Hoffmann? Endormi?

Last night the guy playing Coppelius/Schlemil in Les Contes D’Hoffmann had a potluck party at his house in Halifax where both casts got to come over and chill out for a while.  It was a lot of fun and we got to talk to people that we don’t normally talk to in rehearsals (because usually we aren’t even in the same rehearsals).  Also I did not realize that in Canada you cannot buy alcohol at a convenience store or grocery store, you have to go to a liquor store.  I was so confused by this; I just had no idea that they wouldn’t sell it at like a gas station.

Yesterday we also finished blocking all of Act 3…the trio I am in sounds SO good and it looks amazing.  We also found out who the casts will be, I’m singing with David (Dr. Miracle) and Beth (Antonia).  Also my costume will be, in a word, AMAZING (as a visual hint: 15 foot train).  I’m excited now that the scene is blocked because we can now really start playing on stage and figuring out how to make it really stunning.

Then this morning I sang in a masterclass taught by Jessica McCormack and I sang “Va Laisse Couler Mes Larmes” from Werther.  The other arias sung were:

Prendi per me sei libero – L’elisir d’amore

Endless Pleasure – Semele

Some baritone aria from Alcina

Vi ravviso – La Sonnambula

Dies Bildnis – Die Zauberflote

This masterclass was literally PHENOMENAL.  During the first aria she brought out the Ann Baltz Operaworks cards to help the singer, and when she asked if anyone knew Ann Baltz, I raised my hand and said I did a masterclass with her in Bowling Green.  Then she said “you’re from Ohio!?” and it turns out she teaches at Wittenberg University in Ohio….it really is an incredibly small world.

Then it was my turn to go, I knew that my aria needed work, which is why I choose to sing it.  What’s the point of doing a song I already have pretty well under my belt? She helped me SO much.  Basically, I had been taking a long sturdy breath before the opening statement of the piece and it actually works better (for me) to take a shorter incredibly energized breath right before I begin singing.  She called it “breathing in the emotion” it literally made the phrase more in tune and more emotive.  Then we worked on the end (“il est trop grand, rien ne l’emplit”) and decided to modify the last vowel a little bit just so it could release more and not waver as much as it had been.  By the end those two problem areas (which were BIG problem areas…trust me) were doing SO much better.  It’s always so inspiring to leave a masterclass feeling so good about the progress you just made and to be congratulated by the colleagues that you’ve just met.

After the masterclass I went back to my room to take a little break (and talk to Chelsea McCarty…duh) and fell asleep for about 20 minutes.  Then a few hours later I had to head back to the campus to do a rehearsal of the Epilogue and block the Act 1 finale.  It went really well, but I can tell that it’s the end of the first week.  We are all getting so tired, it’s really nice that we will have tomorrow off to rest up so that we can come in fresh for the work throughs next week.  It’s crazy that the entire show is now blocked!!  This immense 3 Act (plus a prologue and epilogue) opera was blocked over the course of 4 days.  Now of course there are details and fine tuning that need to be done, but the overall shape is all set.

Since I have tomorrow off I’m planning to SLEEP and then in the afternoon walk down to the harbor with some people from the program to go whale watching! We may not see whales…but it should be fun either way.

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh.