First day of the Halifax Opera Workshop!

Well last night I fell asleep roughly around 7pm and slept til 5am, which was perfect and then I did nothing until about 8am when I finally went to the gym for a little while.  Then afterwards I packed up a lunch, then myself and three other participants of the workshop started walking over the rehearsal space.  It was about a 10 minute walk which wasn’t too bad and then we had a workshop meeting.  The productions being done are Les Contes D’Hoffmann (which is what I’m in) and Die Zauberflote so this is one of the times where we’ll all get to meet up.  I went ahead and sat down in an empty seat and started talking to the guy next to me and he asked where I was from and I was like “Well I’m from Oxford Ohio but I study in Bowling Green Ohio” and he said “Oh…I know someone from Bowling Green” and he started describing a bigger guy with facial hair who he met at a conference…and so I took a guess “I think you might know my teacher...Sean Cooper?” and he was like “YES! That was him”.  It’s a small world after all.

At the first meeting we introduced ourselves and met the stage managers and directors and also drew names for who will be in each masterclass this summer.  Not sure what I’ll sing in mine, but I’m sure that it will be a swell time.

Then we had our cast meetings….if you aren’t familiar with The Tales of Hoffmann I highly suggest you look at it, it’s a really bizarre story and is really well put together.  We’re doing a traditional production, which means that Nicklausse’s violin aria is cut and the order of the acts will be Olympia, Giulietta, and then Antonia.  Tomorrow we’ll have the music rehearsal for the trio that I am singing in, but today we did music for the prologue, act 1, and most of act 2 which was pretty impressive.  The chorus stuff is a lot different than opera choruses I’ve done before so I’ll have to keep looking at it. 

It’s been nice to have a few breaks in our day so we can meet the other people at the workshop; I’ve met some really nice people.  Actually that’s probably the best thing about this workshop, considering that this is the first role I’m singing I was worried that I would feel really intimidated and nervous, but luckily the environment here is so kind and supportive that it looks like while I’m sure I’ll be nervous it won’t be to the extent that it could be.

Also the practice rooms have no windows, but compensate for it by having lime green walls.

Now I’m going to finish my blueberry yogurt and sleep.

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show.