More French!

Just as I thought I was progressing with my music and language nicely, Maestro has added music for the women. The women are now singing along with the men on two pieces which should be fun. I prefer to have more to sing and do rather than less. The first piece we join in is the Chorale of the Swords when Mephistopheles is repelled with the broken sword held up as a cross. This is a powerful moment and full voices are definitely needed so I can see why Maestro would add the women. Most companies would use a chorus of 40 or 50 men, but we are confined to use only 24 so the additional 16 women will help with the double fortissimo that is called for in the score. The second men’s piece that we join is the Soldiers chorus. This is the music that is most recognizable (to me at least) from this opera and it is a great triumphal moment which, again, is double fortissimo. This extra music should not be too taxing and it should be fun to sing on stage. I am looking forward to starting staging in a couple of weeks when the Maestro and principals come into town. We have a shortened rehearsal period for this show, so we will be doing all the preliminary staging in four days rather than the normal eight, before we hit the DeVos Hall stage for the technical rehearsals. Things are going to get crazy real soon!

En Français

Music rehearsals for Faust are going well. The men have more to sing than the women this time so they had one more rehearsal than we did. We still have three more music rehearsals with Maestro Davis before Maestro Lyall comes into town for staging.
My studies in French are developing at a slow pace. Our Production Manager, Cat, said a simple sentence to me in French the other day and I had to ask her to translate. Some days it feels like one step forward and two steps back. My goal is to be able to understand the French of Faust in my head as I am performing rather than just singing the words with only a concept of the text. I wish I had taken French in college rather than trying to learn it on my own now. Faust and other French operas would be a lot easier to sing if I knew what I was saying!
The music of Faust is not difficult. There are a couple of possible tricky parts, but I don’t see any train wrecks so far. We have two sections that are sung rather fast, depending on Maestro’s tempo, and at least one part that is very slow, again depending on Maestro. The fast parts make the language difficult and the slow parts make breathing (breath control) hard. I plan on using repetition to get the fast language to flow fluently and staggered breathing to make it through the slow moments.
So far I feel rather confident with the memorization of the words and music. I hope I am not being overly optimistic. Only time will tell how well I learn French and Faust.

Faust

Faust rehearsals have begun. Last Monday we had our first look at the music of Gounod’s Faust (not to be confused with The Damnation of Faust by Berlioz). This production is sung in French, which can be intimidating at times, and we are fortunate to have a French teacher, Jill Marrese, in our chorus to help with the language. Jill has recorded a language tutor for each of the voice parts and that is always a great help!

Most people have heard of the phrase “he sold his soul to the devil” which is the story of the scholar Faust, his love Marguerite and the devil Mephistopheles. Faust is an aging scholar who laments that he is tired of living and welcomes death until he hears a song of springtime and praise to God. He then spurns God and calls on Satan in his despair. So begins the downward spiral of events which culminates in Marguerite being raised to Heaven after committing murder and Faust being left to serve his debt with Satan. Not exactly a happy ending; but very powerful and definitely great theater.

Personally, I believe that Satan should not be taken lightly. The story of Faust should be a warning call to all who believe they can get what they want with evil ways. Fortunately there is a moral/religious line running throughout the opera which keeps the story from being too macabre. Moral of the story: don’t mess with the devil!

I will now take up my broken sword in the sign of the cross and stride forward to the challenge of French, Faust and Mephistopheles.

Finale

The Elixir of Love performed its magic. All the hard work and late nights finally paid off and we had a fun weekend run. I really did enjoy the performances and the performers who joined in the frolic of Donizetti. There were times when we were not sure how this was going to end; but at the final curtain we were all very proud of our little comedy. One of the hardest scenes that the women of the chorus had was what we called “chasing Nemorino”. After Gianetta informs us that Nemorino is now a millionaire, we all suddenly want his attention and chase him around the stage en masse. This was also affectionately referred to as “the amoeba” since we were grouped closely together. During rehearsals there were many times when we stepped on each others feet and even a time when Gianetta was almost trampled as she fell in the mass of women because someone had stepped on her foot and she had no where else to go but down. By the final dress rehearsal we had the scene worked out, with the help of soprano Kristin in the back of the pile directing traffic, and Nemorino dictating the flow with his movements. This was a scene that I dreaded in rehearsal, but became my favorite once we hit performance.
Now I am proud to write down Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love on my resume and seal it with a red kiss from the last bits of blood still left in me.
Salute!

Comedy Tonight!

Tonight is opening night for The Elixir of Love. We had a "dark" night yesterday which just means that we get a night off to rest before we open. Since opera is theater that is totally sung, the performers benefit from resting their voices before a performance. I have to admit that I did not rest last night. I did run through all of the chorus material to make sure that I was confidant on my notes and words. This opera is a lot of work for the chorus and we did make mistakes at the final dress rehearsal on Wednesday so I needed to do some more work rather than sleeping!
Usually the chorus has a lot of "down" time during the show as the principals have their big aria moments. In Elixir we have some of that time during the second act. For this show we don't have enough time to go sit in the dressing rooms, so we sit in the wings and listen to the leads do their thing. Needless to say, sometimes we also get a little carried away with antics while waiting back stage. During Tosca last fall, those of us in the nun habits got a little warm during our scenes and sat in the wings with our costumes pulled up above our knees in order to cool off. It must have been interesting to see the "sisters" looking so decadent! In Elixir, one chorus soprano is about 5 months pregnant so the rest of us always make sure that she has a chair back stage and that nobody bumps into her as we run around on stage. It is always a different show from the stage perspective than from the audience. Even a serious drama can turn into a comedy beyond the curtain. Just imagine what a comedy romp could escalate into!

DeVos Hall, here we come!

We are on stage at last! Sunday night was a true “stumble through” as we all dealt with real buildings (rather than plastic) and stairs that take more time to walk than flat flooring. The chorus is doing a lot of the set changes and we are not familiar with having to move tables, chairs and full buildings on rollers! Try this; walk through a couple rooms in your house, then run around the perimeter, now move a large piece of furniture that is set on rollers, turn around and SING! That is how I am starting “The Elixir of Love”. I’m sure that after a few more tries it will become easier and we will all be joking about how nervous we were at first. We did not get to run through the whole show last night so I am hoping that the rehearsal flows better tonight without all the stops and starts of scene changes. One of the best moments is when the car comes on stage. We are all holding our collective breath that the car will start, keep running and then not hit any scenery. Trent does a great job driving so I am not all that worried. The car and Dulcamara’s elisir wagon are fabulous to see and I think the audience will love the gags and gimmicks. This show has a lot of funny moments, and a few tender and loving moments also. If you are still looking for a romantic idea for this weekend, look no farther than The Elixir of Love.

Drunk on Love

We are in the middle of our staging rehearsals and things are going well. There is a lot for the chorus to do in this opera. Some of our responsibilities include moving set pieces while singing in character. Since we are in our rehearsal space right now and do not have our actual set pieces, we have to mimic the action with large sheets of plastic and other rehearsal props. Our rehearsal space has large windows facing out to a parking lot adjacent to a Best Buy store. I am sure that anyone who happens to walk or drive by probably wonders why these people are wandering through an old Dunham’s store carrying large sheets of plastic.

The scene we worked on blocking last night is when the townspeople fall for Dr. Dulcamara’s “elisir” and get drunk on what is really just wine. At the end of the first Act, the town meets the good doctor and is sold on his “remedy for whatever ails you”. The second Act starts with the townspeople falling all over each other in a drunken stupor, thinking that they are cured of their troubles, and celebrating the marriage proposal of Adina and Belcore. We sing a "brindisi", which is a drinking song. Our Stage Director, Matthew Lata, uses every opportunity to add “shtick” where he can and the chorus is having fun interacting with the principals. The women of the chorus have the best part; we get to hug and surround Belcore (Baritone, Matthew Worth). We are definitely fighting for position when called on to cluster around a handsome man! Being in the chorus does have its bonuses, after all. To see what all the fuss is about, check out Matthew’s web page http://www.herbertbarrett.com/artist.php?id=mworth. Not only is he handsome, but he also wears a very soft sweater that we were all petting last night. Who says opera isn’t fun?

The chorus has a night off and then will finish staging this week. On Saturday we will have our sitzprobe, which basically means sit and sing, with the Symphony. It is nice to hear the full orchestration before hitting the DeVos Hall stage in a “stumble through” on Sunday. We will then have a couple more rehearsals in which we add costumes, make-up, more props, and lighting. It is always amazing how much the show evolves from Sunday until Wednesday, which is our final rehearsal before opening night.

It will be a long 10 days, but always worth the hassle.