Opening

Tonight is Opening Night! Carmen tonight, and Magic Flute tomorrow. Both shows are in great shape, ready for the energy that the audience brings. Someone asked me if I was excited about tonight, and I am, but only because I know that the real excitement will arrive when I hear the downbeat and wait in the wings. At this moment, I’ve been home from rehearsal (four hours of Cendrillon) for an hour or so, had my dinner, and am now preparing to go back to the theatre, a routine I’ve been through every night this week. So right now it just feels like “another day at the office,” if you will. But! It will feel different soon enough…

I wear a wig (two different wigs, actually) for Carmen, and I’m looking forward to attending this evening’s afterparty with my wavy, bouncy pin-curl hair. It won’t be a long party, though, as I have another full afternoon of Cendrillon tomorrow. We’ve staged the entire thing, and now it’s time for detail work and repetition. Monday we’ll do a full run-through in the rehearsal space, and then on Tuesday we’ll get to be on the stage with the set!

In other news, we were all assigned our scenes for the Showcase yesterday. This year I’ll be singing (drum roll, please…) Sophie in Rosenkavalier! We’ll be doing the opening of Act II, which includes the famous (and breathtakingly beautiful) “Presentation of the Rose” duet. It’s a nice long scene, from the opening bars of Act II through the sweet conversation between Octavian and Sophie, right up to (but not including) the entrance of the Baron. A sweet friend from grad school and Tanglewood, PM, will be my Octavian, and I am thrilled!

The other assignments are great, too, and include scenes from operas old and new: Mitradite, Barber of Seville, A View from the Bridge, Dead Man Walking, Arabella, Clemenza di Tito, Eugene Onegin, La Rondine, Billy Budd, Pelleas et Melisande, and several others I can’t remember off the top of my head. These will be some amazing nights of singing.

And with Cendrillon almost on its feet, I can start digging into that gorgeous Strauss…