Pre-Hijack 6 Month Update

I seriously haven’t posted since JANUARY????? Yikes.

So I guess I’ll squash 6 months worth of opera and Mars activity into one post before hijacking my own blog to participate in an education chat over the summer.

One topic at a time:

First… The WING is no longer. I’m not sure what happened. So … I’m back on the main stage, as they call it. I’ve performed in two concerts. One was “April in Paris” and it was so much fun!

It was held at a historic mill – basically this large barn-like structure with some antique milling equipment still there. The stage is about 2 steps up from the floor. The floor was set with little round tables, cabaret style. There was a table of food at the back. And as the name suggests, it was all in French. Now, to back up… I had been working on Voi che sapete, then I learned of the theme about a week and a half before the show. French! Hmmm… back when I first began studying voice, I did learn a few songs in French. The easiest one for me to relearn in time to perform was The Tipsy Waltz. There were two Opera Project rehearsals and I had just one voice lesson before the concert.  It’s such a short song that

I sang it through twice. See if you can tell when I spilled the wine all over my dress.

The next month we had another cabaret-style concert at the mill. This time I sang Voi che sapete. The person who recorded this for me probably didn’t realize he was recording it sideways! Here we go:

I still need to work on standing still! Also, breath control. Remember to breathe! But I’m doing so much better with keeping my voice on top of the air.

Now I’m learning this silly aria from Barber of Seville. The maid sings it – it’s about how crazy the house is with everyone being in love with all different people, love is this terrible thing and OH NO SHE FEELS IT TOO. No video yet of ME singing it. Here’s a silly one I like. It doesn’t include the recit, which is a about 30 seconds long.

Then the other day I found a CD I made of accompaniments for songs I was learning with my voice teacher. I sang through them for my current voice teacher and we decided to work on Gretchen am Spinnrade and Vedrai carino. And I’m going into it all with the attitude of DON’T FEAR THE HIGH NOTES!!

So that’s the voice lesson summary. Now, onto the performances I’ve attended.

JOYCE DIDONATO in Princeton! Yes indeed. She is amazing. Had front row balcony in a tiny tiny venue.

Then I saw her AGAIN in May at the Met. La Cenerentola. Went alone. Went to the matinee. Took myself out for lunch at Bar Boloud beforehand. Food and service were fab fab fab. I had the prix-fix 3 course lunch. There was pate with these tiny pickles, quiche and a pear tart.

It was more food than I could eat. Then I went across the street to the Met and made my way to my seat in the orchestra rear. I was about 3 rows from the very back. View from my seat:

The opera itself was FABULOUS. But of course it was. How can any opera with Juan Diego Florez and Joyce DiDonato be anything but? She'll be there again next year. And so will I of course!

Next season I plan to see The Merry Widow and of course La Donna Del Lago. Nathan Gunn, Renee Fleming, Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato and John Osborn!!! Whoop whoop. Will convince the Huz to come with me to at least one of those.

Finally, in Mars news... not much. Saw Artifact in NYC. Ticket included Q&A and photo with Jared. He saw me and said, "Hey! The opera singer! We have an opera singer here!" And I swooped in for the hug. 

Future Mars news: 2 shows in August, but they're sharing the billing with another band so I have a feeling the crowd won't be the same. We'll see!

And now, the next several posts over the summer will be related to a virtual camp I'm participating in, about school involvement in the community. And maybe opera stuff, if anything happens in the middle of the summer.

Don Giovaaaaaaaani

Went (alone) to Don Giovanni last night. It was delightful and creepy. Delightfully creepy. I got there early enough to catch most of the pre-performance talk, which was interesting. They talked about Mozart writing it, and the first performances, and also of certain things to listen for in the music. There was enough time after that ended to browse the gift shop, where I was entranced by the display of marcasite (things like this) and rhinestones. I was wearing my brown ensemble, with my hair twisted up into a bun to help provide relief from the 98 degree temp, (that's over 36c if you speak metric) and there in the crowded case I saw it - the perfect barrette. I mean, it perfectly matched my jewelry - I was wearing these earrings with this brown necklace - AND it sparkled to me. I mean that in the active sense. It sparkled, "You want me, you need me, I need to live in your hair" and the next thing I knew I was asking to see it and handing over my credit card. It's like the spirit of Don Giovanni inhabited the thing for a moment. I unbunned my hair and wore it right away. This photo doesn't do it justice, as I took it with my phone on my lap during intermission.



On to the performance itself. I loved it!!! During the overture Don Giovanni was on stage with some dancers. They were frozen in position in beige bodysuits that covered everything, including their faces. He grabbed each one in turn, did a ballet-style hug/kiss/whatever (it varied) and they crumpled to the floor. Then Leporello, his unwilling assistant, dragged them into a pile. Meanwhile women's names were projected onto a scrim, which is like a thin curtain. All the names, and then the anonymous dancers - it really brought across the idea that he'd seduce anyone, didn't matter what they looked like - just so long as they were female. That point is explicitly stated later in the opera. It also showed the almost magical charm he had over the women. They couldn't say no, even though it led to heartbreak and in some cases, ruin.

So the plot is pretty well known, but here is the quick version: The Don, in a mask, tries to seduce/rape Donna Anna. Her father comes, DG kills him. Donna Anna is engaged to Don Ottavio. He vows vengeance for her, etc. Then Donna Elvira comes along looking for D.G. because he wham-bam-thank-you-ma'amed her and left her heartbroken. Leporello tells her she wasn't the first and she won't be the last, then goes on to sing about how he has kept track of D.G.'s conquests. The projected names come up again and also women come onto the stage with long, wide cloth strips of names. He wraps her up in the cloths, ending with one with just her name on it. At first I was like, Ok, this is hokey, but then I really liked it. The more she learned about DG, the more cloth she was wrapped in, until her name was added to the top of the pile and she finally got the point.

Next we see Zerlina and Masetto coming on their way to their wedding. DG of course wants Zerlina. He gets Lep to lure Masetto and the gang away and tries to seduce Zerlina. Here we have the duet, La ci darem la mano. And we have the Don's magic touch. He snaps his fingers and a scrim descends as his charm descends upon Zerlina. She watches it come down with wonder - she is under his spell. There's a rainbow on the scrim - like his charm has totally blinded her to reality. She's ready to run off to never-never land with him until the scorned Donna Elvira shows up to prevent it. She snaps her fingers and breaks the spell, causing the rainbow to vanish. Then of course Masetto gets jealous, Zerlina sings Batti Batti, all is well. Eventually we're at a party where, according to the pre-show lecture, there's 3 point time melody, then a 2 point, then a 1, all under each other. I listened but couldn't pick it out.

Intermission meant, of course, a quick trip to the ladies room and then a seat upgrade. Before intermission, I was in the 2nd to last row in the balcony, a $35 ticket:



After intermission, I was in the front row of the balcony, in a $110 seat:



That seat was not worth $110 but it definitely was an upgrade - it was a single plush chair with its own arms, lots of leg room and of course the unobstructed view. It was also an upgrade in the sense that I no longer had these annoying people in the row behind me commenting on the obvious and banging their knees into my seat every 30 seconds. I was ready to relax and enjoy...

...Act 2. In pure operatic fashion, Don G and Leporello switched hats and capes and fooled everyone into thinking they were each other. So of course Leporello almost gets killed by the outraged gang (Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Masetto and Zerlina) because they all thought he was Don G. Meanwhile DG is out trying to seduce Donna Elvira's maid. Other stuff happens too but you get the idea. So eventually DG and L are on their way home when they come across a statue of Donna Anna's father. L is totally creeped out but DG is like, "Invite him to dinner, go ahead," thinking it's a great joke. Then later he's "entertaining" a group of women when the statue takes him up on his offer. Everyone is freaked out and they run out, screaming. The scrim comes down and we see a GIANT projection of the dead guy's face, grey hair blowing back in the wind, mouth opening and closing as if he were laughing in slow motion, while we hear him singing about how he's going to punish DG for being such a scoundrel. The anonymous dancers from the overture come back and are all writhing around while strobe lights flash, there might have been smoke or it might have been part of the projection, and the music was creepy and fantastic. It was awesome. It created great tension and I was totally drawn in and frightened. They drag him down to hell and then the rest of the characters come out to tell what they did after that. They sing how wonderful it is that Don Giovanni is gone forever. Meanwhile, there's this clunk as a modern suitcase flies onto the stage, then DG comes out in modern day dress. They see him and are totally confused, but they don't stop singing. He snaps his fingers a la Fonzie and two women in cocktail dresses come to him. Like, sure, go ahead and sing your relief that he's gone... but... he's never gone...

On my way out I heard a couple people complaining that they thought the end was overdone. I disagree. I love the way they incorporated the projections and the strobe lighting to make it totally creepy. It fit with the music perfectly! And the modern Don G added a nice touch.

The singers were all great. Zerlina was so cute. Don G of course oozed charisma. But in my opinion the woman who sang Donna Elvira stole the show. Everyone had beautiful voices but hers had that extra something, something in the timbre, combined with her acting and her general stage presence, that set her apart from the others. I wasn't the only one who thought so - the audience's cheering rose in pitch during her curtain call.

So what's next? The opera company is putting on two other operas this summer - Faust and Don Pasquale. But ticket prices have gone up and the $15 standing room tickets no longer exist, so we'll have to wait and see. There were lots of empty seats last night, so I wonder if the price increase has helped or hurt them?

AVA Gala - Wowwwwwwie!!!

Wednesday I went to the AVA "Brava Philadelphia," 75th Anniversary Gala.

Silly me, I didn't check the time on the ticket. I left my house at about 6pm, thinking I'd get there in plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before the performance. But when traffic stopped because of a truck stuck in the left lane, I pulled out the ticket for a peek. OOPS! 7:30 start time. Maybe I'd be able to grab a bag of peanuts somewhere...?

Traffic finally picked up and I made way to the parking garage below the theater. I just want to point out here that I paid $50 for the ticket and then $22 to park!!! There weren't enough spots in the garage so I had to leave my car in the middle along with the keys. They gave me a ticket for the keys which I promptly lost. But on the positive side, the lobby snack bar sold these little sandwiches so I was able to scarf something down in the moments before the bells went off.

So the format was, there were AVA graduates who were the "Gala Artists," and a group of "Resident Artists" who are still students. Everyone was great. A few of the resident artists had solos but for the most part they did ensemble pieces. They were all so good!! And the dresses - OMG one piece of eye candy after another. I'm still talking about the resident artists here. One woman had this gorgeous blond hair and was wearing the most stunning gown ever - it was this reddish/maroonish/brick color, shimmery, with shiny parts on the straps. Should have brought my binocs I guess... that's all the detail I can provide. There was so much glitz and rhinestone on stage. But why am I going off track with the clothing? The singing was phenomenal.

So in between the resident stuff, the Gala Artists came out and did their thing. And their thing was, sing. Oh no I've veered into Dr. Seuss land, sorry about that. I'm not going to write every detail about the evening... but I might come close! I should have taken notes, right? Everyone sang more than one piece. Here's what I remember.

Eglise Gutierrez. So so awesome. Words cannot describe. She did something from La Sonnambula and later a scene from Rigoletto. Legato, legato, legato. I think she took one deep breath at the beginning and then didn't need to breathe again until the end. Emotion in her face, her voice, her eyes. And she was wearing a beautiful purple gown and big sparkly earrings.

Angela Meade sang something from Abduction. She was in NJ Opera's production of it last summer. She is AMAZING. What a voice. The aria had a range from way down here to all the way up there and everything in between. Sounded like one of those arias that he wrote for someone specific. I don't know enough about Mozart to say more than that, but doesn't it make me sound knowledgeable? "Oh yes, he wrote that one for a specific soprano..." Ok, back to business. Her dress: Red gown. Spectacular. Let's see... checking the program...

Latonia Moore. Ok, I don't remember what she was wearing. Black probably? Gorgeous face but her hair kept falling in it!! She kept flipping it back. However it did not distract from her GORGEOUS voice. Madame Butterfly - blew me away.

Ok. Another soprano. Indra Thomas. Wow. WOW! And wow on the black dress with the green wrap! She changed it to a black gauzy type wrap later which made it even more elegant, if that's even possible. Hair pulled back into a tight bun with rhinestone crystals glittering everywhere. She looked like a princess and sang like a goddess.

It wasn't just a girls' night out. The guys - of course, Michael Fabiano!! Nessun Dorma. Don't think there was a dry eye in the house. His voice just washes over you. And after being in a production with him, it was so familiar. I was like, Oh yeah, that's right. He was great then and he's even better now.

Luis Ledesma sang the Toreador song from Carmen, surrounded by the resident artists. Like all the men, he was wearing a tux, but that doesn't stop me from imagining him all Escamillo-ed up. He seemed so familiar to me, I should check and see if I've seen him perform before.

James Valenti!!! We all remember him from this. He just made his Met debut in Traviata. You can read all about that in all the regular places. Here he sang O Sole Mio and had the crowd in the palm of his hand. And this man is TALL!! A tall tenor. Yes, I know, I barely push the bar at 5 feet, but that doesn't mean I can't tell tall from down here. I didn't realize just how tall he was until I saw him later backstage.

Before it started and also in between the singing, someone came out to introduce and thank various people who were involved in putting the evening together. The mayor of Philadelphia even showed up to say a few words. They also explained that Joyce Didonato was supposed to have been there but she injured herself (again?!) on stage in Chicago and needed surgery to repair a torn ligament in her knee. Ouch. But you know what? She's such a huge name, such a huge star, that having her there might have taken some of the spotlight away from the other performers. Not that I wasn't disappointed - but I wonder if the dynamic of the performance would have been different.

The crowd: What a mix. Several men in tuxedos, entire rows of them. Women in ball gowns. Women like me, in a nice long skirt and top. And then some people were very, very casual. Not quite pajamas, but not dressed up either.

The row behind me - one woman was eating Goobers, yes, you know, chocolate-covered peanuts, from one of those movie-size boxes, and offering them to her companions. Apparently she had a box of Raisinettes too. Another guy behind me had running commentary - "Wow. Amazing. Listen to that. Did you hear that?" and so on. It was what we were all thinking, but he said it all out loud.

The row in front of me - just as it was starting, one woman whispered something to her companion and a man two seats down let out this rude "shhhppp!"which did the trick, but still... Where was he when the same woman started humming along????

Over in the row of men-in-tuxes, this one woman kept talking to the people on either side of her. But it's ok. She was whispering. It was the loudest whisper I had ever heard. It echoed throughout the entire theater. It was amazing.

These minor incidents did nothing to mar the evening, they are merely amusing to relate.

When it ended I went back to say hi to Michael and give him a squeeze. You can see me doing that here. See my hand coming around? Squeezing. That's not a smile on his face, it's a grimace. Ok ok, I'm just kidding. I mean yeah I was squeezing but he was (I think) smiling. He was so sweet.



I finally finally got to meet Eglise in person! We have had comment conversations on facebook and it was wonderful to finally meet "for real." She had changed out of her gown but was still absolutely gorgeous in person. Her eyes are WOW! I felt instant warmth from her, as if we had known each other forever.



As usual it was super-crazy hectic back there with visitors and performers all wanting photos of and with each other. So after chatting for a moment I made my way back to the car where they let me have my keys back in spite of me having no idea where my ticket was. After a few crazy city-driving maneuvers, you know, wild u-turns, lane changes and so on, I found my way onto the highway and was home within the hour.

The only think I'd change: Next time I'm writing down what the singers are wearing so I can describe it here in greater detail.

Abduction Report!

Here I am, home. Friday night, free concert in Central Park featuring Mr. Gunn, and here I am, not there. Yep. Suburban temps in the upper 80s (that's like, 28-30c to anyone who thinks in Celsius) combined with high humidity got me to thinking about how grimy I'd be by the time I got up there, so instead we had friends over for pizza. Then a thunderstorm moved through, so on top of feeling icky I'd be soaking wet, and then the train home. Twenty years ago it would have been an adventure. Now I'm like, uh, I'll sweat in my own backyard, thanks.

Actually I knew all week that these friends were coming and I'd be staying in hot/humid/muggy New Jersey.

But enough about that boring stuff. What about yesterday? Abduction!! From the Seraglio!! It was great. Everyone was great. Here are my comments/impressions.

Ok, quickie plot synopsis:

Belmonte and Konstanze are in love.
Pedrillo and Blonde are in love.

Pedrillo is Belmonte's squire/servant/butler whatever.
Blonde is the female version (servant/maid) for Konstanze.

Konstanze, Pedrillo and Blonde have been captured by pirates and sold to a Turkish Pasha. The Pasha is in love with Konstanze.
The Pasha's main guard/overseer is Osmin. He, of course, is in love with Blonde. He is slightly insane and is mean to Pedrillo at all times.

So the opera starts when Belmonte finally arrives to save them, and zany hijinks ensue as they sneak around, get caught and then released.

So now on to the particulars.

Scott Ramsay was Belmonte. WOW. He was great as Romeo and he was even better last night. His voice just floated through the music, light and airy. Some notes he held for so long I thought of that Bugs Bunny cartoon where he has the opera singer holding out the note and turning green, only, Scott made it look easy. And he didn't turn any colors. But click that link because it's pretty funny.

Matthew Lau was Osmin. He was HILARIOUS. In my opinion, he stole the show, with Rachele Gilmore as Blonde right behind/beside him. She was the maid in Die Fleidermaus, and if you remember my post about it, I thought she stole the show then, too. Ok so Osmin was bald with this funny little beard. He's also a bit insane, always shouting about how he's going to torture and kill everyone, but in a funny way. I know these aren't the exact words, but it was a list sort of like, "First you'll be beheaded, then you'll be drowned, then trampled, then burned and then skinned." Beheaded and skinned were first and last, drowned was in there somewhere, but I don't know what else. I'm just guessing at the trampling and burning. His voice was amazing. It's amazing to me that anyone can sing so low. And Rachele Gilmore - she's adorable and has this voice that's clear as a bell, so pretty. She played her character with a British accent. She fell out of the accent every now and then, which didn't surprise me. It's hard to maintain an accent throughout an entire performance. But it didn't take away anything from the performance. Didn't matter to me what kind of accent she had, as long as I could understand her, and I could.

I don't remember the name of the woman who played Konstanze. She was very good, technically. Great voice, really beautiful. But I sort of got this feeling that at times she was singing more like she was giving a recital than participating in an opera with other people. Not every time she sang, just sometimes... it was like she sort of lost the character and just sang to the audience. I mean, they all sing in the direction of the audience of course. But when she looked out at the audience it felt, to me, like she was looking right at everyone. I sat in three different parts of the theater and I felt like she was looking right at me at times. I know she wasn't, of course. But the feeling that she was seeing the audience took away somehow from her acting. It's hard to explain. When she was interacting with her castmates she was invested 100%. Her singing was beautiful and she was also very pretty. The arias were very challenging and she nailed them all. But I did sometimes get that "solo recital" feeling.

It's fun to hear the singers speaking the lines instead of singing recit. They speak them in a sort of singy way, definitely not the way people talk. I really liked the speaking voice (and the singing voice) of the guy who played Pedrillo.

The supers were great. I was pretty much whining, "I could do that!" in my head whenever they were on stage. They wore these beautiful I Dream of Jeannie costumes, but unlike that link they wore bra tops with dangling jingly fringes and see-through gauzy harem pants with the trunks (or whatever that's called) underneath. They wore hats and veils similar to what's in that picture. Each woman was in a different color. The pants were totally see-through.

They came on in the first scene and helped the male watermelon super cut the watermelon. They were on in many other scenes too, including a belly-dance scene at the beginning of Act 2, to an orchestral version of Rondo alla Turca. That Mozart, he sure was clever.

After the performance I decided I might as well go downstairs and say hi. I congratulated Scott in his post-performance sweat-drenched state, then zipped over to the women's dressing room to say hi to one of the supers who was in Romeo with me. She kept telling me how I should have been in it. I know, I know... No control over that... Anyway, they were all taller than me. And it's just as well...a bra top is one thing, but those see-through pants... she said that they were told that you couldn't see through them on stage. Oh no honey, you can see right through them. She also joked that when they first tried on their costumes they were all afraid to leave the dressing room. I think they all looked fabulous.

I'm so glad I went! And I'm so glad I stayed home tonight!

Dressed for the Dress

I want to start off this post with a huge THANK YOU to Divavixxen for generously offering me her two free passes to the final orchestra dress rehearsal of the Mikado. I went last night and it was FABULOUS! Divavixxen was great. What a voice! Beautiful full mezzo, the kind of sound that gives me that Why can't I be a Mezzo-itis bug. She has great comic timing and drew many many laughs from the audience. She owns comedy. I’d love to see her in a dramatic role one day.

But let's back up for a moment. The adventure begins, of course, in the preparations. I narrowed down my shirt options to two. They were both in the basement, freshly washed. One was in a super-heavy laundry basket of clean clothes in the basement. The other was “lay flat to dry” and was doing so on the drying rack. I knew it wouldn’t be dry in time so I took a chance and tossed it into the dryer on fluff. I brought the other shirt upstairs and put it on the dining room table. The rest of the afternoon passed with its normal craziness. Then it was time to get ready. I put on my skirt and thought, hm, both shirts are downstairs. I know we have windows all around and the front door is open to the screen door, but what are the chances that someone will come by if I dash down in my bra? Mind you, I’ve lived there 10 years and this would be the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve ever come downstairs scantily clad. I dash to the basement and the one shirt is still wet. “Fine,” I thought, “I’ll wear the other.” Back up I go... and I can’t find the other shirt. I knew I brought it up, but where the heck did I leave it? About 10 seconds later I hear a “Hello?” And look up to see my next-door neighbor at the door. He’s in his 60s and is one of the most socially awkward people I know. I looked up just as he saw me. He covered his eyes and turned away in embarrassment, stammering that he just wants to drop something off. Meanwhile, I had forgotten that I wasn’t wearing a shirt...I look down, realize, and crouch behind a chair. He was so embarrassed. I’m such a terrible person, I was just trying not to laugh. Poor guy. Husband came to the rescue and I moved a few papers on the table to find my shirt buried underneath. So I was already in a giggly mood before I even left the house.

The performance was great - SO FUNNY!!! What a talented cast. The music and lyrics are so much fun, and they rewrote some of the words to make it relevant. It was HILARIOUS. As I said, Divavixxen ROCKED. She later informed me that it was the guy who played the Lord High Executioner who rewrote the lyrics. Apparently he’s done the role like 30 times so he’s got a flair for keeping it up to date.

Afterwards I ran into the guy who sang Romeo when I supered in it. He’s the lead in Abduction this year. He’s so sweet. The first words out of his mouth: We miss you! Argh! I know! He said that the opera is so funny that he has to keep himself from laughing so he can sing. So of course I said I’d come see it. Then he said he has a few free tickets for Lucia for tonight, am I interested? Hell yeah! Free opera tickets! Of course I can’t find anyone who wants to or is able to come. Story of my life. Well I’ve gone alone to the opera more than I’ve gone with others so, off I go tonight, alone to the opera. Thanks “Romeo!”

Now I all I have to do is figure out what to wear... and remember to get fully dressed before coming downstairs.

The Amazing Revenge of the Bat

Die Fledermaus was AWESOME!!!

Ok, that's all.

No no no I'll write all about it.

Let's see. I already posted the pic that Husband took of me on my way out the door.

Actually I need to backup here for a sec.

A few weeks ago I joined a local opera-fan MeetUp Group. A bunch of people in the group were also going, and one of them emailed me to say that she'd be in the lobby with a MeetUp sign. I didn't see them before the performance, although I did see this sign:




I went to my seat up in the third-to-last row in the balcony.



The theater is pretty small though so all seats are great.

The opera started with the maid singing as she came up the aisle through the audience. She was awesome! She stole the show. The entire opera was just ridiculously goofy with current cultural references. There's a lot of room in the dialogue for that. The plot is very silly. Um... let's see... there's this husband and wife. He got arrested for jaywalking and then his jail sentence was extended because he tried to bribe the police officer. So he's supposed to go off to jail. Meanwhile, his old college buddy, some cute baritone whose name I don't recall (and it's just as well, for my own sake!) plans to get back at him for a prank he played on him when the guy was drunk. He was dressed as a bat for a costume party, and was so drunk that the husband character, as a joke, dropped him on a bench in the middle of town. He woke up the next morning and had to run home dressed as a bat. Ok so he wants to get back at the guy so he ... ok wait this is too complicated to describe. Read this instead. It's the very production I went to see. So basically, everyone has a costume and they all go to this party and pretend to be someone else. They all get drunk and let's see.. the husband who should be in jail flirts with a mysterious woman who is really his wife in a mask. She had been with an old boyfriend earlier in the evening, a tenor who kept singing Verdi. After the husband left for the party (the wife thought he was going off to jail) the boyfriend came in, put on the husband's robe and sat down. Then the jailer came to arrest the husband, and, to avoid scandal, they let him arrest the boyfriend. At the end everyone goes to the jail for one reason or another and it all ends happily ever after. There are can-cans, conga lines, silly songs and many physical gags. And the singing- WOW WOW WOW!!! Everyone was FABULOUS. Seriously. On top of all that silliness! It was AWESOME!!!! It was semi-staged so the orchestra was on the stage behind a scrim. It came down after the overture. I really liked watching the orchestra - seeing all the violin bows move in unison, like a dance. And I knew all the music. Go figure. I've never heard this opera, that I know of, yet I knew the entire thing. I mentioned that later to my mom and she was like, "Well, of course. I used to play it all the time." And then she launched into song!

Ok so first intermission I was wandering around and found the MeetUp people. Uh oh. Remember that group I was mixed up with when I was waiting for Juan Diego Florez to come out the stage door at the Met? Yep. Talk about socially awkward. All they did was complain that the orchestra sounded muddy, did I think they sounded muddy? The violins and the horns? They were asking me about the summer season and one of them said, "Aren't you in the opera company?" and I'm trying to tell them that I'm a super, no singing, etc, but it was too late - they were starstruck! It was bizarre! They kept asking me all these questions, firing them off one after another, and they were so excited to speak to someone who actually appears onstage during an opera. It was awkward and finally I truthfully told them that I had to get on the line for the ladies' room before intermission ended. They invited me to join them for dessert after the show and I gracefully declined, again truthfully telling them that I was meeting someone from the chorus afterwards. Not that I had plans to hang out with said chorus member, but they didn't need that info.

Afterwards I did get a chance to say hi to someone I worked with this past summer. We chatted a bit about this and that. Then as I was leaving I ran into the super captain. Haha love how that sounds. Super-Captain. The guy in charge of the supernumeraries, I mean. His 10 year old son was a super in the production. He said he'll probably learn in April or May if they need supers for the summer. I told him I saw Lucia at the Met and they had maids and servants, so hopefully whoever directs our version will want them too. I told him I'm interested and to keep me in mind.

And then... I left.

Another "Alone to the Opera" Post

Tonight: Die Fledermaus. Going alone. Sitting in the balcony. It's at a smallish theater so my cheap seat in the balcony will still be better than any seat I've ever had at the Met. Of course I'll still bring my binocs, just in case I want an uber-close up view.

There's this reception thing afterwards (remember Turandot and Rigoletto?) but I don't have a ticket for that. When I called about it a few weeks ago they told me that the tickets were $100!!! This week I learned that they are a mere $25. Now, if they had told me that when I called, I probably would have bought one. But I'm not buying one now.

Hm. Maybe I can crash...

Will report later. Now I must swallow some food and then hit myself with a pretty stick. (As opposed to a stupid stick, which I sometimes grab by mistake.)

Alone to the Opera

So I have these free tickets to see Turandot at the State Theater on Sunday and no one wants to go. Ok, I shouldn't say that. No one can go. They all have "other plans." Not that I don't believe them... So chances are I'll be going alone. Anyway, I'll be able to email the super captain and tell him that I saw the show. In fact, maybe I'll email him now. Maybe I'll get to meet him there.