Happy Holidays! (And time to get to work!)

To begin with, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! And soon to be, Happy New Year. 

December has been super busy and also a bit frustrating. Good stuff first: the Christmas Markets are fantastic, full of great food and arts and crafts, and I've seen just about all of the ones anyone's heard of. I've eaten all sorts of delicious sausages, crepes, melted cheese, perogies, salamis, soups, quarkballs (basically donuts made with sour cream), chocolates, and other things I can't remember. Yum! Sadly, they're all over now, but they sure make being away from home during Christmas less sad. My sister visited for a week in the beginning December, also a lot of fun, and I got to walk around more of Berlin that I haven't seen, and try out interesting restaurants like a Sri Lankan place I'd like to go back to. I've also managed to memorize Zerbinetta, which is great since Ariadne auf Naxos starts on January 2.

And now the not-so-much-fun stuff. We started rehearsals for Strauss' Die Ägyptische Helena (which I now am calling Hell-ena). The cast is wonderful, and surprisingly, mostly made up of Americans. The Helena is German and expects the world to rotate around her, but she has a fabulous voice so I'm not too bothered by her attitude (many of the other cast members are ready to kill her for being such a diva, but I haven't had any major run-ins yet). Our conductor, Andrew Litton, is lots of fun, American, always buys the wine at dinner, and speaks no German. The director, Marco Marelli, speaks English to the conductor, but not to us. Two of us don't really understand him, and the other girl doesn't seem to care, but I do. It's so frustrating to be told something in German, understand some of it but not all of it, and then after looking confused, have the director say the same exact thing in German again. I also hate having to always ask another cast member to translate, but it's what I have to do. I can't go from not understanding German to understanding it fluently just like that. I do get a lot of what the guy says, but there's only so much I can get at once, and it's not nearly enough.

I had mentioned before that we're in the whole show, even though we only sing in one scene. During a 3-hour rehearsal, we cover about 3-5 minutes of the opera. We do the scene over and over again, and we barely change anything. And if Marelli wants to change something, instead of just going over the one part, we start the whole scene over again. And then the next rehearsal, it ends up changing! It takes so much energy to be there, and he expects more with each repetition. By the time you get to the 20th rep, everyone's making stupid mistakes because we just can't focus anymore. We've been working on the show since the beginning of December, and we basically have seven days of rehearsal left before our first dress rehearsal. We still haven't staged half of Act I, and the elves haven't been put into Act II at all (and I know we're in it!). I don't know how this show is going to come together in time. However, all that being said, if it does come together, I think it will be a beautiful production. The costumes and sets are gorgeous, and I think it will be fun to watch even if the process is tedious. Hopefully we won't get booed like Tannhäuser did!!

I've had three performances of The Cunning Little Vixen. It is the cutest production – everyone's in amazing animal costumes, and there are a number of dancers. I am a grasshopper in the beginning and the end, and I eat leaves and play a violin like it's a guitar, and dance like an idiot. All that while being very green and wearing a grasshopper head that I can't really see in.

In another scene I'm one of two boys (well, more like a big boy since I have a padded stomach on my costume). We torment the vixen and get thrown back inside by our dad.

We had two performances yesterday, one on December 17, and one coming up on January 9. I only have a few lines to sing, but the music is fairly difficult rhythmically, and we have a conductor who doesn't think it's his job to cue singers, so we are always off. The audience would never be able to tell, but it's annoying to never get things right – as soon as one singer is slightly behind or ahead, we all end up singing it wrong. Oh well! I suppose if he cared, he'd cue!

January is going to be super busy. I'm singing the first 10 days of Zerbinetta rehearsals, starting January 2. I'll also be at most of the other rehearsals because of covering Zerbinetta and Najade. Hell-ena opens on the 18th. And then we're starting Elektra and possibly Carmen. The big news about Carmen is that we're no longer doing a new production since the director had to pull out for health reasons, instead we're remounting the old one. This will take substantially less time rehearsing. This is good because I'm already busy enough and will appreciate the extra time, but bad because I'd like to have a chance to really rehearse Frasquita before being thrown on stage. I'm also not performing the role until June, so I don't know if I'll be called to the early rehearsals. No matter what, they can't call me to more than 6 hours a day of rehearsals, so I'll be busy, but not that busy.

Not too much else to report at the moment. Happy New Year everyone!

A month later, still alive!

I just realized it's been a long time since I've written a post! Over a month, actually. I think I figured you needed a bit of a break after the small novels I kept writing about China. I sure needed a break after all that wall-climbing and dumpling-eating, and I got my wish. Most of the operas I'm in start in December, so I've had lots of free time in the last month to learn music, sing another Queen of the Night, and eat sausages. (And now that the Christmas Markets are open, I can eat a different sausage every day by walking around the corner and pointing!) Speaking of China, I finally took a picture of the jacket I had made for me. Here I am!

My biggest excitement this month was Queen #2. MUCH better than the first time. After the costumer left my dressing room, I took the heels off, hid them under the couch, and put my own shoes on. So, about 90% less tripping occurred. I say 90%, because my dress was now about an inch and half too long, so I had to pay more attention walking. I felt great on both my arias, and this time around, I actually got more applause than Pamina. This is really my goal in this role, to be on stage for 10 minutes and somehow manage to get more applause than the girl who was on stage all the time and had to work way harder than me. Thanks, Mozart! Here are a couple pictures of me as Königin der Nacht in the big production. Not quite as exciting as the costume for the kids' show.

Last week I got to fly to NY for the Opera Foundation Gala. The Opera Foundation is the group that gave me my scholarship to Berlin, and so they bought me a plane ticket to come sing at their annual dinner. It was a great event. Depending on how much you want to donate, seats are either $500 or $1000, so I was expecting the food to be perfect. And it was. First course of lobster, followed by rack of lamb, followed by a lovely dessert with fresh fruit and different sorbets in a chocolate shell. After the lobster, the three scholarship recipients sang. I sang the Queen of the Night's Vengeance Aria, and also a duet from The Barber of Seville. The aria got lots of cheers, and as soon as I sat down I was given a business card from a publisher of Opera News, who told me to call her. She said she was just thrilled with my singing and wants me to stay in contact. I was also approached by a woman from New York City Opera, saying that even though they're going through some transitions, she wanted to pass along my information to them. I even had a few of the wait staff come up to me with compliments! Here's a picture of me with Harold Wilson, a former scholarship recipient and the emcee of the evening, and Elizabeth Walbröl, New York socialite and in charge of the Opera Foundation.

Back at Deutsche Opera, I'm in two productions that are starting rehearsals this week, a premiere of Strauss' Die Ägypstische Helena, and Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. The director for Helena has decided that all the singers with smaller parts that should only be in one scene of the opera will be on stage for the entire opera. This means I'll be called to every rehearsal until opening. Not so much fun. Vixen will be fun, I have three tiny roles and get to dress up like different animals. Probably more exciting than both of those things is that I found out that the woman singing Zerbinetta in our new production of Ariadne auf Naxos will be absent from the first 10 days of rehearsals. And I'm the cover! So that means I'll get to sing all of her rehearsals during that time and probably stage all of Zerbinetta. I'm almost done learning the role – it's not easy but it's a ton of fun to sing.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I had two! My parents moved it up a week to when I was home, and then on the real Thanksgiving, I went to a big dinner with a bunch of American friends here in Berlin. Glad I at least got to spend one holiday at home this year, since Christmas and Easter will be spent here.

Tonight I went to the premiere of Tannhäuser. I was told that at premieres, the applause at the end can be the most exciting part. Some singers were cheered more than I've ever heard in my life, and the Elizabeth/Venus was booed. I don't think I've ever heard boos before in a theater. Her boos weren't anything, however, compared to the boos for the director and designers. The whole theater booed as loudly for them as they had cheered for the Wolfram. Crazy stuff! Glad I was there to experience it. I found the production to be sort of blah, not great, not bad. Certainly not boo-worthy.

I'll post again once I have something more substantial to write about, like my upcoming rehearsals and shows. Until then, have a great December!

End of China and beginning of Königin der Nacht

Temple of Heaven

Scary looking Buddha on display

I only burned a little film.

Beats me.

And I did.

Panda!

Look closely, it's another baby butt!

We decided not to take the pleasure boat.

Well, I'm back in Berlin. The last couple of days in China went well. I didn't have to perform so I basically had the days free. The highlights were the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Zoo where I got to see the pandas, a fun artsy shopping street, and on the last night, I shared another duck with my friend Stephanie. After the first roast duck, I didn't think it was possible for one to be better, but this one put the first duck to shame. We went to a place off the beaten track that I had read was amazing. It was a beautiful little restaurant, and you could see the oven in back with the ducks hanging and the fat dripping off. This place made its own hoisin sauce for dipping, which I could have drunk straight from the dish. The duck was perfect. Juicy and tender, not one bit of fat anywhere, and the crispiest melt-in-your-mouth skin possible. The waiter who carved it really got every bit of meat off, unlike the other place where we pretty much just got the breasts and the rest went back into the kitchen for someone else's meal. I will definitely miss Peking duck, fresh dumplings, and most of the rest of real Chinese food.

My schedule has been super light since I came back. The big thing that's happened, of course, is my real debut in a non-children's opera. Last Friday, I sang Königin der Nacht in the main production of Die Zauberflöte. Now, let me tell you how things happen around here. When a new singer enters an old production, they don't particularly rehearse. I received two rehearsals for Königin. One was about 20 minutes long, and was about four weeks ago. The other one was two days before the show, about 15 minutes worth. At my first rehearsal, I had the Pamina there, but no one else, and we of course weren't on the stage. Second rehearsal, I had Pamina and Tamino, which was better, so my arias felt slightly normal. I was told what would happen in the final scene, but never got to walk through it. Never got to wear the costume, never got to use the props, never got to see the stage. Well, the night of the show rolled around, and I felt fairly confident about the staging. I was a little nervous about the first aria, since I start by running from the back of the stage to the front, and I am followed by a number of girls in mini black dresses carrying a huge piece of black silk that covers the stage. I'm supposed to grab the knife that's stuck in the floor, collapse, and this piece of silk is brought over me and I grab it and put it around my neck like a big cape. It's a cool effect. Second aria, pretty easy staging, final scene, I figured nothing could go too wrong.

Well, here's how it went down. First off, I put on the 4-inch heels I was supposed to be running in, and I tried to run. They fell off. I got the costumer, who added some heel pads so they'd stay on. I still didn't feel so great about wearing them. Then, I put on the costume, and never in my life have I smelled riper armpits. I tried not to think about it. I was pre-set for the first aria, and ready to run. Somehow the shoes stayed on, but once I collapsed at the front of the stage, I could not for the life of me find the front end of the silk. I finally got it right in time to sing my first line. Not bad. Then the trouble started. The dress (sorry I don't have pictures, I completely forgot) is a long straight dress with about a four foot train. The bottom is wide enough to walk easily, but when you're collapsed on the floor and have to get up, it's not an easy event. My staging was to get up and sit on a chair that was about a foot to the left of me. I had such a hard time getting up! I kept stepping on the dress, or a shoe would get caught in it, and I was afraid that the shoes would just come off entirely. So I kept struggling until I finally made it onto the chair. I was fine for a while, until I had to stand on the chair, which I was hoping wouldn't require hiking my dress up too far, but it did. I almost made it on the chair at the right time. The one part that went perfectly was my stabbing of the life-size picture of Pamina. I think I was getting out my frustration at the costume and the shoes. OK, so the second aria was much better. I again had a hard time getting from the floor to standing, but the tripping was minimal. Then came the final scene. The stage for the show has an extra piece that is in front of the orchestra, it's about a three or four foot wide path. I waited with Monostatos and the Three Ladies in the pit for our entrance. I made it to the middle of the path with not much of a problem (besides hitting my head when I came up the stairs to the pit, oops). While we're singing, the Second Lady hands me a rifle. When the lightning and thunder happen, we all put our guns down and walk to the side. Well, having never done this before, I figured, I'm walking to the left, I'll put my gun down to the right so I don't have to step over it. Good thinking, until I stood up and realized that my gun was on the train of my dress. I was petrified! I didn't know what to do, so I just walked, hoping it wouldn't fall either a) into the pit and kill the conductor or b) fall into the audience and kill whatever rich old person was sitting in the front row. Well, God must have taken pity on me, because the rifle gently rolled off my train and into place on the stage. And that was it! My big debut! I guess you're probably wondering how the singing went. I hit all the right notes at the right time, and according to a couple friends in the audience, the crowd went crazy after Der Hölle Rache, which I totally nailed. All in all, I think it was a success, and I can't wait to do it again now that I have a better idea of how things work. And I will definitely be switching out their shoes for my shoes, whether they like it or not.

Sadly, my Staatsoper gig didn't come through. I came back from China, and a week later received an email that they needed to record earlier than they thought, so they had to hire another singer. Oh well. At least they know I'm around and can hit the high notes, so maybe they'll call me again in the future. I also almost lucked into singing Königin der Nacht at the Komische Oper Berlin last Saturday night. Their Königin was sick, and I got notification right before Friday's debut asking if I was available. They called the next morning saying that they had found another replacement who had already done the production. Maybe next time!

Coming up for me is another Zauberflöte on Nov. 4, rehearsals for the new production of Tannhäuser (which I don't sing until May), and Cunning Little Vixen in December. I'll make sure I take some pictures next time!