Wednesday was the first orchestra rehearsal of Luisa Miller. It was pretty uneventful. Conlon was considerate enough to do the choral parts first,so we were done very quickly.
The soloists for the production are excellent. They are Annalisa Raspagliosi, Stefano Secco, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Rodrick Dixon (one of the “Three Mo’ Tenors), James Creswell, Stephen Powell and Catherine Keen. Secco and Raspagliosi are marvelous together. Even though I’m no fan of opera, I love hearing this bunch sing. They are having a good time, and it shows.
When the soloists were introduced to the orchestra and chorus, everyone applauded the heroes and hissed or booed the villains. It was fun.
The only worthy-of-note Bob-ism of the night was a comment during the warm up before we went on stage. A soprano started a coughing fit, and was told, “No, we’re doing La Boheme tomorrow night. Tonight is Luisa Miller.”
After the orchestra rehearsal, we retired to the rehearsal room and worked on Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht. I think that’s all we did – but I’m beginning to get a little loopy from lack of sleep (my cat disappeared for 24 hours, and I was getting up every hour or so to look for her), so I’m not really sure.
Showing posts with label Catherine Keen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catherine Keen. Show all posts
22 May 2009
16 May 2008
Day Six -- Cincinnati May Festival 2008
Catherine Keen visiting the chorus, getting ready for our "duet" with her: Rat a plan.
The dress rehearsal for The-Opera-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named went well. There is always room for improvement, of course. Bob Porco always says we can be better. Perfection is never achieved -- not that we came close last night.
Salvatore Licitra was ill the day before, and James Conlon told us that they were searching everywhere for a backup tenor, but there were none to be found. However, Licitra decided on the morning of the dress rehearsal that he was feeling better, so the panic has subsided. He didn't give his all during rehearsal, but he was there, participating. The light singing he did give told us a lot about what's there -- and I think he'll be fabulous.
The entire cast is pretty darn good. My favorites are Earle Patriarco, Marco Caria and Yohan Li, all baritones.
There were no underwear episodes on Day Six. If there are any on the Saturday morning rehearsal, I'll let you know.
My personal experience at the rehearsal was not a pleasant one. An hour before rehearsal, I slipped on some stairs and strained a ligament in my ankle. I had to sit for the entire three hours with a bag of ice draped over my foot. It is now the morning after, and the ankle is still swollen and hurting. I'm hoping the ace bandage, ibuprofen and more ice will help. Wish me luck -- I want to be able to stand for the performance.
Here are some vignettes from rehearsal:
14 May 2008
Day Four - Cincinnati May Festival 2008
Tuesday night we finally got to work with the orchestra on The-Opera-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was the first run-through of the music by the orchestra, and as usual, their performance was pretty good, with some mistakes here and there, as you would expect for a first take. At one point, Conlon stopped them with the acerbic comment, “There are five sharps in the signature! Have been for some time.” I think it was an attempt at humor. I’m not certain it was taken that way.
There was a lot of standing and sitting as we relaxed between little choral episodes. The trouble with opera is that the chorus can be silent for pages and pages, and then have to jump in with a quick “Eviva!” or two here and there. Once in a while there are longer passages, but there’s a lot of waiting, sort of like being on jury duty. Oh, well. All that getting up and down in rehearsal is good for the thighs. In performance, you stand most of the time, which is not good for the back.
Conlon finally introduced the soloists to us after the break, when all of them were assembled. Catherine Keen, Morris Robinson and Earle Patriarco (from Monday’s rehearsal) were there, along with Marco Caria (making his American debut), Rodrick Dixon (one of the original “Three Mo’ Tenors”), Yohan Yi, and Angela Brown. We still haven’t heard from Darren Stokes, or the mightily publicized Salvatore Licitra. I presume they’ll be here for the dress rehearsal on Thursday night.
On a personal note, I’ve had a total of nine hours of sleep over the past two nights. I’m so wired when I get home from Music Hall that it’s hard to come down from the experience enough to sleep. When I do sleep, it’s the sleep of the dead. Managing to get my eyes open in the morning requires Herculean efforts.
The schedule for Day Five is the Beethoven Ninth and Erich Zeisl’s Requiem Ebraico. I’m hoping that we’ll do the choral pieces early and have the opportunity to leave before ten o’clock.
There was a lot of standing and sitting as we relaxed between little choral episodes. The trouble with opera is that the chorus can be silent for pages and pages, and then have to jump in with a quick “Eviva!” or two here and there. Once in a while there are longer passages, but there’s a lot of waiting, sort of like being on jury duty. Oh, well. All that getting up and down in rehearsal is good for the thighs. In performance, you stand most of the time, which is not good for the back.
Conlon finally introduced the soloists to us after the break, when all of them were assembled. Catherine Keen, Morris Robinson and Earle Patriarco (from Monday’s rehearsal) were there, along with Marco Caria (making his American debut), Rodrick Dixon (one of the original “Three Mo’ Tenors”), Yohan Yi, and Angela Brown. We still haven’t heard from Darren Stokes, or the mightily publicized Salvatore Licitra. I presume they’ll be here for the dress rehearsal on Thursday night.
On a personal note, I’ve had a total of nine hours of sleep over the past two nights. I’m so wired when I get home from Music Hall that it’s hard to come down from the experience enough to sleep. When I do sleep, it’s the sleep of the dead. Managing to get my eyes open in the morning requires Herculean efforts.
The schedule for Day Five is the Beethoven Ninth and Erich Zeisl’s Requiem Ebraico. I’m hoping that we’ll do the choral pieces early and have the opportunity to leave before ten o’clock.
13 May 2008
Day Three - Cincinnati May Festival 2008
We arrived at Music Hall just before seven and quickly noticed some additions to the Bucket O’Dipthongs: ladies thong panties – from the tiniest to the largest imaginable. Also in the bucket was a package of dip, with some cooking tongs attached with rubber bands. It’s obviously getting out of hand.
We rehearsed the Zeisl for the first hour with Bob before James arrived. As we began, he made some comments about the previous day’s rehearsals. On Sunday, he sat at a table behind James Conlon, with Ignacio, Conlon’s assistant (and our Italian diction coach), looking alternately forlorn, bored, frustrated, pleased, or angry. Last night he told us he had been “alternating between wanting to help you and wanting to strangle you.”
It has to be difficult for him to be working with us on these pieces, making decisions about breaths, style and so forth to then see all that work thrown away by a conductor who tells us to breathe anywhere and who prefers that our long, sweeping phrases be broken up into short choppy ones.
But during that hour with Bob, we made music. And jokes. Someone in the soprano section sang a wrong note, and Bob commented. A soprano in the back raised her hand and said , “It was me!”
Bob, who often jokingly expounds on Catholic guilt, responded, “Oh, another Catholic. Have you met Josh?” pointing to a bass who often confesses when he makes a mistake.
A few minutes later, another soprano goofed, and said, “This time it was me. But I’m a protestant, so I know you’ll forgive me.” That brought down the house.
Bob responded, “How long have you been waiting to say that?”
Later on, he was frustrated by a lack of unity in our singing, and started in on his mantra that a chorus must be made up of leaders, with no one waiting around for someone else to start. He said that it isn’t just our chorus where this happens, but that it’s endemic, and that is “why there are so many bad, bad choruses.”
As one, the entire chorus spontaneously repeated the word “bad, bad, ba-a-a-d, b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!” like a chorus of bleating sheep.
Keen was in great voice, as was Robinson. I couldn’t hear Patriarco, because Robinson’s voice just plain buried him. Morris Robinson looks exactly like the linebacker he once was (at the Citadel). His voice matches. The term “basso profundo” was made for him. Last year my daughter gave me a CD of his spirituals for my birthday – wonderful.
At about 8:45 we had another break and non-chamber choir women were dismissed. The men’s choruses in Verdi were sung once again (please excuse the wandering focus -- this camera follows its instincts):
Finally, the chamber choir stayed behind to work on the Rachmaninoff Vespers with Conlon for the first time. We’ll perform them at the Cathedral Basilica in Covington on Sunday evening.
At ten o’clock we were on our way home.
Tuesday will be day four. Here's the schedule for the rest of the festival, subject, as always, to change:
Tuesday, May 13 Verdi - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Wednesday, May 14 Zeisl, Beethoven - 6:30PM Chorus Call
Thursday, May 15 Verdi (Probable overtime) Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Friday, May 16 Performance Verdi - Chorus Call TBD
Saturday, May 17 Zeisl, Beethoven - Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 9:00AM
Zeisl, Beethoven - Performance - Chorus Call TBD
Sunday, May 18 Chamber Choir Rehearsal at Basilica from 3:30-5:00PM; Chorus Call TBD
Monday, May 19 Piano Rehearsal in LRR 7:00-10:00PM; no early call
Tuesday, May 20 Vivaldi Chamber Choir Piano rehearsal on stage from 5:30 - 6:15PM; Chorus Call for those not in Vivaldi 6:30PM
Vivaldi, Faure, Bach Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Wednesday, May 21 Berlioz - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Thursday, May 22 Vivaldi, Faure, Bach Open Rehearsal -Chorus Call 6:30PM
Friday, May 23 Performance Faure, Vivaldi, Bach (note performance order) - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Saturday, May 24 Berlioz - Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 9:00AM
Berlioz - Performance - Chorus Call TBD
We rehearsed the Zeisl for the first hour with Bob before James arrived. As we began, he made some comments about the previous day’s rehearsals. On Sunday, he sat at a table behind James Conlon, with Ignacio, Conlon’s assistant (and our Italian diction coach), looking alternately forlorn, bored, frustrated, pleased, or angry. Last night he told us he had been “alternating between wanting to help you and wanting to strangle you.”It has to be difficult for him to be working with us on these pieces, making decisions about breaths, style and so forth to then see all that work thrown away by a conductor who tells us to breathe anywhere and who prefers that our long, sweeping phrases be broken up into short choppy ones.
But during that hour with Bob, we made music. And jokes. Someone in the soprano section sang a wrong note, and Bob commented. A soprano in the back raised her hand and said , “It was me!”
Bob, who often jokingly expounds on Catholic guilt, responded, “Oh, another Catholic. Have you met Josh?” pointing to a bass who often confesses when he makes a mistake.
A few minutes later, another soprano goofed, and said, “This time it was me. But I’m a protestant, so I know you’ll forgive me.” That brought down the house.
Bob responded, “How long have you been waiting to say that?”
Later on, he was frustrated by a lack of unity in our singing, and started in on his mantra that a chorus must be made up of leaders, with no one waiting around for someone else to start. He said that it isn’t just our chorus where this happens, but that it’s endemic, and that is “why there are so many bad, bad choruses.”
As one, the entire chorus spontaneously repeated the word “bad, bad, ba-a-a-d, b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!” like a chorus of bleating sheep.
I guess you had to be there.
Bob was being particularly hard on the men about some pitch issues at one point, and then looked up at the rest of us with a smile, saying, “I’m after the basses because they’ve sung the most so far, but you’ll get your turn.”
That’s one of the best parts of working with Bob. He’s always making comments that I want to write down, so last night I did. Three or four years ago, I wrote down his priceless “Bob-isms” for an entire season. At the end of the year, I wrote a parody of Star Wars for our end-of-the-year dinner in which every single line was a “Bob-ism.”
Conlon arrived at eight, and we did a little more Zeisl for fifteen minutes. Then he dismissed us for fifteen minutes (so much time wasted) when some of the soloists came in to work with us on the Verdi. First in line was mezzo soprano Catherine Keen.
Bob was being particularly hard on the men about some pitch issues at one point, and then looked up at the rest of us with a smile, saying, “I’m after the basses because they’ve sung the most so far, but you’ll get your turn.”
That’s one of the best parts of working with Bob. He’s always making comments that I want to write down, so last night I did. Three or four years ago, I wrote down his priceless “Bob-isms” for an entire season. At the end of the year, I wrote a parody of Star Wars for our end-of-the-year dinner in which every single line was a “Bob-ism.”
Conlon arrived at eight, and we did a little more Zeisl for fifteen minutes. Then he dismissed us for fifteen minutes (so much time wasted) when some of the soloists came in to work with us on the Verdi. First in line was mezzo soprano Catherine Keen.
Next in the room was bass Morris Robinson with baritone Earle Patriarco.
Keen was in great voice, as was Robinson. I couldn’t hear Patriarco, because Robinson’s voice just plain buried him. Morris Robinson looks exactly like the linebacker he once was (at the Citadel). His voice matches. The term “basso profundo” was made for him. Last year my daughter gave me a CD of his spirituals for my birthday – wonderful.
At about 8:45 we had another break and non-chamber choir women were dismissed. The men’s choruses in Verdi were sung once again (please excuse the wandering focus -- this camera follows its instincts):
Finally, the chamber choir stayed behind to work on the Rachmaninoff Vespers with Conlon for the first time. We’ll perform them at the Cathedral Basilica in Covington on Sunday evening.
At ten o’clock we were on our way home.
Tuesday will be day four. Here's the schedule for the rest of the festival, subject, as always, to change:
Tuesday, May 13 Verdi - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Wednesday, May 14 Zeisl, Beethoven - 6:30PM Chorus Call
Thursday, May 15 Verdi (Probable overtime) Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Friday, May 16 Performance Verdi - Chorus Call TBD
Saturday, May 17 Zeisl, Beethoven - Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 9:00AM
Zeisl, Beethoven - Performance - Chorus Call TBD
Sunday, May 18 Chamber Choir Rehearsal at Basilica from 3:30-5:00PM; Chorus Call TBD
Monday, May 19 Piano Rehearsal in LRR 7:00-10:00PM; no early call
Tuesday, May 20 Vivaldi Chamber Choir Piano rehearsal on stage from 5:30 - 6:15PM; Chorus Call for those not in Vivaldi 6:30PM
Vivaldi, Faure, Bach Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Wednesday, May 21 Berlioz - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Thursday, May 22 Vivaldi, Faure, Bach Open Rehearsal -Chorus Call 6:30PM
Friday, May 23 Performance Faure, Vivaldi, Bach (note performance order) - Chorus Call 6:30PM
Saturday, May 24 Berlioz - Open Rehearsal - Chorus Call 9:00AM
Berlioz - Performance - Chorus Call TBD
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