Our soprano, Melanie Diener, arrived on the 24th, and was shocked that we had started rehearsing already. She had no idea whatsoever that everyone else had been here a week and a half already. We quickly put her into the scenes we'd already staged, and finished staging the rest of the opera. Melanie was wonderful to work with and super friendly. We went out to eat a couple of times and I really enjoyed spending time with her.
The week before opening night, we were very busy. Thursday, we had our only piano dress rehearsal. Friday, we had our first rehearsal with the orchestra (just a musical rehearsal), then a dinner break, then a full run-through with orchestra. The following day we had two three-hour orchestra staging rehearsals. The next two days we had orchestra dress rehearsals. I was so glad to be singing a nice, low role like Ännchen and not Marie again, because there's no way I could have done that so many times in a row! Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were performances.
The first piano dress rehearsal was a mess, starting with the makeup and hair. I was given eye-liner that looked like a drunk person had put it on, a tiny bit of lopsided blush, and light lipstick. Then I was told I could do it myself the next day. I had my one little diva moment and said "I am one of the stars. I am NOT doing my own makeup!" Turns out, they were confused and thought I was part of the chorus. Also, when they curled my hair, they did not put any product in it, despite my request, so it immediately collapsed. Here's my ugly mug from that day:
There were also all sorts of problems with hearing the orchestra, and it can be very frustrating when the conductor is constantly telling you you're off. I'm not usually the one with that problem on stage, but the way the theater there was set up, it was almost impossible to hear the pit when they were playing softly. The set, which was beautiful, was also huge, and in my first scene it completely blocked the speakers backstage that were supposed to allow the singers to hear the orchestra better. The first pair of shoes they costume department gave me were an inch too big, then they ordered another pair that were a half inch too big (even though I tried on pairs in the wrong color to find the right size), so they added two inserts and a heel pad while I waited for my third pair of shoes to arrive. I tripped a number of times during that first rehearsal. Luckily, time fixed all of our problems. The makeup and hair improved, a louder speaker backstage helped with the orchestra, and I was given a new pair of shoes which turned out to be a size too small but were fixed with the shoe-stretcher overnight.
Here I am with improved hair and makeup, and with Melanie:
The Chinese audience is not big on clapping, so it can be very strange when you've sung an aria and you either get about three seconds of wimpy applause or none at all. However, at the end, they go wild. On opening night, I couldn't really tell, but our rehearsal pianist who was in the audience said that I got the strongest applause! I thought the clapping was about equal for myself, Kurt, Clemens, and Melanie, but who am I to argue? My sister was there for opening night and told me that the opera was very entertaining, so that's good enough for me.
My favorite part of the opera is the Wolf's Glen scene. There are dancers dancing with the devil, and the beginning of the scene, costumes and all, is straight from the beginning of Michael Jackson's Thriller video. Makes me chuckle every time.
I had lots more excellent food, including a quarter roast suckling pig from the local Portuguese restaurant that we all frequent. Best piece of meat I can remember eating since the Peking duck I had in Beijing. On my last day, I had a big glass of fresh squeezed mango juice for about $1.25, followed by some yummy potstickers at the big Chinese meat market's food court, and a really fresh seafood salad at a Thai restaurant.
Here are some more Macau pictures to enjoy:
Here I am on Hac Sa Beach on the island of Coloane.
This is the gaudy Grand Lisboa casino and hotel in the shape of a lotus flower.
There were absolutely not enough bad English signs around like there were in Beijing, so this gdumplng shop made me happy. I didn't eat here.
It took me a LONG time to finally stand on the glass floor at the top of the Macau Tower and look down (I think it was 64 stories high). People bungee jump off this thing, it's the world's highest.
Here I am with the super famous Kurt Rydl and Clemens Bieber at our opening night Chinese feast.
My sister and I got a very Macanese dinner her first night in Macau - African chicken on the left, curry crab with shrimp on the right.
And last, but not least - a sideways (oops) video of some crazy person doing the bungee jump off the Macau Tower. It costs about $370 and it's a loooonnnnggg way down.
