Friday, June 14, 2013

Gianni Schicchi Diary pt. 13


 GIANNI SCHICCHI THIS WEEKEND JUNE 15-16....www.operaprojectcolumbus.org

Last night was the final dress rehearsal.
There I was, pretty in pink, imaging I could put my feet up, watch the show, make a few notes and enjoy.
Be the daddy. My work is done.

I'm so naive. I'm not aware of any creative endeavor anywhere that doesn't suffer agony at the last minute. We did. Or at least I did. The old adage, "bad dress rehearsals equal great performances" is a comfort.

Not that we had a bad dress rehearsal. We were to run the opera twice, with a short break in between. Start cues were straightened out. The orchestra was sounding great in the warm ups. All of the players weer accomplished and professional. Some of very young. It is a band of winners.

Curtain call!
We hung around on stage, the singers partially dressed (No, no, no...get your mind out the gutter. Jeez) The overworked and under loved volunteers were continuing to stitch costumes, often in the dark. There was a delay as everyone was dressed and adjusted. Then phew! The show began.

Hissy fit number one when the coordination was thought to lag between orchestra and singers. Adjust, adjust, Move around. Some singers wherever they were had eyes glued to the Maestro. Not a way to perform. Hissy fit number 2. Done to blow off steam, not meaning much, certainly nothing personal, but may be disconcerting to some. Not to me. Hell, it was like Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, may they rest in peace.

But I could tell the singers were getting annoyed. I was getting the snarls and WTF out in the house. They shoulda seen my mug out there in the dark. Thee were a few tempi problems as a few were in a s-----l-----o---w mood . About that I will need to speak up and will  have done so by the time you read this.
Curtain call!

Gianni Schicchi's pants fell off. Best part of the show was when he took the god damned things off under his nightie and flung his pants and undies into the audience, Well, not quite. But I woulda done that. My Schicchi handled everything with aplomb, as did the entire cast all night, giving the audience the music, performances and the show-through a good bit of muttering and gnashing of teeth (me.)

Nice press coverage thus far.  There were a couple of audiences members over the past two nights. I was on my way to passing a hat to them. (Not you, Ryan) Cough up. No free rides. I wish I had but it's not my job, tactful guy that I am.I'm going to a wake this afternoon and a funeral in the morning. No, no my own. Don't get excited. For the rest I'm eating pizza and chocolate and doing two live broadcasts. And so it went. The shows themselves will be capital W Wonderful. This thanks to the artists and staff of Opera Project Columbus. Give them money.

P.S. To singers. This is one of my all time favorites. Helen of Troy after her wedding night In one of the great great great performances. Too bad she can't sing with all of YOU!




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