opera summer 2017, #2

I realized at some point since I posted last that I forgot to mention a super important part of score study: markings.  Tempo, dynamics, articulations, all that.  (The reason I forgot is because this is still the bit I don't do nearly enough.)  This is another reason to watch/listen to performances, because some of these things ... aren't actually written in.  They're just done that way.  Some scores, what you see is what you get; some scores, there's a whole slough of performance practice things that aren't written in, and you gotta find out or else you're gonna look a little dumb.  (If you're a newbie you don't usually get in much trouble, but you better fix it fast.)  This also applies to how much rit. you do in this particular measure, or how much freedom you get in this specific col canto, or how long this tenuto is, etc etc etc.  This is especially true for composers like Puccini.  You gotta listen, man.  You gotta.

Anyway.  Since last I wrote I had one more rehearsal...

Day 3 (Tuesday, Suor Angelica): picked up where we left off, staging the scene where I announce a fancy-ass coach is outside the gate, and everyone gets their knickers in a twist wondering who it might be.  Straight-forward staging.  We also reworked the opening scene and one other, since we had a singer drop out for health reasons (and also reworking things is important for us to remember them).  We got some notes on how to sound more like an angelic choir in the first scene (clean, early cutoffs, prep your vowels early, as much breath support as possible, be gentle with articulators bc there's a dozen sopranos singing more or less in unison and if we're not gentle we'll blow everyone away whether we try to or not), and I worked with the vocal coach on my solo lines (figuring out how to get my open o's after w-glides into my soft palate, 'cause right now they're slipping back into my throat and sounding old - one of those things that sounds good in my ears when I'm singing it, but doesn't translate well - also cleaning up a couple entrances and making sure of doubled consonants).

Tonight we are moving forward to the end of the opera, because our remaining principal still isn't in town.  So: finale chorus stuff.  I need to look over the page numbers and make sure I know what I'm doing - I marked one divisi part down wrong in my score so I need to go over what I'm actually supposed to be singing.  Then tomorrow night I start rehearsal for the other opera I'm working on, Idomeneo - and I need to look at all that again today too, as well as a stand-in solo bit that the music director asked me to do yesterday.  That'll be fun.