Final Dress Fiascos

The title of the post is probably misleading but I couldn't resist. For the most part, the final dress went well, as far as I could see. So here's the fun stuff, including the fiascos.

The lead tenor dude wasn't there – I think he was singing somewhere else – so his cover did the role. He was pretty nervous, and seemed a little tight at first, but eventually relaxed into it and opened up to a fuller, rounder sound. So before the performance started, when we were all backstage waiting to go on, I was sticking the real flower into the bouquet of fake ones that I take out and place on the table. I told him I'd place the vase on the table with the flower toward the front and he got sort of brusquely – "Make sure it's facing front. FRONT. Ok? Got it? It has to be facing the FRONT." Yeah, uh, I know… But THEN he turned to the two choristers next to me and said with a smile, "Have a great time out there tonight!" Well if you've been reading my blog for any length of time you know that this type of behavior up with I will not put. So I tapped him on the arm and said laughingly, "Hey! How come you're all nice and smiley to them, but you were all demanding and non-smiley with me? THAT'S not right." He paused for about a second, then he immediately apologized and smiled, and he was really nice the rest of the evening. On the spur of the moment I gave him the tiny rubber chicken I had been planting on the poker table for Act 2 Scene 2. He kept asking me, "Is this for luck?" and I wouldn't say. I would pause and then say, "Ok, sure. It's for luck. Yeah." or, "If you want it to be." He did keep it in his pocket for the entire performance.

Onstage serving the drinks it was a bit crowded. Everyone is in big poofy dresses and making grand flamboyant gestures. Rachel and I almost bumped into each other – what a disaster of spilled ginger-ale THAT would have been! Then I go sort of crushed in the crowd so I exited on the wrong side and had to scoot back around, no big deal.

There's a tv monitor in the green room so we can see what's going on onstage. So a bunch of us were hanging out, taking pictures and watching the monitor, when suddenly: silence. Violetta was supposed to be onstage. Silence grew awkward as people started saying under their breath, "C'mon, c'mon! Ohmigod!" and then someone said, "Kirstin! GO!" She's the cover for the role. She was like, "But... wouldn't they page me? I don't..." and meanwhile a couple people were pushing her toward the hallway. I was like, OMG, something must've happened to Liz, and I ran to her dressing room and knocked on the door. No answer. I came back and heard someone say, "There she goes." And a moment later she entered the scene. Whew.

One scene change they couldn't get a scrim or something to drop from the ceiling, so they had us clear the backstage area while they brought a cherry picker on stage. Yes, that's right, a cherry picker. I was standing there when someone moved the prop table over to make way for this contraption. That's all I saw before the stage manager asked us to skedaddle.

So for the poker and fight scene, the director decided to have the servants run on stage along with the guests. Rachel ended up one row over in the wings due to the bed that was there for the next act, a bed that if anyone touched it it collapsed off its precarious table they balanced it on. Nice. So Kelly runs, I'm supposed to be after her, then Rachel, then Ken. But since Rachel couldn't see us, she ran out sort of at the same time and we had a physics problem in that two people cannot occupy the same space at the same time. So I let her go in front of me, no big deal, but then I wasn't sure exactly where to stop. It all worked out since we can't really be seen all the way upstage behind the chorus. Then the singing was so beautiful that I was getting weepy, so I was standing there trying not to cry. After all, my mascara wasn't waterproof!

Back in the dressing room a few people had problems or complaints about the costumes. Mine had many loose threads in the hem that caught on my shoes at I walked, and somehow a pin had been sewn into the hem. Most people had a good attitude about it. After all, it's pretty impressive that the small costume department can throw together fancy costumes for three operas in a short period of time. One reason we have a dress rehearsal is to identify the problems and fix them before opening night. But a couple of people were a little impatient about their particular problems. I was actually a little taken aback by their behavior when informing the costume person about the issues. All I needed was a scissor to snip a few loose strings, not a big deal at all.

Then I was done. I called my voice teacher who was in the audience, made my way through the bowels of the theater and went into the house to I watch the final act.

I'd never seen the entire act in order. It was great. Violetta is dying for the entire act. She'd have an attack, regain strength, pass out, get a little better... "Is she dead yet? Not yet... Is she dead yet? Not yet..." Finally she collapses into Alfredo's arms and he lays her gently on the floor. Everyone around me was sniffing and blowing their noses. Oh and of course during one quiet bit a woman nearby was unwrapping a hard candy or something in a very crinkly wrapper, very very slowly, then she slowly I think folded it up... WHY WHY WHY???????

Then the curtain call was fun to watch too, except Elizabeth wasn't feeling well (after all, she just played a dying woman for the previous 3 hours) and she looked a little peaked up there. I never would have known - her performance was wonderful. She throws herself into the part completely and is often crying and emotional when she exits the stage, because Violetta is. It boggles my mind that she can sing while almost crying like that, but she does, and it's beautiful.

Anyone local out there reading this should come see her perform. And bring tissues.