Since September, the 42-year old singer does 8 shows a week as Mozart's father Leopold in Hamburg's musical theatre "Neue Flora". For him, it's his second time performing in Hamburg. "When I get home late after the show, I like it to be quiet - although we show people hardly ever go to bed before 2 am - the rhythm of our days is totally different." So, it's a perfect match that his girlfriend, Monika Dehnert, is an professional stage artist as well. She is performing in the Bremen production of "Hair", so she has to travel from city to city each day by train.

In the corridor to the two rooms of their flat, there are still packing cases. They have just transferred the parquet flooring. "It's the first time for us to move into a new flat together" says Freeman, who stopped counting the different cities and appartments he's ever lived in. Next month it will be his 20th year in europe. Born in New York, he started at the Yale University and continued at the College of Music and Perfomring Arts in Vienna. He did the lead role in "The Phantom of the Opera" more than 1000 times in Vienna, London and Toronto. Freeman was the Beast in "Disney's Beauty and the Beast", Javert in "Les Misérables". He appeared in Hamburg for the first time in 1987 as Gus / Growltiger in "Cats" and he did the lead in Bremen's "Jekyll & Hyde", for which he was honored as best male musical performer in 1999 by "Musicals" magazine. In Bremen he already lived in an old house basement, rented from an artist. Freeman also bought some of her pictures.

He confesses: "Most of the stuff is mine, some of it is from Monika and some is from IKEA." For example the Swedish bookshelf "Billy" in the living room. But there are mostly non Swedish collectors pieces in the flat. Like a big sofa of red velvet. Freeman: "It was made for me in Soho, a part of London - I couldn't live without it." And as it was too big for the door to their living room, the two artists had to bring it from the bedroom to the garden and from the garden to the living room. Also the blue kitchen shelf comes from London, as do a lot of golden framed mirrors and a metal table. But there's also some furniture from Hamburg in the new flat. Freeman: "I got these shining red curtains of sari at the Schanzenviertel and this silver bottle tray is from an Afghan shop at the Grindel."

Only the garden ("Almost a Cottage") is untouched so far. But Freeman looks forward to getting there as well soon: "I can really see myself staying here for longer - it's an fantastic town."