Sunday of Lesley

Road Trippin’ for Opera

Lesley — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 01:14:38 +0000

I’ve been excited for ages about John Adams’ new opera, “Dr. Atomic”; I think I first heard about it a couple of years ago. I’m a huge fan of John Adams, but his operas aren’t performed all that much in Southern California, and in any case, his most recent opera was “Death of Klinghoffer”…20 years ago!!

It never occurred to me that I’d actually be able to see “Dr. Atomic” when it opened, but fate and luck smiled on me, and I have in my possession a ticket. An opening night ticket.

Yes, tomorrow night I will be at the world premiere of John Adams’ new opera. I will be in the first audience ever to see this piece, and I’m beside myself with excitement! Being at the world premiere of an opera is exciting enough, but the fact that it’s John Adams, whose work I just love…I can’t even tell you how excited I am.

I have a beautiful dress to wear and am really eager to see how the War Memorial Opera House puts on an opera premiere! I’ve been reading about it on the Internet and dropping in on music forums, and the buzz is that it’s this year’s biggest event in classical music.

So, you know, that was worth a road trip to me!

Of course, I’ve been enjoying San Francisco for the last couple of days. I’m staying very near the opera house and have been running around town with friends, eating a TON of good food, and attending some other theatre.

Which reminds me…I have to run and gussy up…the symphony tonight!

La commedia e finita

Lesley — Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:14:33 +0000

Well, Pagliacci is over, and with it ends the opera season. Very sad, but I can’t say I’m not looking forward to a bit of a break.

Who am I kidding; I’m sure I’ll miss it fiercely next week!

Beppe’s bottle never did hit any of us, the truck never ran off the edge of the stage, and nobody fell off any ladders. A very good closing weekend!

I should give more details about the run, but there was a closing party afterwards (which was great), and then we went to dinner, so my mind is a bit tired and ready to zone out and watch television. I’ll post more in a day or so. And I’ve written about the rehearsals, if you look through the archives.

I’ve put my pictures in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy! And if you have any you’d like to send me, I’ll post them in there as well!

Din Don (or is it Don Din?)

Lesley — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 22:14:49 +0000

Pagliacci has been going extremely well! We got a great review in the paper and everyone seems to love it.

Karl, Elizabeth, Michael and David came to the show on Sunday and had a wonderful time, which kind of makes it all worth it. And they send me a gigantic bouquet of flowers…made me feel quite the star!

The “wedding party” each night is great. Everyone is happy and laughing and excited, and even though it’s just a show, that kind of energy sort of builds on itself. It’s just fun. And I think happy scenes are WAY easier than tragic ones…they’re much less draining, and at the end of the night you’re ready to go out and party. I remember during Manon, nobody EVER went out…we were so exhausted from crying and screaming and getting beaten up. This doesn’t seem like as much work!

I had a chance to see the snake up close and personal…brrrrr. I must say, as far as nine-foot albino pythons go, it has a pretty little face. And darned if it didn’t have a personality. But still…brrrrr.

One of the funnier things that’s happened so far is Boris (the groom) missing our entrance! I had to walk out by myself…the chorus girls were leaning over whispering, “Oh, poor thing! Where’s your husband?” I felt quite left at the altar. Still, Boris rushed in halfway through the scene and felt terrible about it. And we’ve been teasing him mercilessly ever since, so he won’t be able to live it down for a while.

It’s been great having a big dressing room all to ourselves this time. Just us, the dancers, and the little girls, which is a nice change from a bazillion chorus girls (not that there’s anything wrong with them…). Our room is quiet and cool and smells like expensive perfume.

Beppe throws a bottle in the second act, and we have a pool going every night on where it’s going to land! We know that the stage management fully expects us to stop it from going into the orchestra pit, no matter how ungraceful it may look. Last night it went straight up in the air; the 4 of us in the front watched, horrified, as it hovered in the lights, then crashed back down to the stage. It didn’t hit any of us this time…this time. Sitting as close as I do, I get spit on by the principals every night (especially since it’s been so dry on stage), but getting beaned in the head by a prop bottle and then making a frantic dash to body-block it from the pit seems a little humiliating in front of 3,000 people.

I’ve been watching John’s “Vesti” aria every night from the wings. It’s the best staging I’ve ever seen in a production of Pagliacci, and John is such a great actor. It’s mesmerizing. And it reminds me that no matter how much fun I have hanging out downstairs with the cast, this is where the real magic is for me. This is what brings me back year after year. Squeezed into a space in the wings, peering out into the lights and the stage, spellbound by a singer not 20 feet away, hearing the audience and feeling disconnected from them because I don’t have to buy a ticket and sit in the third tier, knowing that I’m a part of this and feeling that, for a few minutes, everything in life makes sense and is perfect. And thinking, truly, I must be the luckiest person in the world to have this.

Poor Mimi!

Lesley — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 15:50:08 +0000

I’m at work right now with my radio playing quietly in the background. And I had to pause my work to listen to a little girl who had called in; she said she was in the production of “La Boheme” and she wanted everyone to be sure to go see it. The deejay asked her what it was about, and she says, “Well, this boy and girl fall in love and they have no money and it’s Christmas time and they sing a really pretty song, but the girl is dying so the boy breaks up with her. But then the girl goes to his house and they sing together again and then the girl dies of VD.”

There was silence for a second, then the deejay says, “Wow, she dies of VD? That’s…that’s pretty sad.” And the little girl assured him that it isn’t too bad, because she still looks “real pretty.”

I laughed so hard I almost cried.

Poor Mimi; who knew?

Actually, I think the fact that an 8-year-old DOESN’T know the difference between VD and TB is kind of refreshing.

The Fat Lady Sang…And It’s Over

Lesley — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:28:26 +0000

(And don’t get excited, that’s just an expression…opera singers seem to be getting trimmer, for the most part.)

Well, the opera is over now and I’m a bit sad and a bit relieved. On the one hand, it was a great show for us and I’ll miss seeing everyone. And how exciting was it that we were mentioned in the LA Times review?? Right at the beginning, he devoted two or three sentences to complimenting us! They liked us, they really liked us!!

On the other hand, never again will I have to move that darn settee around (while wearing a corset, no less)!

I’m looking forward to having some time off…I’ve been on the go every evening and weekend since before Thanksgiving, and I’m ready for a break! I don’t think I’ll be able to sing in the spring concert this year; I’ve already missed so many of the rehearsals because of Cosi. That’s a shame, but it’ll give me a chance to take some classes I’ve had an interest in. And I’ll be able to take a nice vacation at the end of April, which I’m already avidly planning!

I also discovered that what everyone said was true; as soon as I finished redecorating my kitchen, I decided that everything else looked bad and so I’m about to start on a major revamp of my living room, den, and bathroom. *sigh*…I hope I don’t regret taking it all on…!

Anyway, there are opera pictures in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy!

Maaaaaids!

Lesley — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:05:06 +0000

I haven’t been on my web site much lately, but then, I haven’t been doing much of anything lately that isn’t opera related! Cosi Fan Tutte opened this week, and if it isn’t the theater I haven’t been going there; if it isn’t Mozart I haven’t been listening to it; if it isn’t my cheat sheet I haven’t been reading it; and if your name isn’t Don Alfonso or Dorabella, I probably haven’t been talking to you.

We had a ton of rehearsals for this one, and that’s because we’re so VERY important in the production. Well, in our own minds we are, anyway. We play the servants, and we do all the scene changes…and there are something like 16, at last count. Plus we occasionally hang out on stage and look pretty. (Or handsome, for the liveried men.)

It’s been a difficult process because every day we’d go into rehearsal and discover that everything had changed. And then once we started rehearsing onstage, that REALLY started messing everything up. Bill keeps saying that we’ll probably be just about perfect by closing night.

However difficult it is, it’s definitely been great fun. We spend the entire evening on one side of the stage with the same group of people, and with Craig, James, Gerry, and newbies Michael and Andrea on my side, it often gets a bit silly. One of the chorus women “tsked” and rolled her eyes at us one night, which got us going even more. It’s a very stressful show, and it helps to have an outlet for the nerves. But once we’re on stage, of course, we’re all business. It only takes one time of Bernard blaring, “Maaaaaids!” over the loudspeaker to make us shape up.

Which reminds me, Bernard is quite funny. I’ve been in maybe 5 operas that he’s directed, and he’s tough but can also be a lot of fun. He keeps calling the maids “little girls”…add a strong French accent and presto, instant inside joke. One night he was calling us onstage and said, “Little girls…my little girls…oooh, I am like Maurice Chevalier!” I thought that was extremely funny! I couldn’t find my spikes one night and he angrily turned to the nearest stagehand and said, “Fix the tape! This is insane! If I were little girl, I would not know how to find them, either!”

It’s a nice production; the principals are all quite good and the direction is nicely done. The boat that gets pulled onstage by the chorus guys is particularly funny. Add some phallic croissants and pyrotechnics, and you’ve got a Mozart opera.

Pictures from the show are being added daily in the Photo Gallery!

Madame Butterfly

Lesley — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 18:23:41 +0000

On Tuesday I went to the Opera Pacific production of Madame Butterfly. I’d seen this particular production in San Diego, but was very pleasantly surprised by some of our innovative additions.

Butterfly is touted as the “warhorse” of opera, and like anyone who attends opera regularly, I’ve seen it more times than I’ve kept track of. I suppose opera companies stage it when they want to bring people in…I don’t imagine modern operas can pack a house quite like Butterfly or Boheme or Barber. (I almost said Carmen, but I liked the whole alliteration thing I had going. And personally, if I have to sit through another Carmen I really think I’ll lose my mind.)

Despite having seen a flock of Butterflys, Pinkertons and Troubles, I still enjoy the show; the only problem I have with it is that the entire opera takes place on one set, and it’s usually not even a very interesting set. Looking at the same thing for 3 hours always makes the show drag a bit for me. Happily, Opera Pacific combated that problem by having set changes, which worked extremely well. That broke up the visual monotony beautifully.

I was sitting in the front row, which was a bit distracting because my friends were on stage 12 feet away from me so of course I watched them instead of the principals! Everyone did a great job, especially all the brand-new Asian supers. They were onstage for an awful lot of the show, and they performed like old veterans. Who, in this production, were Michael and Rom! Ah yes, I was there when they both started out…

It was nice to see a lot of supers in the audience, as well!

I have to say, in all of opera my least favorite character is Pinkerton. I don’t like his character and I don’t like his music. But in this production there was a moment in Act One when Pinkerton was standing on an empty stage, far upstage, and he was silhouetted against a blue backdrop. It made him look like he was in the middle of the ocean or a cloud of fog. And something about that image stuck me so forcibly…it evoked a sense of sympathy for him that I’d never had before. It showed a vulnerability and isolation that I’d never seen under his bluff and swagger. It certainly made the rest of his scenes more interesting.

I did think it odd that the audience laughed raucously at the “At what time of year do robins build their nests?” exchange. I was pretty horrified, actually. I think those are some of the most beautiful, touching lyrics in any opera…it was a little disconcerting that people were laughing at Butterfly instead of feeling incredibly sorry for her! I saw a little flick of surprise across the soprano’s face; I guess she wasn’t expecting it, either.

All in all, a wonderful production. I love that I belong to an opera company that isn’t afraid to push the “traditional” envelope a bit, but doesn’t usually cross the line into taking artistic license for the shock value. It’s a rare blend.