Another audition season came and went, and while my agent got great feedback on my singing, no jobs have come my way yet. Apparently, a couple of the European companies I auditioned for are thinking of using me in the future, so I suppose I'll just have to be patient.
In the meantime, another opportunity presented itself and I just couldn't say no. As you know, I sang Marie in Daughter of the Regiment at Opera in the Heights in Houston. I had a marvelous time working with the conductor, Enrique Carreón-Robledo, but the direction left a bit to be desired. I had mentioned in an email to Enrique that if he were ever looking for a director, I might be interested, since I have a doctoral minor in opera directing. Never in a million years did I think he would take me up on my offer, but at the end of March, he called to ask if I would direct the company's season opener, Rossini's Otello. After I got over my initial shock, I started researching to see if this was an opera I thought I could take on (I had originally told him that I would feel more comfortable directing a comedy, and Otello is about as serious as it gets). I found out that Rossini's version is rarely done because it strays so much from Shakespeare's storyline (and five of the leads are tenors - who wants to deal with that?!). Verdi's Otello is much more common at opera houses - it sticks to the plot. Apparently, directors stay away from the Rossini also, because the music is highly repetitive and difficult to work with. I decided that even though I was petrified, this was an opportunity that I could not turn down. I have been working on my concept ever since.
Opera in the Heights is used to doing very traditionally staged operas. When I accepted the job, I first checked with Enrique to make sure that it would be all right if I chose to update the opera. After reading my concept, which keeps the location in Venice but moves the time period from the 16th century to 1985, he warned me that the conservative audience and critics might not fully appreciate it, even though he thought my idea was fabulous. However, he said that if I want to move forward, then he will be behind me all the way. I am 100% behind my vision, and I can't wait to put it on its feet in September. I hope that the audience will overcome its fear of modernized opera, and my professional directorial debut will be a success.
I'll keep you updated!
May 1, 2012
November 11, 2011
The rest of Macau
My trip in Macau came to an end last Sunday. We had three performances, and they were very well-received. The trip was a great opportunity for me, and getting the chance to travel to a place like Macau was amazing, but I'm definitely happy to be home in my nice, soft bed again.
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:
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:
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.
October 23, 2011
Fun times in Macau
It's been a week and a half since I arrived in Macau to sing Ännchen in Der Freischütz. Macau is basically the Las Vegas of the East, without the Vegas-style entertainment. This is a place to gamble, gamble, and gamble some more. I've walked into many of the casinos, and while they're definitely large and gaudy, they're nowhere near as interesting to see as the ones in Vegas. I did, however, spend about 45 minutes trying to find the exit in the maze of shops that is the Venetian (it's three times bigger than its Vegas counterpart).
There are certainly things to see here that don't involve the casinos. Macau is very interesting architecturally. There's not much that's Chinese about it except for the occasional temple and the Chinese store signs. There are a lot of grimy high-rise apartment buildings, the huge casinos, and a lot of neoclassical-style colonial Portuguese buildings, which are absolutely gorgeous (Portugal owned the place until 1999 when China took over). I have officially seen everything in the guidebook, since you can pretty much walk from one end of the peninsula to the other in a half hour.
Our hotel is conveniently located, we have free internet, and thanks to being on the top floor facing south, I have a great view of various casinos and the harbor. My bed is not so much a mattress but a hard box spring. One of my colleagues had to change rooms to a non-smoking floor and it turned out that his new bed had a thickish mattress pad on it. I requested one this morning, and let me tell you, trying to explain a mattress pad to the front desk folks who barely speak English was rough. I came back to my room after rehearsal and whatever I said and (mostly) mimed, worked! Hopefully I'll sleep a little better for the rest of my time here.
I arrived a few days earlier than everyone else because I wanted to be well-adjusted before my first rehearsal, which I thought was Oct. 16. Turns out, we didn't have rehearsal that day, or the next day, and on Tuesday, we simply had a meet and greet and didn't sing. Left me with lots of time to explore. On the most recent day off I had, I took the ferry to Hong Kong and had a wonderful time. (I did not have a wonderful time on the ferry, however, which tossed and turned just enough to make me upchuck my breakfast.) I hope to get to Hong Kong again, but I'm not sure if I'll have any more days off.
I've eaten lots of delicious food, mostly Portuguese and Cantonese, although I did have a fabulous Indian dinner tonight. The food is fairly cheap, and it's fun to try lots of new dishes.
Rehearsals have been going very well. I really love the director. It's so refreshing to have a director with a plan. He stages very quickly and with a lot of detail, and then we repeat things a lot, changing or adding little nuances each time. It's a welcome change from the directors I've had recently. The unfortunate thing is that our lead soprano has not shown up yet. Supposedly she will arrive by plane tomorrow morning and will be at rehearsals all day. All of my big scenes rely on her character's reactions, so it's been difficult staging without her. The assistant director has been walking her parts, but he's really not the ideal leading lady. Everyone is pretty unhappy that she hasn't been here, and I hope that when she arrives, that she is friendly and ready to jump in.
Before I forget, I added an mp3 of highlights from one of the Daughter of the Regiment performances to my website. There aren't any complete numbers, but you can hear bits and pieces of my big numbers.
Here are some pictures to enjoy:
There are certainly things to see here that don't involve the casinos. Macau is very interesting architecturally. There's not much that's Chinese about it except for the occasional temple and the Chinese store signs. There are a lot of grimy high-rise apartment buildings, the huge casinos, and a lot of neoclassical-style colonial Portuguese buildings, which are absolutely gorgeous (Portugal owned the place until 1999 when China took over). I have officially seen everything in the guidebook, since you can pretty much walk from one end of the peninsula to the other in a half hour.
Our hotel is conveniently located, we have free internet, and thanks to being on the top floor facing south, I have a great view of various casinos and the harbor. My bed is not so much a mattress but a hard box spring. One of my colleagues had to change rooms to a non-smoking floor and it turned out that his new bed had a thickish mattress pad on it. I requested one this morning, and let me tell you, trying to explain a mattress pad to the front desk folks who barely speak English was rough. I came back to my room after rehearsal and whatever I said and (mostly) mimed, worked! Hopefully I'll sleep a little better for the rest of my time here.
I arrived a few days earlier than everyone else because I wanted to be well-adjusted before my first rehearsal, which I thought was Oct. 16. Turns out, we didn't have rehearsal that day, or the next day, and on Tuesday, we simply had a meet and greet and didn't sing. Left me with lots of time to explore. On the most recent day off I had, I took the ferry to Hong Kong and had a wonderful time. (I did not have a wonderful time on the ferry, however, which tossed and turned just enough to make me upchuck my breakfast.) I hope to get to Hong Kong again, but I'm not sure if I'll have any more days off.
I've eaten lots of delicious food, mostly Portuguese and Cantonese, although I did have a fabulous Indian dinner tonight. The food is fairly cheap, and it's fun to try lots of new dishes.
Rehearsals have been going very well. I really love the director. It's so refreshing to have a director with a plan. He stages very quickly and with a lot of detail, and then we repeat things a lot, changing or adding little nuances each time. It's a welcome change from the directors I've had recently. The unfortunate thing is that our lead soprano has not shown up yet. Supposedly she will arrive by plane tomorrow morning and will be at rehearsals all day. All of my big scenes rely on her character's reactions, so it's been difficult staging without her. The assistant director has been walking her parts, but he's really not the ideal leading lady. Everyone is pretty unhappy that she hasn't been here, and I hope that when she arrives, that she is friendly and ready to jump in.
Before I forget, I added an mp3 of highlights from one of the Daughter of the Regiment performances to my website. There aren't any complete numbers, but you can hear bits and pieces of my big numbers.
Here are some pictures to enjoy:
Cool architecture in Senado Square, a lovely pedestrian area:
View from my hotel room at night:
I think I took this from one of the fortresses high up in the center of the peninsula - the big building in the shape of a lotus flower is the Lisboa Hotel and Casino. My hotel is next door.
Yummy food - another singer and I shared marinated roast pigeon, veggies in curry sauce, and duck rice (basically rice fried in duck fat with pieces of duck and Portuguese chorizo):
This little piggy went to market (apparently with two of his little piggy friends). This is not the grossest picture I took at the meat market that day, just so you know:
At the bird market in Hong Kong, probably my favorite part of the day:
More colorful birds from the bird market:
Most interesting plant I saw at the flower market in Hong Kong - I will call it a condom plant:
Me on the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Central to Kowloon, with the Hong Kong skyline in the background (this one only lasted about 6 minutes and I did not puke):
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