Grilled Cheese Panini

Today was a LONG day of rehearsals, I had a rehearsal for Act 1 to work through the act.  That lasted until about 4:30 when we had a dinner break.  (in the middle of the rehearsal the chorus was released for a half hour to grab some food) So I had a DELICIOUS grilled cheese panini from the cafe behind where we have rehearsal...I will definately be getting that again soon...SO GOOD!

Then after the dinner break we had a work through rehearsal of Act 2 until 7pm (ish).  We got out a little early because the chorus basically is on at the beginning of the act for a little while and then comes back at the end.  So there's no point in keeping us around if we aren't going to be used again.

Afterward we had a masterclass taught by Tony Radford who is playing Crespel and Luther in our production of Les Contes D'Hoffmann.  The selections we got to here tonight were:

Senza Mamma - Suor Angelica
Bester Jungling - The Impresario
Onegin's Aria - Eugene Onegin
The Crucifixion - Samuel Barber
King David - Herbert Howells
Composer's Aria - Ariadne auf Naxos

 As usual lots of good things happening in these pieces.  The Puccini was BEYOND gorgeous, Tamara was made to sing that role.  One of the most important things said is that you NEED to give up on the idea of sounding like something or someone else because if you just allow your voice to sing then it WILL sound better and just fly more easily because you aren't forcing it to be something else.  Also it was interesting to think of coloratura passages as being more like laughter, because laughter is really natural and coloratura should be much easier if we think of it that way, or at least should come more naturally, it's just important for it to stay light (like laughter) because if it gets heavy it will just be that much more difficult.

Tomorrow we'll finish working through Act 2 and begin working through Act 3! As well as beginning to be fitted for costumes =D

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate.

Dealing with grades in general!