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!

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!