Another Monday Night of OGR Rehearsal

We worked on a lot of Act 2 of Pagliacci last night. Since there was much to go over, we didn’t have a chance to review Act 1. There was a point where Maestro Davis divided the chorus up into men and women to work separately on our parts leaving the women in the care of his assistant, Bill Bokhout, as he took the men into a side room of the church. It is very helpful to have that intrinsic focus on our words and music that we may have missed if we are looking at 4 parts all at once. Robert Byrens, our piano virtuoso, also helps with correcting our Italian and we do need a lot of help. There are times when Robert stands up from his bench and says “We need to fix something here…” because our pronunciation is beyond recognizable. All together I feel it was a very effective evening with our time well spent on delving deep into the score.

There were a few announcements: on a sad note, Henry Jansma who was a long-time Opera Grand Rapids supporter and supernumerary died after collapsing at his home back in December; and on a happy note, Ashley and Art Wallace (both members of the OGR Pagliacci chorus) are pregnant.

New Year and I resolve to learn Pagliacci.

We had our second music rehearsal for Pagliacci on Monday and will continue to have weekly rehearsals until Maestro Lyall comes into town and we start staging. This week didn’t go as well as expected and we disappointed our Chorus Director with our lack of preparation as only a few people could sing without looking at their scores. I have been recording our rehearsals so I can use that along with my keyboard to study at home and hope that by next week I will have Act One memorized. We don’t have a lot of music to learn, and the Italian isn’t hard, but some of the rhythms are tricky and the true Altos are not appreciating the notes at the top of the staff which must be held for 4-6 bars. We also had some turnover in the chorus. Life tends to interrupt art at times and people are forced to decide between the two. Stacey Urbin has joined the Mezzo/Alto team and we are happy that she is singing in her first show with Opera Grand Rapids.

My future office.

Update on The Betty Van Andel Opera Center: it looks like we will be moving the office on the Monday after Pagliacci closes. Wow! That is going to be crazy! I have started boxing up things in my office, but can’t do too much since we are in production and need to use all our resources. This is also the time of year when we announce our next season and offer our current subscribers the opportunity to renew their seats. Moving the office and announcing a season in the same breath is mad! This insanity makes Pagliacci an even more appropriate show for the time. If you see one of us in pancake make-up wandering around Fulton Street humming Vesti la giubba, just point in the direction of BVAOC and send us on our way.