Bullet Points, August 08

Ok, wow. When I said I wasn’t going to be blogging much this summer, I had no idea that I would go weeks without even a peep! I’ve had a couple of blog-related dreams this week, so maybe it’s time to check in. Rather than try to put the past month in any kind of order, it’s time for... you guessed it: bullet points! Maybe I’ll follow up with a Picture Pages post...

* It’s been a summer for blasts from the past. In Cleveland for my Symphony gig, I was reconnected with FD, with whom I first worked three years ago in Atlanta. Also in Cleveland, I recognized one of the flute players from my days at Tanglewood. It’s so cool to work with these top orchestras and discover colleagues who have won those fiercely competitive jobs. Congrats, SSC! Another blast (in more ways than one) has been working with TS here at Wolf Trap. I first met him in Santa Fe in 2006 where he directed my scene on the Apprentice program, my first encounter with Lucia... He’s been our director for Ariadne here, and his creativity and enthusiasm have been contagious. See below for more.

* The next blast from the past came a few weeks ago, in an email entitled “10 years ago.” GH, a fellow student at the University of Georgia, is now the director of a top choir in Texas. He was also one of the first people to encourage me to switch from education to performance, saying “I think you might just have something there.” We will catch each other up on the events of 1998-2008 when I sing with his group in December. How cool is that?

* Ariadne rehearsals are over; we open tomorrow night. You can see a bunch of pictures on Kim’s blog. You will see that my costume for the first act (The Prologue) is, well, a bit on the skimpy side at times. It has been my first experience with semi-nudity onstage, something I knew I’d face sooner or later, so I’ve been really happy to do it here, at a very supportive company with a great professional (read: mature) cast and a director I admire and trust. I was free at any time to draw the line, but this always felt like the “right” thing for the scene/character/world we’d all created onstage. But, in any case, I’m kind of glad my folks aren’t at this one... Wait until I’m naked in Germany and come make a vacation out of it!

* One more plug for TS: it was pretty wonderful to look out at the director’s table during rehearsals and see him smiling and laughing or intently focused on the drama. It felt great to have a director who was excited every day to make some magic! Before we started one of our final days of initial staging, he started rehearsal by saying, "I couldn't sleep last night 'cuz I was so excited to come stage this!" That, my friends, is what you want to meet when you come to work! It’s been a pleasure, TS; can’t wait to do it again.

* The biggest thing I’ve learned during this show, however, is that Zerbinetta is not in my cards. I’ve been trying on and off for an hour to try and sum up why, but I don’t think it’s a bullet point topic. I’ll try to get some thoughts down about our parting soon, but for now, it was a very amicable separation.

Some non-singing bullet points:
* New tunes I’ve been digging this summer: Chromeo, St. Vincent, She & Him (fantastic album), Fleet Foxes, Jason Mraz, Regina Spektor. (Many thanks to Maury for that last one; I, too, was late on the bandwagon...)

* The Olympics are awesome and all-consuming. But this is not news.

* I’m way behind on updating the blogroll, but for now, check out Sestissimo at Trying to Remain Opera-tional. She’s a great writer, and she’s about to travel to South America to sing Musetta in Boheme. Expect some great stories!

More soon. Well, soonish. But not three weeks, I promise!

Studying

Funny how much harder it is to memorize something that is not one’s native language!

Last year’s Blier recital here at Wolf Trap practically memorized itself, since all of our songs were in English. This year, the theme is “Tales from the Vienna Woods,” an all-German program. All the composers have ties to Vienna (Austria, not Virginia) and all of the songs are about dem Wald: the woods. It was Steve’s first recital program here at Wolf Trap, and the title is a fun play on the fact that we are in a “Vienna Wood” here, as well.

I have four songs, three duets, and four ensembles on the program (so does everybody else!), so I have been spending a couple of hours a day typing all my words over and over again, doing my best to make sure they’re in there. Thankfully B has been up in NYC for the past couple of days, so he hasn’t had to listen to me mumbling under my breath or singing random phrases for hours at a time. Of course, I still have to go through my Ariadne memory checks, so he’ll get to experience it soon enough!

Tomorrow we’re working through the program in order. It will be fun to discover, as we did last year, interactions between us as characters and singers. I’ve been appointed “Dance Captain” again (although Steve said there was never any question: “ACB simply IS Dance Captain!” Is that a compliment?), and there may or may not be some waltzing in the Barns on Saturday night. You’ll have to come and find out. Hopefully there won’t be any “wardrobe malfunctions” this year...

In other news, I’ve updated my website: web.mac.com/annecarolynbird. There are pics from Candide on the Photos page and a few songs on the new Music page. There will be arias there by the end of the summer (haven’t I said that before?), and hopefully I’ll get things worked out with the acb.com folks so I can have the old domain point to the new site. I had planned on getting a professional site done this year, but I like this one well enough that I figured I’d save my money. Obviously, I haven’t gotten the blog totally linked up yet, but I’ll get around to that. Look for pictures from Barbiere soon, too.

Tales from the “Tales of Vienna Woods” next week!

Energy, given and received

When we got home Sunday night, B asked if there had been any talk of going to Clyde’s with the cast after the post-show reception. I think I passed out from the very idea of exerting any more energy that night... After essentially running the show four times in the span of 30 hours, wearing my 3-inch-heel show shoes all the while, I had nothing left. It was all I could do to hold my glass of wine while I lay on the couch! (Pictures of the gold slinky dress coming soon...)

If I had been scheduled to do another performance of Candide, I would probably have paced myself a bit more, budgeting energy and voice to make it through a run. But with a “one off,” there is no reason, in my mind, to hold anything back. I might as well give it all, since this was my one chance! One night for the audience, one night for me. I gave everything I had, and I loved every minute of it.

I decided Sunday morning that I was going to sing that night for CT the DT, now writing a new blog from her hospital room with her husband’s help. We are not as close as we were when I lived in Seattle, but once upon a time CT said she would travel anywhere to see me perform, and she often did. Sunday night’s Candide was a joyful show, a fun and silly show that ends with one of the most poignant and beautiful songs in the repertoire, “Make our Garden Grow.” I knew she would love it if she were there, that it could be a balm for her body and soul in many ways. And so, just before I walked onstage to sing “Glitter and Be Gay,” I closed my eyes and breathed in and out, sending love and energy and joy and the healing power of music from my little corner of the Filene Center to her corner of the ICU.

At no point in the performance did I feel nervous, not the slightest bit. Her strong will and good heart were nurturing me, and I was blessed. Next time, I hope she is there in body as well as in spirit.

Big weekend

As is often the case with concert performances, all of the elements are coming together at the last minute. With our concert tomorrow night, we will spend this afternoon doing a room run, fitting Mr. Alexander into the minimal staging we’ve worked out (and trying to remember it ourselves! We’ve only had one rehearsal for each act...). This evening we’ll caravan into DC for the Sitzprobe with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center; I think our rehearsal might be on the stage, which will be all kinds of awesome. Tomorrow morning we’ll do a sound check; since the Filene Center is a large (huge) amphitheater, we’ll all be miked, which takes a little pressure off getting those low- and middle-voice passages out. I’m never worried about my high notes being heard! God bless formants... Then in the afternoon, we’ll have a “dress rehearsal,” which will mostly involved checking entrances and exits and who does what with which chairs. Then... showtime!

Needless to say, I won’t be singing every line at every rehearsal. Having a fresh voice for the show is most important, but there will be a few other times I’ll want to sing out. I’ll probably sing Glitter at both the room run and the Sitz; I’m very confident now that I “have it,” but it won’t hurt my confidence to get two more runs under my belt. The room run will also be my only chance to try my blocking in my (very tight and slinky) dress! Gotta make sure I can roll around on that row of chairs as melodramatically as I’d like...

Getting Glitter up to snuff - or, rather, up to my own very high standard - has been a process. For those of you who don’t know the aria, it is one of the more manic coloratura arias, building in frenzy and ending with a series of sustained high notes, climaxing at an e-flat. Now, I think you know how I feel about high notes that have “e” in the name... They have been my Great White Whale. I still don’t feel great about the e-natural, but I think I have tamed the e-flat! As long as I keep myself completely in the moment, singing and acting, I’m fine, but as soon as I step outside myself and start listening to the note, the tone quality changes. Less vibrant, less supported. Having B’s ears here has really helped, as I trust him to tell me the truth and to help me navigate through any issues. Each time I’ve sung the aria, I have felt more and more confident. I think it’s ready to go!

I was lucky enough to coach this with Erie Mills, who sang the role under Bernstein’s baton many times, and she had lots of helpful and encouraging things to share. The one I will be holding onto most strongly this weekend is this: let the orchestra convey the mania of the piece. They are going to be blasting at full steam, full of energy and excitement. All I have to do is ride the wave. If I can stay relatively calm, Cunegonde’s mania will definitely still come through in the brilliant mix of orchestration and singing. I don’t have to add any real hysteria to the mix!

Wish me luck, and pray that it doesn’t rain tomorrow!!

Here

As I boarded the train this morning (early this time!), I felt a surge of excitement. My summer has begun! I am in such a different state of mind this May than I was last, and instead of coming to this retreat to heal and recoup, I feel like I am here to start a new chapter.

It is amazing to be back in this beautiful apartment, greeted by a massive thundershower and L&C's smiling faces. I can hear the familiar birds in the woods out back, and I'm already anticipating the assault of the frogs come evening.

But first, unpack. Then Trader Joe's, probably, and then reunions!! And speaking of reunions: I just peeked out the window and spotted my first white-tail deer. So much nicer than the dead mouse I found in my kitchen yesterday... Hooray for a summer in the country!

The Week in Re/Preview

This has been – and will continue to be – a busy week! Here’s a Hump Day recap and look ahead.

Monday: all day Italian coaching with FG, Wolf Trap’s Italian coach and astute reader of The Concert. And when I say “all day,” I mean all. day. Oy! My brain was fried by 5pm. Even with a fabulous lunch (a “family style” feast of pasta with lemon and herbs from the garden, cheese, roasted summer veggies, a glass of wine AND a pre-lunch cocktail, all lovingly prepared by FG) and a dip in the pool, it was a tough day. She pulled no punches, repeatedly (but gently) reminding me to
- keep my “ee” vowel skinny
- keep my “ah” vowel bright
- keep my r’s and l’s crisp, not lazy
- remember to speak through the conversation, not just to the end of my line. Duh. I know this; why is it so much harder in Italian?!

Tuesday: photo shoot!! I finally went in for some new headshots. I’m gathering opinions (shot 139 seems to be a favorite…) and will likely have my choices made by early next week. The photographer is an old friend, Alexander Vasiljev, aka Sasha, who has been my makeup artist through three summers now: both summers at Tanglewood (the first Ainadamar and Midsummer Night’s Dream) and here for Volpone. I loved having someone who knows me behind the camera, someone who could make me smile my real smile. He just won a major photography competition, too, for his nature photography. Congrats, Sasha!

Wednesday: High Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. What a gorgeous church! I went to hear Charles sing with the professional choir there, and as he promised, the music was fantastic. (What was that final piece, Charles? Love it.) I dragged KG along to see all the beautiful mosaics, and they did not disappoint. Incredible detail, such vibrant colors. Our Lady of Siluva was one of many breath-taking chapels, but our favorite might have to be Our Lady of China. (Follow the link and scroll down.)

Thursday: road trip to NYC with YL. Install an air conditioner in the window across from my tiny room so I don’t roast up in the loft in these last days of summer. Then a date!

Friday: audition, then head back to VA for the weekend. My friends will be putting on the final WTOC performances – Magic Flute – and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I heard a run-through last week, and the singing is out of this world.

Saturday: Flute performance (yay!) and final after party (boo!).

Sunday: more pre-season NFL while writing translations into my Figaro score, then one last dinner with my amazing hosts. They’re splitting time between VA and NYC these days, so we already have plans for a monthly dinner – and they’ll be coming to see Figaro for CH’s birthday!

I’ll putz around here for the weekend, trying to wrap up selling my car and spending more time with Susanna. Then on Monday or Tuesday, my time here is done!

“Where has the time all gone to?” Indeed.

My Sweet Manhattan Home Town

I think it’s safe to say that Saturday’s recital will, as I texted some friends after the show, go down in my memory as one of my most special evenings of music. It was one of those nights where, even though there were small flubs onstage, there was a perfect convergence of spirit and music, of musicians and friends. I consider myself privileged to be surrounded by such a wonderful group of performers (this is true of all my WTOC colleagues; more on this soon). Generous with each other onstage and with the audience, and in possession of beautiful voices and stellar musicianship, they are sweet and true friends I will miss dearly – until our next collaboration!

That was the general atmosphere on Saturday: it was something special, and we all felt it. Several audience members said it was the best concert they’d seen in a long time, with LB even going so far as to say it was the best concert he’d seen “ever ever ever EVER!” Both in the audience and on the stage, there were a lot of laughs and not a few tears. In short, we did our jobs - and created something special in the doing.

But of course, there were a few individual things that will stand out in my memory as unique moments onstage, not the least of which was the moment my dress threatened to give me the reputation of Wolf Trap’s Janet Jackson. Wardrobe malfunction!!

I wore my dark purple Nadia Tarr dress, the famous wrap dress that has been touted here ad nauseum. It was twisted (but not tied) into a sleeveless configuration, with the ties meeting in a loose twisty knot in front. About a third of the way through the first verse of “Another 100 People,” I felt that my very active breathing - a necessity for this very fast and very low quasi-belted song - was beginning to loosen the knot! And sure enough, two deep rib-expanding breaths later… undone!

It was at this moment that I truly understood the brain’s immense capacity for multi-tasking. Not only did my hands manage to catch the ties as they fell, but I was able to retie the knot and give a knowing “oops!” smile to the audience – all without missing a beat, quite literally. Not only that, but it was the best version, the most ensemble-y together, that Steve and I had ever done. I still don’t know how I did it, how I managed not to fall on my face in that, my most difficult of pieces. I can only think of one of the opera maxim’s I’ve picked up along the way: “That’s why we rehearse.”

(My host, who was in the audience, said that it just looked like the sash of the dress had come undone. Not such a big deal, right? But all my girlfriends in attendance knew the mechanics of the dress, and knew that it could have been, shall we say, quite the show had I missed those ties!)

Something else about going into “auto-pilot” while dealing with the dress: I reverted back to my original interpretation of the song, rather than telling the story that Steve (and others who know Company better than I do) had worked to get out of me. “Another 100 People” is sung by a woman who is in love with the hustle and bustle of the millions of people in NYC, who is amazed at how folks manage to find each other there, and who relishes her encounters, even the missed ones. I’m not there yet. I’m still a bit overwhelmed, unsure of my place in the bustle, nervous that it will only be missed connections and “will you pick me up or do I meet you there or shall we let it go?” I’ve only lived there a year…

It all made for a rendition of “Another 100 People” that was much more intense than we had rehearsed, raw, even. As I walked past Steve to leave the stage, he pulled me to him and quietly whispered, “It’s all going to be ok.” My host said that though the audience had no idea what he said to me, it was a very sweet moment. For me, though, it caught me completely by surprise. I had opened myself very wide in singing that song, and that little touch of kindness, of love, cut right to the quick. I was grateful that I had four numbers before my next appearance onstage…

We all retired to the beautiful home of one of WTOC’s generous donors for the afterparty, and as I refueled at the food table the lady of house came to chat a bit. She said, “you’re the only one who didn’t say where you grew up,” referring to the fact that the other four folks onstage, in their blurbs about New York, had referenced their hometowns. (NYC is Steve’s hometown; small town Texas, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi were also represented). She was right, of course, due in large part to the fact that I don’t really have a “hometown.” Growing up in the military, I moved around every few years and have continued to do so as an adult. I went to school in Georgia and Massachusetts, was a married homeowner in Washington, I have family in Georgia and Colorado, and I’ve worked in six states and internationally in the past two years. But I have family in New York, too, and friends, and this is where I’ll spend most of the upcoming season, so the City is home for me now.

It is home; whether it becomes Home is yet to be seen…

New York Thoughts

My anecdote from the recital last night:

In my first weeks in New York, I was that fresh-faced girl making eye-contact with strangers on the street. I was stunned by the number of seeking eyes I found looking back at me, as if they were saying “Are you the person I’ve been looking for? The friend? The lover? Will you know me?” Maybe I saw reflected in their eyes what mine were asking.

I still make eye contact with people in New York, although I find myself doing it less and less these days. It gets me into trouble sometimes… but I’m still searching.

I recited this just before we launched into “Another 100 People.” More on the evening – as a whole and in particular – soon. For now, there are pictures over on Kim's blog and a review (!) from the Post.

I got rhythm

Yesterday’s lesson from our recital rehearsals - maybe even the week’s lesson – was this:

“That’s what he wrote, but that’s not what he meant.”

I don’t remember which song Steve said it about (maybe the Berlin duet), but this idea seems to be an over-arching theme this week. What is rhythmic vs. what is musical? What is accurate vs. what is stylistically right? Fine lines, lots of gray…

A lot of songs on this program aren’t “classical art songs,” so they shouldn’t be sung as such. There’s a freedom implicit in styles like musical theater and jazz that we as classical performers might have trouble wrapping our heads – and voices! – around. The four of us are getting there, but it’s hard to soften years of rigid accuracy overnight. The fact that we get to dance our way through rehearsals is helping! Well, at least I’m dancing… can’t seem to get anyone to join me yet…

I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of “rhythmic integrity” and how its definition changes from genre to genre. The rhythms of my Ricky Ian Gordon song are fairly particular, at least on the page, and I spent a good amount of time subdividing the beats and making sure I was getting them exactly right. “One and two ee and-tie and four and” And, well, it sure sounded correct! The notes were right (mostly), but the feeling of the piece was all wrong. We found the same to be true with the Berlin, the Sondheim, the list goes on.

Today, as always, I think, contemporary composers are being influenced by non-classical genres: RIG, Musto, et al, have jazz; Golijov, klezmer & flamenco; Greenstein, Muhly, et al, pop and rock styles (cough Radiohead cough). These elements color their musics beautifully and make them the exciting modern pieces that we all get jazzed up about (no pun intended). The difficulty comes in how to translate the freedom of those influencing genres onto those five little lines we call the staff. Performers are trained to read the music, to recreate it as written on the page. So composers put down some semblance of the idea on the staff, using 8th’s and 16th’s and ties and dots. Then the difficulty for us performers comes in how to recreate not only the notes on the page but also the stylistic ideas behind the notes. We have to make it “swing.”

This is why I think it’s so important to keep listening to other genres. Anytime I hear a singer say that they don’t listen to pop music (or jazz or indie rock or what have you), I die a little inside. Loosen up! Some day it’s going to be required of you in a “classical” context; will you have anything to pull from?

**Be sure to read DJA's great additions to this conversation in the Comments.**

The city so nice…

I returned from my travels* yesterday and I’ve already started what will likely be a daily routine of work for the Blier recital: warm-up, review my words, and spend an hour singing through my songs with EM, our “prep coach.” Blier gets here on Sunday, and then, from what I understand, all hell might break loose. The mantra around here seems to be “Just be comfortable with the music and be ready to be flexible.” It seems that Blier has a habit of turning everything on its head, taking things in directions you hadn’t thought about before. This is what makes his programs so brilliant, but I can imagine that it can be a daunting rehearsal process! I’m excited to see how it all works in practice…

As is often (always?) the case for Blier’s recitals, there are multiple singers, in this case, SMTB. (**Edited to explain: "SMTB" stands for soprano-mezzo-tenor-baritone. This isn't my shorthand for someone with four names...) We each have several solo pieces, a duet or trio or two, and then a few songs that we’ll all sing together. In each of the programs that I have seen (I’ve seen one recital here and several on Blier’s New York Festival of Song series), this creates a wonderful evening of theater, in which the singers work (and play!) together to create a world of music.

The theme of the recital is “Manhattan Diaries,” but I’ve also seen it listed as “Manhattan: The Agony and the Ecstasy.” So much has been written about this wonderful town, my new hometown. Steve will be reading quotes about the city throughout the program, and he has asked us each to write something as well, to try and capture our thoughts and feelings about living and working in New York. Regardless of whether he uses our words, it will be a great exercise. I was back in the city for just two days a couple of weeks ago, and as much as I love it here, I’m excited to go back…

My quarter of the recital includes these numbers, which will be interspersed with the rest of the group:
“The Lordly Hudson,” Ned Rorem
“What shall we remember,” Ricky Ian Gordon
“Slumming on Park Avenue,” from the movie On the Avenue, Irving Berlin, duet with SC
“Way out West,” from Babes in Arms, Rodgers & Hart
“Another Hundred People,” from Company, Stephen Sondheim
“I happen to like New York,” from The New Yorkers, Cole Porter; full ensemble
“Some other time,” from On the Town, music by Bernstein, lyrics by Comden & Green, full ensemble

One aspect of this program that differs from Blier’s others: everything is in English! Easy to memorize, fun to play with. And, I can keep the Foreign Language section of my brain open for Italian! After today’s coaching with EM, I’ll be spending several hours writing translations into my Figaro score; I’m finally ready to see the notes!

* There is still a cloud over me, most definitely. The past few days, despite some wonderful activities, have been kind of hazy, like I haven’t really been awake. (That might also have something to do with how poorly I’ve been sleeping…) But I realize now, more than ever, that I am living my Granddaddy’s dream of making music my life, my living. So, I’m living.

Instant Opera

Kim posted a better wrap-up of Instant Opera than I ever could, so head on over there and read what she has to say. (Second half of the post.)

I will reiterate two points:

One: generous colleagues! Kim used the word ‘gracious,’ but I think generous works, too. Through this crazy project, we learned lessons in how to help someone out on stage - or how to ask for help! While we may never again have to help each other actually make up the story on the spot, we’re always going to be working together to tell a story. And we may have to feed a line or two. Mostly, we learned how to just play together! And you know how I love to play…

Two: recitative. Before we started Instant Opera, I was really nervous about tackling all the recit in the role of Susanna. I’ve somehow managed to get to this point never having sung a Mozart opera with recit, and I’ve been terrified! Recit seems so daunting, all set out there on the page in perfectly equal eighth- or sixteenth-notes which you somehow have to turn into something that sounds like speech. But, but… what about the rhythm? “Just speak it,” everyone always says. That concept has totally perplexed me, but now, after making up recit on the fly, I get it. A few more weeks of just speaking the Italian (hopefully soon with the help of FG, our Italian coach here at Wolf Trap), I think I’ll be ready to add the notes! That’s going to be incredible.

(I guess this is my first true “Susanna” entry. I plan to blog pretty extensively about learning this role, since it’s a big one, both in and of itself and in terms of my career. Stay tuned…)

So, yes, Instant Opera was an absolute joy and a thrill. I’ll write tomorrow about my final Wolf Trap assignment - the upcoming recital with Steve Blier at the helm - but first, a restful night at home after a delicious weekend back in NYC… (One word: Epoisses...)

Wolf Trap Picture Pages

Sorry, guys, but I seem to have hit a writing slump. I’ve sat down to write almost every day for the past week, and nothing comes together! So, picture pages it is.
The cover of our Wolf Trap indie rock album. Actually, taken backstage at the Aria Showcase concert. We look like we’re just too cool for school.Jim, our fearless improv leader and bringer of such now-beloved games as “Big Booty,” “Zip Zap Zop,” “Yes, And…,” and “He said, She said.” We got to see him in action with his improv comedy group (former group, actually, as he now lives in Florida), and let me say: this is one funny man.Working with a high school singer at the anti-masterclass. We talked a lot about freeing up, not being stiff when you sing, and LB instructed her in the ways of French nonchalance…Instant Opera! Today we put on “The Happy Dragon,” which told the story of a wizard and a princess who galloped in the woods until a dragon came along, and which included such moralistic gems as “Material things can’t bring you happiness” and “Leave only footprints, take only memories.” So much fun!Tonight’s dinner: polenta with spicy peppers and onions. Actual cooking (as opposed to grazing or eating out) inspired by my blog crush…
While I do miss the breath-taking Santa Fe sunsets, I see some beautiful ones from my little retreat here.

More soon, I hope, as this writer’s block wanes…

Quiet, busy

Quick update: I had a wonderful four days in Georgia (where I picked up some kind of cold or allergy or something that is causing my nose to stuff), and started two new projects upon my return to Virginia.

I've got a few posts brewing in my mind; I'll try to get them up this week. The past week has been too full of family dinners, lunches and brunches with friends, swimming, birthday parties, girls' nights, and general good times for me to sit down and think clearly!

Topics on the docket: being in your body vs. in your head, Instant Opera!, a Blogroll overhaul, and more about my upcoming year. Hope everyone is staying cool!

For the Record

It is already way past my bedtime (or what should have been my bedtime tonight), but I’m about to head to Georgia for a few days to visit family and friends, and there is news!

Kim has finally announced on the Wolf Trap blog that we are going to be releasing a recording of Volpone! She’ll be giving a more detailed explanation of the process, and later I’ll share a bit of my experience (we recorded all four of the performances and did a two-hour touch-up session) from the stage side of things. It was an interesting element to add to the mix of performing this challenging and wonderful piece. We had a great final show today; really, a lot of fun. I’ll miss it!

This recording will bring my current “discography” up to four: Griffelkin with Boston Modern Orchestra Project while I was still in school, Ainadamar (which, um, in case you missed it, won a Grammy! I got my certificate just before I came to Wolf Trap. Eeek!), this recording of Volpone, and Long Road Home, the Parkinson’s benefit cd with Bill Barnewitz (we recorded it in Santa Fe last summer; read about it here.) That cd was just released last week, I think, and while it is currently only available through European distributors (including Amazon.co.uk), please consider buying one. All the proceeds from this amazing collaboration go towards Parkinson’s research.

Featured on Long Road Home are singers Joyce DiDonato (who is now blogging!), Jennifer Holloway, and Eglise Gutierrez (all Cendrillon cast mates); pianists Carol Anderson and Ursula Oppens; and Margaret Butler, oboe; Todd Levy, clarinet; and Ted Soluri, bassoon. Those last four join Bill (who plays horn on all tracks) for an absolutely beautiful performance of Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452. It is a gorgeous cd all around, and would be worth picking up even if it weren’t for such a good cause. As soon as I hear of a US distributor, I’ll let you know, but for now, all of you in Europe: buy one!

With two other recordings in the works for next year (including a recording of Hillula and other selections from the Bhakti Project – it’s not too late to make a donation!), I might need to add a Discography page to my website. How cool is that?

Before & After

The Wig:
The Pincurl Hair:(with conductor, Sara Jobin, and John Musto, our composer, who I believe was seranading us with "Knock Three Times." I can not tell you why...)

Last night went pretty well, all in all. I think we're all happy to have opening behind us. Now we can relax and get back to playing, to having fun and finding the groove.

Pre-Volpone miscellany

So, that wasn’t too bad. I was pretty stressed out before the run-through started, because the more I thought about the character and the show, the less I understood this new idea and how to implement it. But, with some great colleagues (couldn’t’ve done it without you, JJ) and more guidance from PK, I think I’m back to having a cohesive character. She still feels very new to me, which is kind of fun in the way that exploring a new character is always fun. Hopefully she’ll feel a bit more cemented before opening night, though!

I have no idea whether or not the healing scene is going to cause the same amount of rip-roaring laughter, but we should have a few new folks at the first dress rehearsal tonight, so I’ll get a chance to see. Celia is much less maniac and frenetic that she used to be, so I think I’ll be able to stay more centered, regardless of the audience’s reaction.

Last night we had our Sitzprobe, which is always one of my favorite rehearsals. To move from the percussive support of the piano to the enveloping support of the orchestra is always a wonderful transition! A bit unsettling at times, as it can be a challenge to hear the timbre (sound quality) of the clarinet or violin that is doubling my line after weeks of hearing it in the piano. But, we make it. And this orchestration is fantastic; some really beautiful and thrilling moments. Head over to Kim’s blog for a photo (that’s me in the red dress) and her thoughts on the rehearsal; as the General Director, she has a lot more to think about than I do!

After Tuesday’s piano dress, I had the chance to share one of my favorite “tricks of the trade” with one of the young women in the Studio program*: the joys of pin-curl hair!! I arrived at the post-rehearsal notes session with my hair still up in my wig cap, and while PK gave notes I stood in the back taking off the cap and pulling the bobby pins out of my curls. EO was next to me, dealing her own post-wig hair, so I said, “Here’s the trick,” and flipped my hair up and down like a rocker at a concert. When I stood back upright, Voila! Soft wavy curls a là an early-80s Breck commercial. We’ll get the chance to try it again after tonight’s rehearsal, and by Friday she’ll have it mastered! The best hair at the afterparty will be on EO; watch out, ya’ll!

A quiet afternoon here. Some Figaro, some gentle warming up, dinner of some kind… then to the theater at 5:30 for rehearsal!

*Wolf Trap has a new program this season for post-undergraduate students; seven of them have small roles in Volpone.

Ch-ch-changes

Often in the rehearsal process, just when you think you’ve got your character / staging / interpretation nailed down, another element is added to the mix that throws everything out of whack. And sometimes that means completely rethinking what has come before.

At tonight’s rehearsal, I’ll be presenting an almost completely different character than the one I’d grown into over the past couple of weeks. Not entirely different, but different enough that it feels like I’m starting over. The creative direction staff (director, conductor, composer, costumer, etc.) is with me on the change; in fact, I wouldn’t be making the change if it weren’t for them! But, essentially, they’re the Boss. Who knows if this incarnation of Celia will be what audiences see on Friday night; we might go back to what we had last night or come up with something that’s between the two or even find something different altogether! It’s all part of the process…

A very tough part. “Flexibility is the key to airpower,” and all that, but eek!! Time for some visualization and mental focus. I’ll report back…

Day off

It is perfectly chilly here today, and I’m taking full advantage of the day off to spend as much time in my yoga clothes as possible. I’m even wearing a sweater! I have the windows open and a cup of steaming coffee and Mozart playing… it’s pretty darn nice.

I’m not feeling very articulate today, but here are a few tidbits:

Head over to Kim’s blog to see some pictures from the Volpone promo photo shoot we did yesterday. There will be a preview article in the Washington Post this Sunday, so we threw together a shoot to get some photos; hopefully they’ll run one with the article. I love my costume, but I’m very curious to see if I can do all of my staging in the corset and big skirt… “That’s why we rehearse!”

We do our first run-through on the set tomorrow!

When I need a break from Volpone (hey, it happens…), I’ve started working on my SIS (Self Imposed Study) for the summer: two Italian roles, Nannetta (Falstaff) and Susanna (Nozze di Figaro). It just so happens that the Studio Artists (the younger level of singers here at WTOC this summer) are doing big scenes from each of those operas. I’m hoping to snag some time with their Italian coach after Volpone is up and running… (And she reads the blog! Hi, FG!)

I’ll outline some of my role prep techniques here soon. Since it’s announced in my biography on my management site, I guess I can say that I’ll be singing my first Susanna next season! This is a huge role (the longest in the soprano repertoire), and I have nine months to get it into my voice/body/spirit. I’m excited for the process! What an amazing opera, amazing role. For now, I’ll just say “text, text, text!”

That’s all for now. There should be some news to share in the next few days, too, so stayed tuned!

Physical, too

One specific area that’s been a challenge so far is the above mentioned physical intimacy. Without getting too specific, I’ll just say that my character gets a bit overzealous in her attempts to heal Volpone through the “laying on of virgin hands” and ends up with his head under her skirt. Ahime! My partner, JJ, is wonderful, and it’s been a fun scene to work, but not without its challenges!

When we first blocked the scene we had no one in the room except directors and stage management so we could explore the staging without the added pressure of our colleagues sitting around and sniggering. (Most intimate scenes are staged like this, out of simple respect for the actors. I still remember rehearsing my first stage kiss – as Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes in high school – in a closed rehearsal. We must have gotten something right, because my boyfriend complained that I kissed Billy “just like” I kissed him!)

There was lots of laughing and blushing and “Oh god”-ing in the first few runs that day, but also lots of “You ok with this?” and “What do you need me to do?” Great colleagues and a great rehearsal environment. By the time we left that rehearsal, it was just a series of moves, not unlike a dance routine.

But! Add an audience back in, and all of that can go right out the window! As soon as my friends and colleagues were there, positively shrieking with laughter, I lost my focus. The next two times we ran the scene, on two different days, I ended up laughing so much that I couldn’t stay in character OR sing! Fun, and funny, but frustrating. If I can’t hold it together in front of twenty laughing people, what will I do with 400?

I asked PK if we could run the scene a lot, with people doing lots of things to try and distract me. Throwing Ricola lozenges, laughing, talking, etc.. He said I didn’t need that, that I would be fine, but when I balked at that idea, especially nervous about my laughing, he gave me great advice: if I (ACB) feel myself laughing, consider it my character (Celia) filled with the Spirit! She is performing a “miracle healing,” after all. Brilliant! That’s what a good director can do, fix a problem not with rehearsing, but with talking. With giving his actors more tools.

I went into the next run-through confident that I could keep it together. And I almost did… But it was my turn to get a bit of a joke played on me, since PK and I had orchestrated one on JJ a few days before. There was much laughing, and much breaking of character, but I think it will be for the best in the end. I feel like it needed to “go there” in order for us both to be totally comfortable; we needed to play with it. With something like this, it helps to treat it a bit irreverently in a few rehearsals, so that when those 400 people show up, we can concentrate on giving them the experience of the scene untainted by our own concerns.

Will they be shocked? Maybe. But I guarantee they’re going to laugh.

Physical

I know I’m involved with a physical comedy when my legs are covered by ugly purple and green bruises, many of which are of unknown origin. This show is no exception.

More so than in a drama, I’m asked to use my body in extreme physical ways in a comedy: entering from Stage Left and being “thrown” to the ground; running around to evade a lascivious embrace; a knee to the groin, stage-combat-style; or physical intimacy the likes of which could make a nun blush. Oh, and my character in this show? A former nun.

I love comedy for this aspect. It’s the most dance-like of my time onstage, unless I’m actually dancing. I’m learning a lot about physical comedy in this production, thanks in large part to PK’s love of the history of it. At the end of rehearsal the other night, we sat down and watch a YouTube clip of Ferruccio Soleri, a master of Italian commedia dell'arte (Harlequin). Such control over his body! Like a dancer, yes, but more of his intention was focused on being still. Everything still except an arm or a leg, which brought that movement into relief, which made it funny - especially when repeated over and over!

After this clip, we watched another classic: Bugs Bunny. Did you know that Bugs is patterned after Harlequin? I sure didn’t, but watching the cartoon with that knowledge, I could see the incredible connection, and Bugs became funnier than ever.

One of the leads in Volpone is being staged much like Harlequin/Bugs, but all of us have elements of commedia in our physicality. PK said “The key to physical comedy is stillness with intention.” Just as Soleri economized his movement to achieve the greatest comedic effect, so PK is trying to get us to focus our movements. Stylize, I guess, but all physical comedy is stylized. Manic movements contrasted with sharp stillness. It’s challenging, but I love the way I’m learning another way to use my body onstage.

I know I’m not getting the Big Picture of this across very well in this post, so I may ask PK to pop in as a guest blogger and share a bit more of the concept. Stay tuned…