rameau, Une Symphonie imaginaire ((Suite of 20 Orchestral pieces from 11 Rameau-Operas,selected by Marc Minkowski) (Les Musiciens du Louvre / 2004)
37.CD Anne Sophie Mutter: Brahms, Konzert für Violine, Cello & Orchester op. 102; Violinkonzert op. 77 (Mutter, Meneses, Berlin PO, Karajan / 1983 / 1981)
38.CD Anna Netrebko: Opera Arias - Szenen & Arien von Mozart, Berlioz, Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Massenet, Gounod, Dvorak (Wien PO, GIanandrea Noseda / 2001)
39.CD David Oistrach: Tschaikowsky, Violinkonzert op. 35 / Wieniawski, 3 Etudes-Caprices / Sarasate, Navarra op. 33 (Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Konwitschny / 1961)
40.CD Anne Sofie von Otter: Lamenti (Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel (1997)
41.CD Trevor Pinnock: Vivaldi, Concerti op. 8 Nr. 1-4, RV 548; Konzert für 2 Violinen RV 516 (Standage, Willcock, The English Consort / 1981)
42.& 43.CD Maria Joao Pires: Chopin, Nocturnes Nr. 1-21 (1995)
44.CD I. Pogorelich: Scarlatti, Klaviersonaten K. 1,8, 9,11,13,20,87,98,119,135,159,380,450,487,529 (1991)
45.CD Maurizio Pollini: Chopin, Etüden Nr. 1-24 (1971)
46.CD Thomas Quasthoff: Die Stimme - Arien & Duette von Lortzing, Wagner, Weber, Strauss (Quasthoff, Oelze, Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Thielemann / 2001)
47.& 48.CD Karl Richter: Bach, Messe h-moll BWV 232 / 1961)
49.CD Svjatoslav Richter: Rachmaninoff, Klavierkonzert Nr. 2, 6 Preludes (Warschau PO, Wislocki / 1959)
50.CD M.Rostropovich: Dvorak, Cellokonzert/ Tschaikowsky, Rokoko-Variationen (BPO, Karajan / 1968)
51.CD Bryn Terfel: The Vagabond - Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Butterworth, Ireland, (Malcolm Martineau, Klavier / 1994)
52.CD Rolando Villazon: Cielo e mar - Cilea, Donizetti, Gomes, Mercadante, Ponchielli, Verdi, Boito, Pietri (Giuseppe Verdi Chor & SO Mailand, Danielle Callegari / 2007)
53.CD Helmut Walcha: Bach, Toccata & Fuge d-moll BWV 565; Präludium & Fuge BWV 552; Triosonate BWV 525; Partita BWV 768; Choräle BWV 645-650 "Schübler-Choräle" (Orgel Laurenskerk Alkmaar / 1958-1963)
54.CD Fritz Wunderlich: Schumann, Dichterliebe, Beethoven, Schubert (Hubert Giesen, Klavier /1965)
55.CD Krystian Zimerman: Liszt, Klavierkonzerte Nr. 1 & 2; Totentanz für Klavier & Orchester (Boston SO, Ozawa / 1987)

Working with living composers

So it's going to be a moderately quiet for posts here, I'm expecting. We are full into rehearsals for "And The Rat Laughed," with Opera York with only one day off this week on the schedule. Combine that with it being the last week before most of my family makes the move to Winnipeg and there's a pretty good chance that anything not moving or performance related will fall by the wayside.

That said, this rehearsal process is fascinating. I've not had, nor do many who don't work with Tapestry New Opera Works, the chance to work on an opera with a living composer who is present for the rehearsals. Add to that a layer of complexity in that it's not a workshop production but the first non-original production (the first without the original cast from Israel,) of the work and you have some interesting things going on.

The first thing is that it's nerve wracking. Both the composer Ella Milch-Sheriff and the librettist/author of the novel, Nava Semel, have been in the rehearsals since day one on Friday and there is no one who knows the work better than they do. It's just not possible (nor should it be!) The work is a product of their hearts and it's easy to see that it's not like working with a conductor who loves Mozart - it goes way beyond that. That means that every time that you miss a note or flub a word, it's not just a professional misstep; It's like mispronouncing a friend's child's name. It's a level of stress that just takes things up a notch.

But it's also a wonderful resource. There's much talk in academia about the "Golden Age" of opera where the singers got the details of how to perform the masterworks that make up today's cannon directly from the hand of god, or, in this case, Wagner, for instance. Imagine the questions any singer today would have for Puccini, Rossini, or Verdi. That is the feeling that we are getting here: that we might never be in a better position to learn how to perfectly perform any given opera as we are right now with this work.

Very fortunately, both Ella and Nava are being wonderfully generous with their time and insight. Ella is holding multiple coachings whenever anyone has the time (the music is, well, not easy, but it is beautiful and powerful,) and Nava is constantly giving us background, textual, and subtext assistance including a fantastic discussion during rehearsal today about where this story fits within the world and culture of the characters. For a work with such heavy and serious subject matter it adds significant weight to what we are doing and is an indescribable treasure to have those mechanisms to work with.

Singers often have concerns about working with rarely performed or new works. It is an awful lot of effort to learn a new role and some think that to put that time into a work that you will do only once falls low on the cost/benefit analysis graph. I've never agreed - if by chance those works are performed again, you're a natural choice to participate. And some of my most fun and rewarding work has been with Opera In Concert and their "Rareties in Performance." Rest assured it is doubly so, fun and rewarding, when working with a living, breathing writing team who are not just willing, but want to help the singers all that they can.

Good news from the RCM

It looks like the Faculty Association's efforts have worked out in the end. The Collaborative Piano Blog is reporting that bargaining dates are now being scheduled as we speak! This a very happy ending for all involved - yay!

All's not well at the Royal Conservatory

A great many of you have friends, mentors, and colleagues at the Royal Conservatory, heck their faculty list reads like a who's who of some of the best names in pedagogy today. At the very least Dr. Christopher Foley, who's Collaborative Piano Blog most of you will have read, has been there since 2003.

Well right now those musicians, and teachers, and so by proxy the students, are in a little bit of a pickle. There's a nice shiny new building, a great new theatre, and top notch concerts by artists from around the world. But the people that work there have been without a contract since 2007. The Conservatory has told them that they're not willing to sit down and negotiate a new agreement with them.

Not that they can't reach an agreement, mind you, but that the Conservatory will not no longer sit down to discuss them, despite both sides having begun negotiations in good faith earlier this year.

As it stands now the teachers and staff at the university (doh!) Conservatory are working without a contract, hoping day to day that the Conservatory will continue to employ them, pay them, and give them benefits. As many of these people are my friends and colleagues (and even if they weren't,) I think that this warrants some attention and needs to be fixed and I hope that you do too.

They've launched a new Facebook page that they would like you folks to take a look at: The RCM Faculty Association Page Go, check it out, become a fan. I'll try to keep you folks updated on this as it develops.

Opera animation contest's first entry up on line.

Vancouver Opera's "Opera Bot" contest has it's first entry. As you may remember, VO started a contest in June to challenge people to create animated shorts of one of the operas of their upcoming season. While I thought (and still do,) that it's a great contest idea, with 10 days left in the contest, they now have their first entry (below). A group of students from The Art Institute in Denver, CO picked up their digital pens and created a short for Madama Butterfly. Will they be the only entry and take home all of the prizes? My guess is no - I imagine that we'll see quite a few more entries over the next week but we'll find out on November 1st. Head on over to this page to vote for your favourite once they start coming in.

And you think that corporate sponsorship is prevalent today...

So The Internet Archive is publishing that scanned microfilms of various libraries and groups I just found this - a Vancouver Opera House program from a December 11, 1897 performance of "La Grande Duchess" by The Calhoun Opera Company, available here (see the "View The Book" section on the left of the page). It was starring Adele Farrington who later went on to have a pretty good film career, appearing in as many as many as 15 movies a year

It's neat to look at: it's three pages long but with only enough information on it for maybe half a page: A shrunken cast list and scene description. There are no bios, no message from the General Director, no photos. The rest of the space on the pages is used for ads. In fact, they're so prevalent that it makes internet pop-up ads on the wackiest of internet pages seem understated. There are ads today, sure, but nothing like this. The only thing crazier is beer at 5 cents a glass!

Nightingale gets added performance

The COC has just announced that they're going to give the Robert LePage directed "The Nightingale and Other Short Fables" that I've been raving about, an additional performance now that it's completely sold out. The added date is November 2nd.

College Faculty positions

Speaking of today's audition finding post and not wanting to slight any opera stage managers out there, the Equity newsletter just sent out a notice for a stage manager job - a faculty position at Douglas College. Head on over to the College website for details!

Updated: Now that I check it, they're also looking for voice (and other instrument) instructors as well!

Finding Auditions

It just occurred to me today as I scanned my inbox that while I had mentioned YAP Tracker before, the fantastic subscription site that brings together virtually every opera audition worldwide, (email me, or leave a comment below with your email address, to get a 10% off discount,) I hadn't yet mentioned the other great place to find audition information: Equity Online.

Canadian Actor's Equity Association runs an email mailing list that forwards audition information about Equity shows that are casting in the near future. To sign up all that you need to do is go to Equity Online and fill out the form. Many of you will want to tweak your email filters to limit the number of notifications that you get about, say for instance Stage Manager calls (unless of course you're a stage manager,) but in general, it couldn't get more convenient than having audition notices delivered to your inbox.

"But I'm not an Equity member" you might say. Well good news: You don't have to be. Just remember to respect the audition rules surrounding Equity roles and you can apply to any of the postings that come through, Equity or not. Just don't go applying for too many bass roles....

VO's Golden Age

VO just sent out in their newsletter a reminder of their upcoming "Opera Speaks @ VPL" session "The Golden Age of Vancouver Opera." Taking place at the central Vancouver Library branch it's going to be a discussion with conductor Richard Bonynge, opera godfather Irving Guttman and others about some of the very cool things that VO has been witness to over it's 50 years. It's at 7pm on November 9 so mark your calendars for what should be a chance to talk with local opera luminaries in an intimate venue.

Pre-eminent blog "The Rest Is Noise" shuttered.

Wow, I just heard over at the Collaborative Piano Blog that Alex Ross' classical music blog "The Rest Is Noise" is done. Over. Kaput!

This blog was one of the originals covering all things classical musical and is the adam and eve of the wide swath of thousands of classical music blogs that exist today. The good news is that it's going to stay up for people to peruse and check the archives of. The really good news is that Alex is starting a new blog for The New Yorker called "Unquiet Thoughts" covering much of the same content. Hopefully this means great things for him and his blogging and that the corporate involvement means that even more time can be spent on the endeavour.

Congrats Alex - Here's to your new beginings!

What to listen to once I move.

As soon as "And The Rat Laughed" is finished, I will be packing up and heading for Winnipeg. It's a family decision but one that has a very real effect, both positively and negatively, on my career, which I'll talk about in another post.

Today, though, I was reading October's The Walrus, a Canadian magazine covering all things art, literature, politics, and just general Canadian issues. This month they have an article about Rich Terfry and his show, "Drive," on CBC that replaced a large block of classical programing during the format shift a year ago. Now, while it's a great radio program, and while I know that the CBC still plays some classical music, it makes me wonder what I'm going to do for classical music once I move. Here in Burlington I don't even have Radio 2 on my FM1 presets in my car, it's on FM2. The two classical stations that I tune to most are Classical 96.3 and WNED out of Buffalo as I know when I tune into them, that I'll get what I want, even at the risk of some short format music or US news breaks, depending on the station.

This leads me to the question: Once I move to Winnipeg, what the heck will I listen to? Without a commercial classical station, and being too far from North Dakota to pick up any US classical radio, am I stuck with CDs? Is Sirius radio, with the admittedly appealing Met Opera channel, but the less appealing monthly fees, in my future? It looks like I'm bound to be stuck without Canadian classical music when driving. As for at home, at least I made this handy list.

How about it folks? Any ideas? What do those of you who live outside of the Golden Horseshoe do for music, especially in the car? I'm open to any ideas that you have.

Win Opera Tickets! A Contest!

"And The Rat Laughed" is a dark, dark, dark opera coming up in November. It's the story of a Jewish woman recalling her experiences during the holocaust during her youth.

It's also an opera featuring moi, Andrew Tees, Melanie Gall, Angela Burns, Dion Mazerolle, Adriana Albu, and Ramona Carmelly and it's getting it's North American premiere with Opera York next month as a part of Holocaust Memorial Week. Wanna go?

The Canadian Jewish News is running a contest for Ontario residents to win one of five pairs of tickets to the November 8, 2 p.m. performance. Enter now!

Even if you don't win, buy a ticket, come on down and cheer us on! Dark: yes, but also powerful with some really moving music.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

Here's a little clip from the Thanksgiving Opera. Have a great day off!

Youth and Opera

A very interesting Vancouver Sun article this week about attracting youth to opera, orchestras, ballet and the like. Not a ton of new ideas in the article but a really interesting overview of some of the local Vancouver efforts including talking about the very, very cool new art for Vancouver Opera's season.

Google Streetview for Opera auditions and more!

View Larger Map

My old house (my new one isn't up on Streetview yet)

Google Streetview is now in Canada. The Google service that lets you see available areas up close and personal is a lot of fun to play with but also has a ton of practical purposes (beyond seeing if your husband is headed out of the local strip club.) From an opera perspective, being able to see where you're going before you need to be there would be a great thing on audition day. A couple of weeks ago I went down to Michigan to audition for Arbor Opera Theater. Unfortunately it was homecoming weekend for the University of Michigan and so there was bound to be ridiculous traffic. I wanted to be able to have a sense of where I was going before I needed to navigate that chaos on an already stresesed out audition day and so I took a look around the neighborhood via streetview so that things would feel a little more familiar on the day of. Maps will get you to the general area but if you're headed down to a Toronto Operetta Theatre audition and want to know exactly where to go before you get there then you'd be all set. Have a concert at the Queen Elizabeth in Vancouver? Time to track down the stage door!

All in all, it's a pretty neat tool with more uses than I can think of at the moment. What do you see yourself using it for?

Last chance to see Beverly Sills' estate auction

The Beverly Sills estate auction is up today. It started this morning and should be done soon if it's not already. The bittersweet news for us is that you can take a stroll through the catalogue online here. Jewelry, costume design sketches, personal items, and more, all there in their glory. Enjoy.

A Canadian in Germany

Imagine my surprise when I scanned my opera rss feeds to find the name of an old classmate in an article in a German newspaper. Soula Parassidis, a soprano from Vancouver (and fellow UBC alumnus,) is being featured in The Local, a German newspaper in a segment entitled "Making it in Germany." Take a look for a quick look at a Canadian path to a fest contract.

My favourite time of the blogging year

Ahh, it's that time again! Kim Whitman over at the Wolf Trap Opera Blog is gearing up for audition season. If you're unfamiliar with it this means that from now until the Wolf Trap audition tour is over, this blog should be visited daily by every singer out there, Canadian or not. Right now we're in the middle of the "Fall 2009 Audition Season Mini Course" covering everything from Depth vs. Breadth in choosing audition rep, to a guest professional every Friday weighing in on their take on auditioning. All of culminates, of course, in a daily run down of what she sees during the auditions and the famed "Aria Frequency List" detailing how many of what aria was offered at this year's auditions, (last year's is here). Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic! Go Now!

We have a winner

Using the random number generator over at random.org I've drawn two winners in the Wave invite contest. Congrats to Chris Foley and Leilani!

Chris I have your email address and your invite's on the way. Unfortunately I don't have one from Leilani. Please email me asap (gtheule aat gerrittheule.com) and your invite will be on the way. As I mentioned, invites aren't being sent out by Google right away. Once you've been given an invite from someone (as you two have,) Google will send them out on a delay right now estimated to be at least a day or two. Because there's a delay, I'll also email the winners a screen capture of the invite confirmation screen.

Harper's surprise performance last night with Yo-Yo Ma

Wow. It's no secret that I'm not a Harper fan, but this, From the National Arts Centre Gala last night, was kind of funny. Okay, very funny. And he's not bad.:






I did, however, expect him to balk at the lyric "I get high with a little help from my friends."


Now for a serious question: If you're a performer of Yo-Yo Ma's stature and, assuming that you're diametrically opposed to everything that the PM stands for, particularly arts cuts and the like, can you in good conscience go out there and perform with him? What if you're a card-carrying Tory and there's a Liberal (or, NDP even - hey, a guy can dream,) PM? Discuss. and fill out the poll on the right.

This. Sounds. Legen... wait for it...dary!

"The Nightingale and Other Short Fables" is making it's world premiere in two weeks and more details about the production are out now. We've already seen the puppet mastery in store for us but the big surprise was still to come, apparently. With Robert LePage at the helm, could we expect anything different?

In a new Canadian Press interview he talks about the most daunting part of the upcoming production: Filling the orchestra pit with 60,000 lbs (almost 28,000 litres, by my count) of water so that the singers can wade into it, all while manipulating puppets as they sing.

What?

Crazy. Awesome. Again: What?

This has all kinds of must-see written all over it. As much as I wanted to see this show before, my desire has been multiplied tenfold. Oh, and I'm under 30 so I can go for only $10.

Under 30 or not, go get tickets for this. The specticle alone will be worth checking out.

Google Wave invite contest

So I've been busy this week - sorry for not getting more posts out.

The good news is that I'm back with a completely non-opera related contest. I have two (2) Google Wave invites (worth up to $27,000 each!) to give out to anyone who wants one. Just leave a comment below, preferably a witty one but it's not necessary, and I'll randomly draw a couple of names via random number generator. Winners will be announced this weekend.

Update: Apparently the invites aren't going out instantly but are being delivered over a couple of days so as to not destroy the servers.