A New Season

A new season for Opera Grand Rapids is just around the corner so I guess it is time to dust off the blog. The only problem is that this is a blog about singing in the chorus and the first opera of the season doesn't have a chorus. Hmmm, what to do? Well, we are trying to keep the chorus singers busy by doing some smaller sings. Last week we had a group sing at a party for a local law firm's 125th anniversary. It was a lot of fun, but also challenging. We are used to singing and moving and interacting, but not among a group of people who don't realize what we are doing. Yes, it was a flash mob. I think the unexpectant audience enjoyed our brindisi (the drinking song from La Traviata) and I appreciated the wine and bruschetta!

Closing Night

We had a good opening last night and now we close the show tonight.  In a way it seems like we have been doing this show for a long time (we started chorus rehearsals at the beginning of August), but really we only perform for an audience three times.  Samson + Delilah is a big show to tackle, especially on a tight budget, but I believe that Opera Grand Rapids did it again.  We all should be proud of the work we have done.  Now, let's go out in triumph and die one last time in the temple of Dagon.

Opening Night

Opening night is only a few hours away.  Hope everyone is ready!  Samson + Delilah begins with the chorus wandering the stage as the enslaved Hebrew people, lamenting their plight.  Dieu!  God!  Dieu d'Israel!  The people call out to the God of Israel and then Samson appears among them to rally their spirits.  And so it begins; the Biblical tale of the heroic Samson who kills a lion with his bare hands, but falls prey to a seductress!

Dark Day

Today is our dark day; no rehearsal or show.  I still have to work all day and go to a different rehearsal tonight, but I should get home at a decent time.  The final dress rehearsal last night went okay.  We had some glitches, but no train wrecks.  The Grand Rapids Symphony is sounding awesome, as usual, and the Grand Valley State University dancers look beautiful...and handsome...in the bachanal.  I even get to join in dancing with some of them during an earlier scene.  It's always fun to be able to dance in a show!
The chorus isn't in Act II and I was hoping to be able to watch it from backstage at some point, but taking a short nap was necessary in order for me to make it through Act III since I haven't had much sleep for the past week.
I hope to be able to watch Act II on opening night.

Chorus women rehearsing in the dressing room before the orchestra dress rehearsal.  Yes, we do act like this.

A Change of Tenor

Opera is always an adventure.  The best thing about live theater is that it is always changing.  Sometimes the changes surprise you.  The tenor we had hired to sing Samson had to leave because of personal reasons (it's personal, so I didn't ask) and Maestro Lyall had to call in another tenor to step in and assume the title role.  This isn't the first time that I've been a part of a show where someone had to be replaced and I'm sure it won't be the last time, either.  This is life; people get sick.  Life interuptus.  But, the show must go on.  Frank Porretta, a natural Samson (long hair and all), has jumped into the role and is taking contol of the DeVos Hall stage. We are very fortunate that Frank has agreed to come sing with us considering that this is the time he scheduled off to be with his wife and newborn baby.  Here's a link to the Press Release: Grand Rapids Press Article.

Time to dust off the Blog again!

It's been some time, but I finally decided to get back to the blog.  Opera Grand Rapids is in chorus rehearsal for Samson + Delilah by Saint Saens.  Once again I am dealing with the French language.  I actually really love the language; I just have some issues memorizing it. I would love to spend an extended time in France to learn the language, but that isn't going to happen any time soon so now I have to work on repetition instead.  So far I have been working on my notes (I sing the alto line) with a keyboard and rewriting the French on my computer so I can make note cards for when we start staging.  One more chorus rehearsal with Maestro Duane Davis on Monday and then we start staging on the weekend.  Time to buckle-down and get comfortable with this score!

operagr.com

Final Dress

Tonight is our final rehearsal for Manon Lescaut before we debut the show on Friday night. Tonight will be the test to see if we have everything ready and how an audience will react. We expect around 1,500 students from local colleges, middle schools and high schools to attend. It is exciting to do a show that has never been performed here before, and you would think that after over 40 years we would have done every Puccini out there, but there still are a few that we haven’t performed. I hope that we can do La Fanciulla del West some day but, like Manon Lescaut, Faciulla is a work that is not often presented by companies the size of Opera Grand Rapids. A successful Manon Lescaut may lead to more variety in our repertoire. I sure hope it does.

Sturm und Drang

The principals came into town on Monday night. Poor Jill Gardner (Manon) was delayed a number of times and didn’t make it until after 9pm! So we went ahead and worked through most of Act 1 without her. On Tuesday we finished Act 1 and worked on Act 3 with an impending blizzard bearing down on Michigan. Wednesday was Act 2 and now we have to go back over everything to make sure we all know what we are doing. Act 4 doesn’t involve the chorus so the principals will work on those scenes during the daytime rehearsals with Maestro Lyall. From what I could hear from my office this afternoon, I do believe that Marco and Jill were going over Act 4 today. On Friday night we will run the whole show for the Tech people to watch and on Saturday we will sing the whole opera with the Grand Rapids Symphony for the first time. I always love that first sing with the orchestra because it really brings the music to life.

Hopefully we won’t encounter any more storms to interrupt our drama.

An Early Start

Opera Grand Rapids started the staging of the chorus for Puccini’s Manon Lescaut last week. This is a new twist to our normal schedule. Usually the chorus meets a couple times in December to get our music and run through the score. After a holiday break, we gather again on Monday nights in January with Chorus Master Duane Davis. Then, a couple weeks before the show, Maestro Lyall comes into town and we work on staging the production. For Manon Lescaut, Maestro has opted to come into Grand Rapids early to work exclusively with the chorus and supers. I have to admit that I like getting the staging earlier because it helps with musical timing and memorization. Some people find the “stand and sing” to be easy, but I need to move around and have a motivation to really feel the words and music. In Manon Lescaut the chorus is involved in a card game which may prove to be a challenge both musically and theatrically. Have you ever watched a production where the characters are obviously just standing there waiting to sing? Ugh! My favorite director’s quote is “If you don’t have a purpose to be here, get off my stage!” So everyone should be actively doing something at all times on stage and the challenge is to make it all seem effortless and natural. Opera is so much more than just singing pretty!

Puccini's First Hit

Opera Grand Rapids has started chorus rehearsals for the February showing of Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. In recent years we have presented the more famous works of Puccini: Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme and Turandot. Maestro Lyall and the Board of Opera Grand Rapids decided it was time to try the very first success that the master had composed, Manon Lescaut.

Since Opera Grand Rapids has not performed this show before, none of the chorus singers, or the pianist, or the chorus master has a past in which to refer. Usually Maestro Davis can recall tempos and cuts in music that Maestro Lyall has done in previous performances. Now the two Maestros have to have long phone conversations about particulars in the score.

And that leads me to the score itself. Whoa. I have been working on this music for most of the past two weeks and I don’t feel like I have even made a dent in my memorization or knowledge of the notes! I am very grateful that we started music rehearsals this early because if we had started at our normal date, mid December, I would be very scared. We are a chorus of 42 men and women who are divided into characters of students, girls, citizens, and villagers. Some of the chorus members also sing a Madrigal part and others are coupled as Beaus and Abbes. The confusing aspect is that we are all interacting at the same time, but singing different parts based on our characters. Our rehearsal last night was challenging, but then I remind myself that the challenge is why I started singing opera.

Am I up to this challenge?

Joyful Noise

Porgy and Bess will be performed this weekend at DeVos Hall. Since I am not in that chorus, I accepted a role in a community theater show called Joyful Noise at Master Arts Theater. The ironic thing is that I play an opera singer. We opened our show this past Thursday and will continue this weekend and next (through May 8). When I am at work during the day at the Betty Van Andel Opera Center, I can hear the leads for Porgy and Bess rehearsing and am humbled by their talent. It makes me feel like I am not worthy to even “act” the part of a true opera singer; even in community theater!
Darla Wortley, another Opera Grand Rapids chorus singer, is also in Joyful Noise and she too plays an opera singer. Darla is a strong soprano and her character is a comedian actress who fights my character for parts. We actually get to have a “cat fight” which is a lot of fun. The show is about the time when Handel wrote the Messiah oratorio. It was a low time in Handel’s life and he almost gave up on composing. London did not appreciate his works, and the church took offense at the idea of having Drury Lane actresses sing passages from the Holy Scripture, so it was a tumultuous experience. The show is endearing, funny and educational all at the same time.

Another Dead Soprano

Fellow chorus member, Christian Vigrass, posted a Facebook status of “Another opera sung, another dead soprano.” That sums up most tragic operas and Pagliacci is no exception. I had a good time rehearsing and performing this little gem and I wish that Leoncavallo had written more verismo operas of this caliber. It was nice to work with Mark Rucker (Tonio) and Georgia Jarman (Nedda) again. I worked with Mark in Tosca and he is set to do our Rigoletto next November. Georgia was Violetta the last time we did La Traviata and I hope she returns again someday.

The next show of our season is Porgy and Bess which has a contractual obligation to cast an all African-American chorus. Since I am Dutch-American, I do not fit into this category and won’t be onstage for this opera. Even though I can’t participate, I am excited to have OGR perform Gershwin’s story of Catfish Row again since the last time it was very successful.

Opera Grand Rapids has finally moved to our permanent home at the Betty Van Andel Opera Center. We are unpacking and trying to adjust to new phone and computer systems as well as new furniture and fixtures. My office is disorganized and I am not sure what to do first, next and last. I think I need a break from opera for a few days!

Dress Rehearsals

We have started our Dress Rehearsals for Pagliacci at DeVos Hall. Usually we have a “stumble through” on Sunday night, a rehearsal in costume on Monday and then two reads with the Grand Rapids Symphony on Tuesday and Wednesday. For Pagliacci we didn’t get our Sunday night time on the stage so Monday night became a costumed stumble. It is now Tuesday and all of West Michigan is getting hit with a lot of snow which isn’t expected to stop until tomorrow afternoon and we hope that all the local singers and musicians can make it into town from the outlying areas. I live on the lakeshore so it may take me a long time to get home tonight since Lake Michigan likes to dump more snow on the shoreline counties. For now, we will hope that God will be kind and spare this area from too much winter weather.

Opera by flashlight

Opera Grand Rapids has started the staging rehearsals for Pagliacci at an empty old storefront that we have christened Franks Rehearsal Hall and Crafts. We have used Franks a couple of times in the past, the last time being during a blizzard three years ago when only one heater was working in the entire space. Last nights rehearsal added to the lore of Franks when the power to all businesses (and traffic lights) went out on 28th street at Breton. We were scheduled to work through the big scene at the beginning of the opera which involves the adult chorus, kids chorus, principals and extras (aka supers). Instead of staging in the dark, we used a couple book lights and flashlights to go over music for an hour before determining that the power was not going to come on in time for us to get any work done. Maestro Lyall has asked that we extend tonight’s rehearsal an extra half hour to make up for some of the time lost. We only have use of this space through Friday night and there is an entire opera to stage by then so we need all the time we can beg, borrow, or steal.

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.

Pagliacci

Pagliacci

Who doesn’t enjoy a crazy, murderous clown? I have always thought clowns were a bit creepy, so this show ought to reinforce my opinion. I have searched YouTube for performances of Vesti la giubba and my favorite is a Coke commercial where a little boy is watching from backstage and walks out to hand Canio a Coke to make him feel better. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAUDHxDYMMo) You have to see it; it’s absolutely adorable!

We started music rehearsals for the chorus last Monday. There are 40 choristers and it is nice to have more people both for the voices and the camaraderie. We had about half this number in Cosi fan tutte, and not much to do in performance, so a lot of chorus members were bored during the long rehearsals the week of the show. In fact, we almost got in a lot of trouble when a baritone started a debauchery game of “Name that tune” which resulted in too much laughter in the theater while the principals were staging. It is always a good idea to keep the chorus busy or we will find trouble.

My music room is painted and put in order, but I need to sort through all my music and get it filed neatly by genre before I will be satisfied. For now I can rehearse my Pagliacci music and the concert pieces I will be playing on my flute at the end of January. I am still using a keyboard and may give up on the idea of a piano since they require a lot of care and I don’t have the resources to keep up with the never-ending tunings.

Now we have a break for the holidays and return to music rehearsals on January 4. I hope to have the music we worked on memorized by that night so I will be off to a good start. The Opera Grand Rapids office is closed from Christmas Eve until the 4th and that gives me a lot of time to work on my music room as well as my materials. As long as I don’t procrastinate, it ought to be a productive time.

Final Dress for Cosi

Last night was our final dress rehearsal for Cosi Fan Tutte and it went rather well. We are very relieved to finish in less than three hours which was doubtful when we started rehearsing. The principals really carry this show and it is definitely a group effort. The two couples are absolutely adorable and Despina (Abigail Nims) is cunning, charming and silly all at the same time. One of the funniest scenes is when the men drink poison and are revived by Despina in disguise. Jeremy Kelly and Norman Shankle act up the melodrama as Sarah Jane McMahon and Phyllis Pancella fret and flitter upon the stage. The chorus only pops in a few times and are not all that integral to the storyline; but then, the story is a bit shaky as it is so it doesn’t really matter if a group of townspeople are there for a reason or not. Don’t think too hard about Cosi Fan Tutte, just sit back and enjoy the music and antics of the show.

Costume Fitting

On Monday we had our last chorus music rehearsal for Cosi fan tutte before heading to the rehearsal space next week. The costume shop is up and running in an old storefront at CenterPointe Mall and the chorus has been fit. My costume is brown, beige and orange with a brown and green hat. It isn’t the prettiest outfit, but it doesn’t itch or pinch so I won’t complain. Tracey pinned up my skirt and took in the waist of the belt and vest so I am sure she will have it looking great by our dress rehearsals the week before the show. We won’t be wearing wigs so I need to think about how to do my hair with my hat. When I started singing with OGR we had wig and make-up people for every production. Now, our funds have been cut to the point where the chorus brings in their own make-up and we do our own hair styles. I prefer to do my hair and make-up unless my character is a Geisha (Madama Butterfly) or Spanish Gypsy (Carmen). It isn’t difficult to do a Peasant look.
Our Production Manager, Cat, is getting our rehearsal space ready for the principals to start practicing this weekend. The principals should be getting into town today and will be welcomed with a dinner party at the Irwin’s house tonight before the two weeks of chaotic rehearsal starts. The weather is cold and rainy today and may snow by Sunday night which makes for an unpleasant welcome to Grand Rapids. On a more pleasant note, ArtPrize is finishing this weekend and I hope our visitors will get a chance to see some of the great art we have on display around the city.