opera summer 2017, #4

I actually have days off this week!  It's a miracle!  (no, Emily, it's just balancing out from last week.)  This is great, because I have a duet to work on that is definitely in the crunch-time category ... and also need to be off-book on the Mozart by Sunday ... y'know, no big.

Day 7, part 2 (Saturday afternoon, Suor): This was a focused session with myself and Sister Angelica, playing with and fine-tuning the scene where I announce the carriage has arrived and Angelica freaks out just a little bit.  (A lot.  But quietly!)  So we ran the scene  - which is ... four pages of music?  maybe a little more?  my score's in my office and I can't be bothered to move - something like a dozen times, starting with the rough staging and character decisions we'd worked out in the larger rehearsals, then narrowing our choices down, talking about what's being communicated and what isn't and how to tweak that, trying different choices, etc.  Do I clue into how high the stakes are for Angelica?  If so, when?  And when does Angelica really realize this might be her family?  How do I react to Angelica getting right up in my face, asking about the inside of the carriage (which I have no way of knowing about)?  How does Angelica react when she doesn't get the information she wants - and when she drives me away?  Repeating the scene with all these minor changes not only helps us feel what's right for our interpretations of the characters, but also what feels right with the music - and, of course, solidifies our synchronicity with the music.

Day 8 (Sunday evening, Idomeneo): Another run-through of all the chorus numbers.  We had both the bass and soprano soloists this week, so the quartet sections went much better this time, and everyone was tighter in general.  After we worked on the music for about an hour and a half, we took a short break, then got into staging.  The area we'll be playing this in isn't a typical auditorium or hall space: we're working with an open-concept rock garden sort of idea, and we'll all basically be on stage at all times (or at least visible to the audience at all times).  This makes it awfully hard to tape out on the floor of our staging building, for one, and also means that it's really hard to actually know where we'll be at any given time.  The staging will, be necessity, be loose.  I'm okay with this: as long as we have clear intentions, the movement should follow.  It is a little nerve-wracking though.  We also talked about setting and costuming.  The director is moving the story forward to near-present day Greece, bringing to mind the refugee crises in the area today.  This is going to be very interesting ... 

Tonight we have another full run of Suor followed by some more scene work.  Four hour rehearsal instead of three.  Today, I'm working on getting the Mozart off-book and also solidifying the Gounod duet.