A little over a week ago we started music rehearsals for Queen of Spades, Houston Grand Opera’s exciting spring production, opening April 16. The last opera I did with HGO was CHORUS! -- a production created for our chorus and an amazing personal and artistic experience. It has been about a year since I have sat in the Big Circle on the 6th floor of The Wortham, working through giant operatic choral pieces with some of Houston’s finest singers -- with the music emerging under the outrageous musical and artistic skill of Maestro Richard Bado.
The yards of tongue twisting Russian finally begin to sink in - with strands of music running through my head … ah, sweet memorization!
I’ll be the official blogging chorister for HGO during The Queen of Spades production. Lots of pics and fun to follow. There’s puppets in this show, so watch out!
Kim Witman of the Wolf Trap Opera Company is celebrating today’s announcement of the WTOC 2010 season by doing guest blog posts and interviews in a few places across the blogosphere.
WTOC – like Houston Grand Opera – has a particular commitment to emerging artists.How does this influence your programming? (I note you choose your programming post- audition tour).
It influences our programming heavily, because all of the roles and assignments in all of our projects are performed by our emerging professional singers.(There are no other singers in the WTOC; emerging artists form our entire roster.)Because the typical 20-something singer isn’t trafficking in heavy roles in romantic opera, we almost never do any of those big grand opera or verismo pieces.(Things like Tosca, Aida, Pagliacci, etc.)And yes, we program our repertoire after the audition tour – it allows us to identify the best singers and then respond by choosing operas that contain roles that they could sing well at this point in their careers.
What purpose do Instant Opera and recital programs have in the training of emerging artists? How do they amplify or complement the mainstage experience? What do they offer audience?
Instant Opera is going into its sixth season, and it has become an even bigger asset to our program than we had hoped.Because its two basic building blocks are improvisation and recitative, the participating singers come out of that project with significantly enhanced theatrical and musical skills in those areas.Instant Opera gives us a way to connect with family audiences in the way that our mainstage identity typically doesn’t.
Our recital programming (both with Steven Blier, and more recently, as part of the Vocal Colors mini-recital partnership with the Phillips Collection in Washington DC) gives our singers a chance to develop the non-operatic part of their careers, and these projects offer an opportunity for a completely different kind of musical growth that complements the operatic experiences at Wolf Trap.
Doing new productions puts both audience and artists in an interesting, potentially quite advantageous position with respect to the piece –share your thinking on this aspect of your program?
There are both functional and philosophical sides to our commitment to doing new productions.
Functionally, our theatre is so unusual and specific in its technical requirements and size that we would limit ourselves severely if we were to only (or primarily) consider operas for which we could rent sets.It’s probably not that much more expensive for us to create our own than it would be to rent, ship, and modify someone else’s production.
And philosophically, it not only gives us a chance to participate in the careers of an entire generation of designers, it gives the singers a chance to be present for the life cycle of a new production and have costumes build specifically for them.There’s a creative energy that the director/designers team brings that spills over to the rest of the staff and cast.
Times Are Hard (aren’t they always?). What do you see ahead for the art form, and for those who make opera, and what if anything do you think companies and artists need to do (or do differently)to continue to be viable? What role do programs like WTOC and HGO Studio play?
I never see this expression without hearing Mrs. Lovett sing "Times is haaard, times is haard!"
If I really had the answer to this question, I’d probably be much more in demand than I am.None of us really know what’s ahead, but it’s incumbent on us not to take anything for granted.Most importantly, we need to constantly be on the lookout for what matters and be willing to let go of things that don’t.And as boring as it sounds, we just need to be fiscally conservative.The companies that are struggling and even going under aren’t necessarily the ones whose artistic standards weren’t up to snuff.They simply just couldn’t pay for what they bought.Those of us in the arts too often think we’re above such mundane discussions, and heaven knows that it’s painful to walk away from some of your dreams and fondest desires.To top it all off, some people do get away with it, and so we think we’ll always be lucky too.
What role do programs like WTOC play? We need to turn out singers and other aspiring opera professionals (coaches, administrators, directors, and technical staff) who are regularly practiced in reconciling their artistic selves with their realist, pragmatic selves. We should all practice this balancing act and instill a tolerance for it in our emerging artists, so that they not only can stay afloat as businessmen and women, but so that their muse can stay strong while they’re doing it.
Tosca has so much lore about it, from strange supertitles to the famous staging nightmares of the final scene, and it all began at Tosca’s opening night. The original conductor, the renowned but nervous Leopold Mugnone, was told before entering the pit that there might be a bomb threat, and if anything untoward happened he should immediately begin conducting the National Anthem!
There have been many tales of bumbled final scenes: misfirings of the firing squad (they supposedly once shot Tosca instead of Cavaradossi)—or the members of the firing squad, under-rehearsed, who were told that if they got confused to “just follow Tosca.” They apparently did, one by one, over the parapet, falling to their supposed death.
Tosca was an unfortunate victim of at least one early supertitle incident, the title character’s admonition to the painter Cavaradossi to paint the eyes of the Madonna black, "Ma falle gli occhi neri....!", in order to make the painting look less like Miss Attavanti and more like Tosca. In one early set of supertitles, though, the line, which literally means “but make her eyes black,” was translated as “give her two black eyes,” resulting in unwanted hilarity.
Though none quite as hilarious as what purportedly happened to a supposedly well-upholstered and unloved soprano who, upon her jump, realized that the stage crew had replaced the usual buffers of her fall with a trampoline, causing the fall to death scene to happen again and again with her rebounds.
Some of the actual lore is moving indeed: in San Francisco, Tosca was the opera which opened the War Memorial Opera House, conducted by the company's founder, conductor Gaetano Merola. More than 25 years after the devastating earthquake of 1906, San Francisco finally got its opera house. The audience, packed with Italians, reacted unexpectedly to the opera's opening word, "finalmente!"(finally!), sung by Angelotti, expressing his relief at having reached the church safely. The audience broke into applause that they "finally!" had their opera house.
Wagner's mystical Lohengrin opened Friday Oct. 30. Here's what our patrons are saying about Wagner's mythic intrigue!
"As I try to describe what I felt during and after HGO's amazing production of Lohengrin, I keep coming back to this: WOW! This production is one of the the best opera performances I have seen--I should say 'experienced'--in Houston. Patrick Summers and Richard Bado are brilliant at bringing such beautiful, large, other-worldly sounds out of the orchestra and chorus. Every single cast member is spot-on perfect. I'm going back!"--Beth Cunningham
"Christine Goerke (Ortrud) and Adrianne Pieczonka (Elsa) were just amazing. The orchestra and chorus blew me away." (anonymous)
"It's not very often that we get to hear Wagner. I've seen many productions at the Bayreuth Festival but I've never seen Lohengrin before tonight. The singing is excellent." --Ed Lieberman
"It's a great show!"--A.P.
"The music is really beautiful. I never thought a man singing almost without orchestra, standing over a simple library table could make me weep."--M.L.
A supernumerary is an additional member of an organization. There are supernumerary actors, knights, ladies, professors, police, ministers, judges, military personnel, and writers. In this blog I refer only to the “actor” part of that definition. Many times they are called supers for short. At Houston Grand Opera, supers are folks on the stage who do EVERYTHING but sing.
The top ten 10 ½ worst things that can happen to a supernumerary during an opera:
10.5 Having to wear tights/dance belt
10 Having to wear tights/dance belt that are TOO tight
9. Getting spit on by opera singers (They spit a lot when they sing. I mean GALLONS.)
8. An opera singer does something completing unrehearsed on stage (It’s okay, they‘re only acting.)
7. Singing along with forty other men in the chorus and having the conductor stop rehearsal because you sound so bad that he can hear you (never ever sing if you’re a super)
6. Making a blind entrance through a door and standing directly in front of the soprano while she is singing her aria. (This one could end your career as a super)
5. Choking on a piece of candy on stage during a 12 minute aria (Never eat on stage…EVER.)
4. Forgetting, dropping or breaking your prop (You’re a guard for goodness sake! Where is your sword?!)
3. Having your prop gun NOT shoot on cue (Don’t just yell “BANG.” They will only laugh.)
2. Having a twenty-second quick change (Quick changes almost always involve some degree of public nudity.)
1. Having to lift/carry/catch/throw an opera singer (They are not always the lightest people in the world—those high notes take a lot of muscle!—and supers ALWAYS have to lift/carry/catch/throw them.)
Set and Costume designer Bunny Christie has created quite an ingenious set for the world premiere of Andre Previn's second opera Brief Encounter. Because the story takes place mostly in the memory of the leading lady in several locations (both indoor and out), the design had to move seamlessly from living room, to snack bar, to train station, to lake and other places outdoors (just to name a few). There exists one primary set, that of the weathered grey brick train station, but sections of it disappear and change to give the feeling of a whole new location. One of the most unique is the placement of 5 trees in the interior of the train station. It works perfectly...
Trees equal leaves...and that creates challenge. Because real leaves, after being walked on all night, would create quite the mess, be unusable night after night, and would cause an unwanted sound on the stage, the hunt for reusable artificial leaves began in the HGO prop department. But that is not the whole challenge... the set calls for "British fall leaves" which are not like the orange, red and yellow fall leaves of the US, they need to be fireproof and they must behave like real natural leaves blowing in the wind.
The perfect solution was found in a completely unique company in East Sussex, England - Shirley Leaf and Petal Company. The company, which has been around for over 100 years, makes flameproof parchment leaves that will act on stage the same as a leaf in nature. Fabric leaves would fall to fast to appear real but parchment leaves should flutter and fall like real ones. AND they can make them in any color necessary- including "British Fall"! Two-thousand "greeny-brown" individual oak-leaves in various sizes were ordered.
Shirley Leaf and Petal has created leaves and flowers for fashion designers (John Galliano once made a dress covered with Shirley leather leaves), leaves for Disney's Pocahontas, rose petals for Steven Spielberg and giant dahlias for Glyndebourne. Be sure to check them out online and if you ever find yourself in England...visit their museum!
We’re currently in rehearsals for André Previn’s Brief Encounter which HGO will introduce to the world for the first time on May 1st. Besides having a blast (and no life outside rehearsal room 2), the experience of rehearsing a completely new work on this scale is proving to be one of the most demanding, exciting, and consequently rewarding musical journeys ever for me.
I am constantly grateful to be surrounded by unbelievable talent at Houston Grand Opera. This opera could not have asked for better cast members or leadership.
On the lighter side, working on this piece so far has taught me a deeper appreciation for the following things:
1. Masterpiece Theatre.
2. Tea, and the endless varieties thereof.
3. The importance of not sounding like a complete waffle-mouth while trying to replicate an authentic British accent.
On the not-so-lighter side, this experience so far has taught me the value of:
1. Taking a chance to love music that only a handful of people in this world have heard.
2. The mental and professional rewards of excruciatingly meticulous score study.
And on a much more personal level, living with this piece (which deals with the testing of relationships) has either taught or reminded me of the following things:
1. Relationships are and will always be the bedrock of our happiness and character. All the high-speed internet, yoga, HDTV, fashion, and fancy cars in the world cannot change this.
2. We are not nearly as good at nurturing those relationships as we think we are.
3. There is always something to be learned from how other cultures view relationships – even if that culture happens to speak the same language.
I’m not sure if everyone who listens to this piece for the first time will take away the same things as I have already – often times the experience of the person working or performing on the show and the person listening to it are completely different.
No matter. All the care, laughs, love, and discovery it takes to put on a new show – it’s what we like the most, isn’t it?
A little over a week ago we started music rehearsals for Queen of Spades, Houston Grand Opera’s exciting spring production, opening April 16. The last opera I did with HGO was CHORUS! -- a production created for our chorus and an amazing personal and artistic experience. It has been about a year since I have sat in the Big Circle on the 6th floor of The Wortham, working through giant operatic choral pieces with some of Houston’s finest singers -- with the music emerging under the outrageous musical and artistic skill of Maestro Richard Bado.
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