Sunday of Lesley

Yes, It's The Opera With The Anvils

I have to admit, I never really cared for Trovatore.

I've seen SO many productions of this opera...wait, let me rephrase...I've seen so many BAD productions of this opera. And that can certainly damage your opinion of the show, no matter how brilliant the music.

However.

Our recent Opera Pacific production was REALLY well done. It was innovative without getting crazy (what's up with all the naked people onstage at LA Opera recently??), and had some really wonderful acting, which helps any production tremendously. I ended up standing in the wings watching most of the show every night. Go figure!

I had a lot of fun with this show, primarily because there was a great group of supers. Bill, Zane, James, Craig, and of course Ada, the only other lady super. Ada and I got to wear very pretty green dresses and hang out on stage a lot. Didn't do much when we were out there, but like I said, the dresses were pretty, so we looked good!

One of the women playing Leonora was Turid, who turned out to be one of my favorite principals ever! I saw her standing in the wings one night about 15 minutes before she was supposed to go on, which surprised me because most principals wait until the last minute. But she told me that she adores watching the show from the wings - "it feeds my soul," she said. How cool is she?? I heard somewhere that she got into professional opera at a relatively late age (for opera singers). What I do know is that every time I saw her, she looked like she was having the time of her life, and absolutely thrilled to be where she was and doing what she was. What an incredibly great person to work with.

The classic super moment of the run: Bill and I were wandering around backstage, chatting and not really paying attention to where we were going, and we walked right into a jazz cabaret show in Founders Hall! There were raised eyebrows and murmurs when I, dressed as a medieval courtier, walked in...but when Bill, dressed in full medieval cardinal garb, walked through the door, there was stunned silence. The look on the patrons' faces was priceless! Bill and I smiled cheerily at them, turned around, and got the heck out of there!

The fact that it was me and Bill that did it made it even funnier. I mean, between the two of us we've probably done 30 or 40 operas. We're the old-timers that really should have known better! But oh my, it was funny.

It also brings to mind the time a couple of supers were wandering around backstage, chatting and not paying attention to where they were, then suddenly realizing they were onstage! I mean, what does one DO at that point? I can't ask them; I believe that was the last opera they were ever in...

Send me your opera stories! I'll post them if you like, and everyone can enjoy them. Also feel free to send me pictures that I can share with the other supers; I don't have pictures of every show, but would love to post 'em if you've got 'em.

Check out the Photo Gallery page for Trovatore and Boheme pictures! I’m also in the process of downloading tons of pictures from other shows, so look in from time to time.

Posted by Lesley at October 23, 2003 07:29 PM