I've been back for several days now, but the audition went well. Not great, but fairly well. There are so many variables that go into these things - but I'm not going to write about the torture that is the audition process today, because I don't want to bring you all down. Another time! I will say, however, that spending 20 out of 34 consecutive hours in airports and airplanes for a five-minute audition on your day off is saaaaad.
On the upside, I did get to eat a homemade empanada after my audition.
Anyway, for the past couple of days we have been preparing for the Choral Collaborative Concert, in addition to our education outreach schedule. This concert is an annual collaboration between several area high school choirs, the Omaha Symphony, and Opera Omaha. This year, the first half of the concert features four choirs in Poulenc's Gloria, with yours truly as the soprano soloist. I looooooove this piece of music, people - if you don't know it, it's worth looking for a recording. This is the one I own and enjoy.
The second half of the concert features three more choirs and all four of the Voices in Residence in various opera excerpts. There are a couple of things from the current Opera Omaha season (from Pirates and Boheme), as well as several familiar crowd-pleasers (the Hebrew slave chorus from Nabucco, the Pearl Fishers duet, Brindisi from Traviata, and "Sing to Love" from Fledermaus to name a few). I should also mention that twelve Opera Omaha chorus members join the high school choirs in both parts of the concert, so this is a collaboration and educational experience in many ways. The concert concludes with all the choirs and soloists singing the Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana.
I think I've said it before, but I love working with high school students because teenagers don't know yet what they should or shouldn't be able to do - they try anything, and as a group, they can be pretty fearless. It's amazing to hear how well they know this music. Of course there are things they still need to learn and changes to make during rehearsals, but they do it really quickly and well. This is going to be such a fun show! I'm going to have to keep reminding myself of that throughout the many hours of dress rehearsal on Saturday and Sunday (yes, dress rehearsal on the day of the show = insane). But the product will make it all worthwhile!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Heading to Miami!
I have an audition for the Florida Grand Opera Young Artist program tomorrow (Monday) at 2:20 pm, so I'm flying out today. Please think of me tomorrow afternoon!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The outreach portion of the program
Okay, so I realized today that I haven't posted since Monday - sorry! I guess this week has been a little tiring. On Tuesday, we rehearsed both of our school education shows and then presented them both to a small invited audience at the Opera Omaha offices. This was basically our dress rehearsal, and we started right off with two shows Wednesday and two more today.
The programs are both pretty cool - Program A is aimed at high school and college students and adults, and Program B is for middle-schoolers. We open both programs the same way, with an introduction from Rossini's La Cenerentola, and then we dive into asking the kids what they think of when they think of opera. We get a lot of the same answers, usually things like the lady with the horns (costumes!), loud singing or high notes (yes - and no microphones!), dramatic, and foreign languages. We take the things they say and talk about what opera is: storytelling using all art forms (composition, singing, orchestra, dancing, poetry, prose, set-building, costume design). We also sing musical examples from different operas along the way, explaining how composers use the music to tell a story. After each example, we ask the kids to tell us what they think was happening in the excerpt and why they think that, based on what they heard in the music. This is so interesting, because they usually get it right, even thought they can't understand any of the words!
After this, we have the students help us write our own opera, based on this simple text: It was a dark and rainy night. There was a knock at the door. We opened up the front door. It was the pizza delivery guy!
For each of the four sentences, we give the students a choice between two different styles. Is the rain gentle or stormy? Is the knock sneaky or dramatic? Do we open the front door in an exuberant way or a dreamy way? And finally, is the pizza delivery guy evil or the love of our life? Omaha Symphony conductor Ernest Richardson wrote the music for this little experiment, and it's super fun: he plays with melodies from famous pieces of the operatic and classical repertory, many of which the average person has probably heard on movies and TV commericals. The kids get really into this section, and I think it really demonstrates the way music can tell (or even change) a story.
Anyway, we wrap things up in our A program with quartets from Rigoletto and La Boheme. The B program is actually built around the theme of weather, so it includes a quartet from Street Scene and one from Regina, as well as an excerpt from The Blizzard Voices, a new opera that premiered in September at OO. We also tack the Boheme quartet onto the end of that program as well, since OO is doing it in the spring. The students all get vouchers for free tickets to the show, so it's a pretty sweet deal.
That's all for now. I need to go to bed!
The programs are both pretty cool - Program A is aimed at high school and college students and adults, and Program B is for middle-schoolers. We open both programs the same way, with an introduction from Rossini's La Cenerentola, and then we dive into asking the kids what they think of when they think of opera. We get a lot of the same answers, usually things like the lady with the horns (costumes!), loud singing or high notes (yes - and no microphones!), dramatic, and foreign languages. We take the things they say and talk about what opera is: storytelling using all art forms (composition, singing, orchestra, dancing, poetry, prose, set-building, costume design). We also sing musical examples from different operas along the way, explaining how composers use the music to tell a story. After each example, we ask the kids to tell us what they think was happening in the excerpt and why they think that, based on what they heard in the music. This is so interesting, because they usually get it right, even thought they can't understand any of the words!
After this, we have the students help us write our own opera, based on this simple text: It was a dark and rainy night. There was a knock at the door. We opened up the front door. It was the pizza delivery guy!
For each of the four sentences, we give the students a choice between two different styles. Is the rain gentle or stormy? Is the knock sneaky or dramatic? Do we open the front door in an exuberant way or a dreamy way? And finally, is the pizza delivery guy evil or the love of our life? Omaha Symphony conductor Ernest Richardson wrote the music for this little experiment, and it's super fun: he plays with melodies from famous pieces of the operatic and classical repertory, many of which the average person has probably heard on movies and TV commericals. The kids get really into this section, and I think it really demonstrates the way music can tell (or even change) a story.
Anyway, we wrap things up in our A program with quartets from Rigoletto and La Boheme. The B program is actually built around the theme of weather, so it includes a quartet from Street Scene and one from Regina, as well as an excerpt from The Blizzard Voices, a new opera that premiered in September at OO. We also tack the Boheme quartet onto the end of that program as well, since OO is doing it in the spring. The students all get vouchers for free tickets to the show, so it's a pretty sweet deal.
That's all for now. I need to go to bed!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Pirates is over, Chandler is gone
Well, the show is over: Wednesday, Friday, and a matinee on Sunday, and that's it. Here are some pics of the opening night cast party:
Tara, me, and Sarah.
With the incredible (and sweet!) John Davies, who sang the Sergeant of Police. He has the most beautiful voice, and we're totally setting up a fan club on Facebook!
The three of us yet again, this time with Patrick Ryan Sullivan, our sweet and fantastic Pirate King. If I told you he has sung Gaston in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, would you be surprised? I think it's the hair...
Let's see...here we add Gene Scheer. He sang the Major General, but aside from being a performer, Gene is also an amazing songwriter and opera librettist. He's currently working on a libretto for an opera based on Moby Dick. Not my favorite book, I'll admit, but if you cut out all the chapters on how to use whale blubber, it could be a very cool opera.
Oh, and here's one more show picture - John Davies as the Sergeant.
However, here is my favorite person of the entire weekend:
Chandler! He had to go back to Minneapolis today, but my sweet hubby got here in time for the show on Friday, stayed the whole weekend, and saw the show again on Sunday. My aunt came with him from Minneapolis, and the rest of my family was here for the Sunday show as well. Today was my day off, my "Sunday," if you will (and you will), and I'm exhausted. We jump right into our education outreach tomorrow, and I feel like I need another day to recover, but, here we go - five weeks of touring!
Tara, me, and Sarah.
With the incredible (and sweet!) John Davies, who sang the Sergeant of Police. He has the most beautiful voice, and we're totally setting up a fan club on Facebook!
The three of us yet again, this time with Patrick Ryan Sullivan, our sweet and fantastic Pirate King. If I told you he has sung Gaston in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, would you be surprised? I think it's the hair...
Let's see...here we add Gene Scheer. He sang the Major General, but aside from being a performer, Gene is also an amazing songwriter and opera librettist. He's currently working on a libretto for an opera based on Moby Dick. Not my favorite book, I'll admit, but if you cut out all the chapters on how to use whale blubber, it could be a very cool opera.
Oh, and here's one more show picture - John Davies as the Sergeant.
However, here is my favorite person of the entire weekend:
Chandler! He had to go back to Minneapolis today, but my sweet hubby got here in time for the show on Friday, stayed the whole weekend, and saw the show again on Sunday. My aunt came with him from Minneapolis, and the rest of my family was here for the Sunday show as well. Today was my day off, my "Sunday," if you will (and you will), and I'm exhausted. We jump right into our education outreach tomorrow, and I feel like I need another day to recover, but, here we go - five weeks of touring!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Pictures!
Okay, folks, here are just a few pics of opening night:
Sarah Lawrence (the other soprano in the Voices in Residence), me, and Tara Cowherd (my friend from college who works for Opera Omaha as the Community Programs Coordinator and sings in the Opera chorus). Aren't these costumes so pretty?
With the other voices in residence: Darren Perry (as Sam) and Joe Palarca (as another pirate).
With the Pirate King, Patrick Ryan Sullivan.
With the gorgeous Maureen Francis, who plays the ingenue, Mabel. We're trying to show off our bustles here.
Stage director Francis Cullinan and conductor Joe Illick, both so lovely! Really, this experience was so wonderful, in no small part to these two men.
And the lovely ladies of the chorus! Francis says that when we walk out on stage, we look like a bunch of beautiful bon bons. I don't know about bon bons, but they really are gorgeous costumes. I'll try to get more pirate photos tomorrow!
Sarah Lawrence (the other soprano in the Voices in Residence), me, and Tara Cowherd (my friend from college who works for Opera Omaha as the Community Programs Coordinator and sings in the Opera chorus). Aren't these costumes so pretty?
With the other voices in residence: Darren Perry (as Sam) and Joe Palarca (as another pirate).
With the Pirate King, Patrick Ryan Sullivan.
With the gorgeous Maureen Francis, who plays the ingenue, Mabel. We're trying to show off our bustles here.
Stage director Francis Cullinan and conductor Joe Illick, both so lovely! Really, this experience was so wonderful, in no small part to these two men.
And the lovely ladies of the chorus! Francis says that when we walk out on stage, we look like a bunch of beautiful bon bons. I don't know about bon bons, but they really are gorgeous costumes. I'll try to get more pirate photos tomorrow!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Opening night!
Pictures will definitely come tomorrow. I tried to take some at our final dress rehearsal on Monday, but they weren't great. Tonight is the night!
Dress rehearsal went super well, by the way. The whole cast is really at the stage of needing an audience. We did have a small invited audience on Monday, but they didn't seem to feel allowed to clap or laugh or respond, so it felt really flat. Advice to audiences: ALWAYS clap or laugh when you feel you want to. The performers need it, and will continue on even more energized! Tonight will be different, though, because it's opening night, and I'm told it's always very well attended in Omaha. Whee!
Okay, so yesterday was our "day off" for the week. I put that in quotations because it did not feel like a day off AT ALL. But, you all know how that goes in real life - weekends are always full of errands and work parties, right? Right? Yes. Okay, then.
Meanwhile, here is something funny: the music world is full of cheek kisses, which cracks me up, coming from my straight-laced Midwestern small town full of extra straight-laced Dutch people where nobody would ever kiss an acquaintance on the cheek, much less a coworker of three weeks. But EVERY goodbye with these people, particularly the ones who have been in the business for a long time, involves a cheek kiss and a hug. Ah, performers - boundaries disappear quickly. It's nice, actually, because we do spend a lot of hours together in a short span of time.
I'm drinking coffee right now and need to get back to learning some music for the short rehearsal I have with the other Voices in Residence before our call at the theater, so I'll wrap things up with this promise: pictures next time!
Dress rehearsal went super well, by the way. The whole cast is really at the stage of needing an audience. We did have a small invited audience on Monday, but they didn't seem to feel allowed to clap or laugh or respond, so it felt really flat. Advice to audiences: ALWAYS clap or laugh when you feel you want to. The performers need it, and will continue on even more energized! Tonight will be different, though, because it's opening night, and I'm told it's always very well attended in Omaha. Whee!
Okay, so yesterday was our "day off" for the week. I put that in quotations because it did not feel like a day off AT ALL. But, you all know how that goes in real life - weekends are always full of errands and work parties, right? Right? Yes. Okay, then.
Meanwhile, here is something funny: the music world is full of cheek kisses, which cracks me up, coming from my straight-laced Midwestern small town full of extra straight-laced Dutch people where nobody would ever kiss an acquaintance on the cheek, much less a coworker of three weeks. But EVERY goodbye with these people, particularly the ones who have been in the business for a long time, involves a cheek kiss and a hug. Ah, performers - boundaries disappear quickly. It's nice, actually, because we do spend a lot of hours together in a short span of time.
I'm drinking coffee right now and need to get back to learning some music for the short rehearsal I have with the other Voices in Residence before our call at the theater, so I'll wrap things up with this promise: pictures next time!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Final stretch for Pirates!
Well, I've been busy for the last couple of days with music rehearsals for the Voices in Residence, to get ready for our first staging rehearsal tomorrow, but we are also in the final couple of days of rehearsal for Pirates before we open on Wednesday the 15th. That's soon! I can't believe how quickly this show has been put together - the pace in a professional company is so much faster than the pace of a grad school production! We spent months putting together a show when I was in school, but this we will have done in under three weeks! To be fair, not all shows can be done in that amount of time (this one is under two hours long), but it's still pretty fast.
We have been rehearsing in the Orpheum theater on the finished set since Tuesday. It's a bit of a luxury to be in so early! Last night we had the first work-through of the entire show, and then tomorrow night is our first dress rehearsal. That one will be with piano, while Sunday and Monday nights we do the whole thing over again with orchestra. Then Tuesday is off, and we open Wednesday!
Tonight we have the Sitzprobe, which is our first sing-through the show with orchestra. Sitzprobe literally means "seat-rehearse" in German. We won't actually be sitting, though, because our Maestro, Joe Illick, thinks we would be better served making tonight a Wandelprobe. That translates as "change-rehearse" - we will be walking through our staging (changing or shifting, you could say) as we sing, so that the Maestro can make sure everything sounds as it should from the location the singer happens to be in during a specific musical moment.
I love the Sitzprobe (or Wandelprobe, as the case may be!), because it's the first chance to sing the show with orchestra instead of piano. You finally get to hear all the colors of the instrumentation in the theater, which is exciting after rehearsing for these eleven or twelve days with piano.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting here blogging from the theater after my wig-fitting. Wouldn't you know it, the wig I'm wearing is exactly the color of my actual hair? But the wig will be styled and ready to go every day without me having to sit in a chair for an hour having it done (and can you imagine how that would work with two makeup/hair people for fourteen women?).
Ooh! One more thing for today: The Omaha Opera Guild runs a little canteen backstage in the dressing room area during the times we rehearse in the theater. It's really pretty great: they have sandwiches, drinks, frozen fruit cups, carrot sticks, cake and bars, and even deviled eggs. Seriously - the deviled eggs cost a quarter, and the sandwiches are only two bucks. They even let you run a tab! (Mine is up to seventy-five cents right now, in case you wondered.) I hate to use this word one more time, but it's super cute, and actually really handy. Speaking of which, I hope they show up soon...
We have been rehearsing in the Orpheum theater on the finished set since Tuesday. It's a bit of a luxury to be in so early! Last night we had the first work-through of the entire show, and then tomorrow night is our first dress rehearsal. That one will be with piano, while Sunday and Monday nights we do the whole thing over again with orchestra. Then Tuesday is off, and we open Wednesday!
Tonight we have the Sitzprobe, which is our first sing-through the show with orchestra. Sitzprobe literally means "seat-rehearse" in German. We won't actually be sitting, though, because our Maestro, Joe Illick, thinks we would be better served making tonight a Wandelprobe. That translates as "change-rehearse" - we will be walking through our staging (changing or shifting, you could say) as we sing, so that the Maestro can make sure everything sounds as it should from the location the singer happens to be in during a specific musical moment.
I love the Sitzprobe (or Wandelprobe, as the case may be!), because it's the first chance to sing the show with orchestra instead of piano. You finally get to hear all the colors of the instrumentation in the theater, which is exciting after rehearsing for these eleven or twelve days with piano.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting here blogging from the theater after my wig-fitting. Wouldn't you know it, the wig I'm wearing is exactly the color of my actual hair? But the wig will be styled and ready to go every day without me having to sit in a chair for an hour having it done (and can you imagine how that would work with two makeup/hair people for fourteen women?).
Ooh! One more thing for today: The Omaha Opera Guild runs a little canteen backstage in the dressing room area during the times we rehearse in the theater. It's really pretty great: they have sandwiches, drinks, frozen fruit cups, carrot sticks, cake and bars, and even deviled eggs. Seriously - the deviled eggs cost a quarter, and the sandwiches are only two bucks. They even let you run a tab! (Mine is up to seventy-five cents right now, in case you wondered.) I hate to use this word one more time, but it's super cute, and actually really handy. Speaking of which, I hope they show up soon...
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
More about rehearsal, and a little name-dropping
I'm getting a late start today, so this probably won't be long, but I wanted to write something!
Yesterday was full and BUSY! The four Voices in Residence had to go help rehearse one of the high school choirs for our Choral Collaborative Concert with Omaha Symphony conductor Ernest Richardson. We worked a bit on Poulenc's Gloria, in which I'm singing the soprano solo. We didn't get even halfway through, though, because the class period was too short. The kids worked hard and seemed excited, so I think the next rehearsal will be great. I forget how light adolescent voices are, but how quickly teenagers can learn difficult music. I really do like working with that age group - they don't have that self-doubt about learning that adults can have, probably because that's all they're doing every day in school.
We then had our first rehearsal of music for our education tours, which went surprisingly well (good thing, because we start staging this weekend already!) and then a looooong staging rehearsal for Pirates. This one involved the entire cast, so there was a lot of standing while our director staged - even a short eight measures can take a long time to stage when you have so many people to move around - so my feet were very sad by the end of the evening. Standing all day is one thing; standing half of it in horrible character shoes is another. I cannot understand why character shoes can't be made to be more comfortable!
I also discovered, once again, what a small world it is in the classical music business: our Major-General, the amazing Gene Scheer, knows my friend KrisAnne from a show they both did in Central City. Also, our stage director, Francis Cullinan, and Pirate King, Patrick Ryan Sullivan, know the father of a Dordt College friend of mine (Jim Van Ry, father of Rochelle) from Creede Repertory Theater in Colorado. I really do love those connections!
I really have to get some pictures up here. Soon!
Yesterday was full and BUSY! The four Voices in Residence had to go help rehearse one of the high school choirs for our Choral Collaborative Concert with Omaha Symphony conductor Ernest Richardson. We worked a bit on Poulenc's Gloria, in which I'm singing the soprano solo. We didn't get even halfway through, though, because the class period was too short. The kids worked hard and seemed excited, so I think the next rehearsal will be great. I forget how light adolescent voices are, but how quickly teenagers can learn difficult music. I really do like working with that age group - they don't have that self-doubt about learning that adults can have, probably because that's all they're doing every day in school.
We then had our first rehearsal of music for our education tours, which went surprisingly well (good thing, because we start staging this weekend already!) and then a looooong staging rehearsal for Pirates. This one involved the entire cast, so there was a lot of standing while our director staged - even a short eight measures can take a long time to stage when you have so many people to move around - so my feet were very sad by the end of the evening. Standing all day is one thing; standing half of it in horrible character shoes is another. I cannot understand why character shoes can't be made to be more comfortable!
I also discovered, once again, what a small world it is in the classical music business: our Major-General, the amazing Gene Scheer, knows my friend KrisAnne from a show they both did in Central City. Also, our stage director, Francis Cullinan, and Pirate King, Patrick Ryan Sullivan, know the father of a Dordt College friend of mine (Jim Van Ry, father of Rochelle) from Creede Repertory Theater in Colorado. I really do love those connections!
I really have to get some pictures up here. Soon!
Monday, October 6, 2008
A day off!
Well, it's Monday, and we have finally been given a day off. Our weekend was very busy with lots of work: rehearsals, meetings, costume fittings, and more rehearsal. Tomorrow we will start rehearsing in the theater (the Orpheum, if you know Omaha). So far, our rehearsals have been split between the OO offices and a large space in the Scottish Rite Temple, which is a block or two away.
Our costumes are beautiful! We are wearing brand new costumes for this show, which also means that they were built to our exact measurements. Our wonderful director, Francis Cullinan, decided to move the action forward 20 years from when this show is usually set, so the women will be wearing Gibson Girl type outfits circa 1900. We all have big puffy shoulders and lace and bustles and cameos and big hats and parasols - I'll definitely post some photos once we get into dress rehearsals! The pirates' costumes have lots of gold braid and buttons and burgundy velvet and big hats - basically, what you might imagine for pirates, but probably quite a bit nicer.
So far the rehearsal process has been painless. Our cast is full of wonderful people, and the stage director and conductor get along extremely well (this is definitely not always the case between conductors and stage directors!). I'm totally impressed with the chorus and how quickly they are picking up the very precise staging.
For my day off, I'm trying to be quiet this morning, as yesterday was full of talking and singing. After rehearsal, we had a meet-and-greet with members of the OO board, and then dinner and a little party with the cast. It's been great getting to know all these wonderful people, but I have plenty of other music to learn (and laundry and email and grocery shopping to catch up with!) today. If you're reading this, please leave some comments, or send me an email or message on Facebook! I miss hearing the news from each of your lives!
Our costumes are beautiful! We are wearing brand new costumes for this show, which also means that they were built to our exact measurements. Our wonderful director, Francis Cullinan, decided to move the action forward 20 years from when this show is usually set, so the women will be wearing Gibson Girl type outfits circa 1900. We all have big puffy shoulders and lace and bustles and cameos and big hats and parasols - I'll definitely post some photos once we get into dress rehearsals! The pirates' costumes have lots of gold braid and buttons and burgundy velvet and big hats - basically, what you might imagine for pirates, but probably quite a bit nicer.
So far the rehearsal process has been painless. Our cast is full of wonderful people, and the stage director and conductor get along extremely well (this is definitely not always the case between conductors and stage directors!). I'm totally impressed with the chorus and how quickly they are picking up the very precise staging.
For my day off, I'm trying to be quiet this morning, as yesterday was full of talking and singing. After rehearsal, we had a meet-and-greet with members of the OO board, and then dinner and a little party with the cast. It's been great getting to know all these wonderful people, but I have plenty of other music to learn (and laundry and email and grocery shopping to catch up with!) today. If you're reading this, please leave some comments, or send me an email or message on Facebook! I miss hearing the news from each of your lives!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Opera and Operetta
I've mentioned that the mainstage show in which I'm appearing at OO as part of my Voice in Residence gig is The Pirates of Penzance. Even if you've never seen Pirates, you have probably heard of it. The music and libretto were written by the famous Gilbert & Sullivan, whose other famous operettas include HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, and plenty more. I'm singing a very small role (you could call it a supporting role, or in opera, we call it a comprimario role), Kate, one of the sisters of the lead soprano character, Mabel. Gilbert & Sullivan's operettas involve lots of chorus, so I'm a part of that, too.
So, what's operetta? Well, you probably have some idea of what opera is, and operetta is related to both opera and musical theater, and the lines are often blurred. Operetta usually involves a lighter, comical story and light, sometimes comical music. The music is still of high caliber, and the lyrics are usually very clever, sometimes more so than in some operas, but overall, operetta just feels lighter than opera. (Though, opera can be funny, too: Verdi's Falstaff, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte are examples of comedic operas.) Some other famous operetta composers are Johann Strauss, Jr. (Die Fledermaus) and Jacques Offenbach (La belle Helene). Leonard Bernstein's Candide is generally considered an operetta, as well. You could say that operetta was the precursor to modern musical comedies you might see on Broadway. Oh, and there is generally some spoken dialogue in operetta, though the amount really varies from show to show and composer to composer.
So, there's my little summary. Pirates of Penzance at OO is going to be a fantastic show, because the caliber of singing and acting is really high, and the musical preparation and stage direction is (so far) pretty impressive for a small-ish company (with a mostly volunteer chorus!). I haven't seen the set or costumes yet, but I have a feeling they'll be beautiful!
So, what's operetta? Well, you probably have some idea of what opera is, and operetta is related to both opera and musical theater, and the lines are often blurred. Operetta usually involves a lighter, comical story and light, sometimes comical music. The music is still of high caliber, and the lyrics are usually very clever, sometimes more so than in some operas, but overall, operetta just feels lighter than opera. (Though, opera can be funny, too: Verdi's Falstaff, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte are examples of comedic operas.) Some other famous operetta composers are Johann Strauss, Jr. (Die Fledermaus) and Jacques Offenbach (La belle Helene). Leonard Bernstein's Candide is generally considered an operetta, as well. You could say that operetta was the precursor to modern musical comedies you might see on Broadway. Oh, and there is generally some spoken dialogue in operetta, though the amount really varies from show to show and composer to composer.
So, there's my little summary. Pirates of Penzance at OO is going to be a fantastic show, because the caliber of singing and acting is really high, and the musical preparation and stage direction is (so far) pretty impressive for a small-ish company (with a mostly volunteer chorus!). I haven't seen the set or costumes yet, but I have a feeling they'll be beautiful!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Internet is finally up!
I've been here for three days already without internet, and it was driving me a little bit crazy. It's amazing how dependent we get on technology! My roommate and I thought it was supposed to be set up yesterday, but we had to wait until first thing this morning. But I'm here now, ready to blog!
I left Minneapolis on Sunday around 10:30 or 11. The other soprano in Opera Omaha's Voices in Residence, Sarah, happens to live in Duluth and picked me up on her way. We arrived in Omaha shortly before 5, in plenty of time for our rehearsal at 6. The tenor, Joe, and the bass-baritone, Darren, flew in Saturday, so they were already settled by the time we got there. Our rehearsal that evening was with the OO (Opera Omaha, got it?) chorus and the music director, J. Although they had only been working on the Pirates music for a little over a week, the chorus sounded fantastic - there are larger opera companies who could learn a thing or two from this small volunteer chorus!
After the chorus rehearsal, J. and Tara, the Community Programs Coordinator, met with the four Voices in Residence about the music we'll be singing on the education tour. There is a LOT of music, people. Seriously, it would have felt like a lot even if we had it in hand before we arrived, but as it is, it feels a bit overwhelming. The schools have a choice of three programs, and although they use much of the same music, the longest one has something like 70 minutes of music. We start staging these at the end of next week already! Additionally, we start rehearsing the music for the Choral Collaborative Concert soon as well - this is the Nov. 2 concert that many of you are attending.
A word about Tara, the Community Programs Coordinator at OO - this is Tara Cowherd, a very good friend of mine from Dordt College. We have known each other for 10 years, since I was a freshman at Dordt and this nice upperclassman started talking to me at a vocal competition. One of Tara's three sisters, Laura, was one of my roommates a couple years later, by which time Tara was already working in the music business at the Omaha Symphony and singing in the OO chorus.
Speaking of singing, it's probably time for me to get back to learning music. While we were very busy on Monday with rehearsals, Sarah and I actually had yesterday off (although the men had a staging rehearsal). I spent much of the day getting myself organized and learning music, as well as nursing a bit of a cold I picked up right before I left Minneapolis. Today I don't have rehearsal until the evening, so it's back to the music scores for now! This is the great thing about living as a singer instead of working a day job while trying to sing - while I have rehearsals in the evening, I can spend my days learning music. I haven't been able to do this since grad school (and then I was doing coursework, too)!
I left Minneapolis on Sunday around 10:30 or 11. The other soprano in Opera Omaha's Voices in Residence, Sarah, happens to live in Duluth and picked me up on her way. We arrived in Omaha shortly before 5, in plenty of time for our rehearsal at 6. The tenor, Joe, and the bass-baritone, Darren, flew in Saturday, so they were already settled by the time we got there. Our rehearsal that evening was with the OO (Opera Omaha, got it?) chorus and the music director, J. Although they had only been working on the Pirates music for a little over a week, the chorus sounded fantastic - there are larger opera companies who could learn a thing or two from this small volunteer chorus!
After the chorus rehearsal, J. and Tara, the Community Programs Coordinator, met with the four Voices in Residence about the music we'll be singing on the education tour. There is a LOT of music, people. Seriously, it would have felt like a lot even if we had it in hand before we arrived, but as it is, it feels a bit overwhelming. The schools have a choice of three programs, and although they use much of the same music, the longest one has something like 70 minutes of music. We start staging these at the end of next week already! Additionally, we start rehearsing the music for the Choral Collaborative Concert soon as well - this is the Nov. 2 concert that many of you are attending.
A word about Tara, the Community Programs Coordinator at OO - this is Tara Cowherd, a very good friend of mine from Dordt College. We have known each other for 10 years, since I was a freshman at Dordt and this nice upperclassman started talking to me at a vocal competition. One of Tara's three sisters, Laura, was one of my roommates a couple years later, by which time Tara was already working in the music business at the Omaha Symphony and singing in the OO chorus.
Speaking of singing, it's probably time for me to get back to learning music. While we were very busy on Monday with rehearsals, Sarah and I actually had yesterday off (although the men had a staging rehearsal). I spent much of the day getting myself organized and learning music, as well as nursing a bit of a cold I picked up right before I left Minneapolis. Today I don't have rehearsal until the evening, so it's back to the music scores for now! This is the great thing about living as a singer instead of working a day job while trying to sing - while I have rehearsals in the evening, I can spend my days learning music. I haven't been able to do this since grad school (and then I was doing coursework, too)!
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