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...
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