A young(ish) opera singer's random thoughts and observations.

Saturday 30 July 2011

Bilingual Shakespeare and goodbyes

Day 12 - Friday

Morning: our last session with Gioconda! A great summing up of everything she's opened us up to, most of which is already coming in handy in staging both the operas. We also learn a useful skill: how to fall. It's quite counterintuitive, but works! Then a chorus session to take a look at both Cosi and Lillian Alling, fairly standard fare by now. It does produce a memorable quote from Les (conductor) however: 'Tenors, you were so unbelievably beautifully quiet that I don't think I actually heard you.'

Afternoon: another goodbye, this time to Mark. For our final acting session with him we do a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Demetrius and Helena; again, objectives, tactics and actions). This takes us into a very interesting exploration of Shakespeare's work: a bilingual French/English reading of the scene (well, we are in Canada after all) and then an analysis of the 'recipe for a rape' section. At the end we have a summing up Q&A session with Mark, and among other helpful tips he imparts this advice: don't be an audience whore. I should point out that these classes haven't been particularly raunchy, again this account says more about me than about Mark, who has been a fantastically generous tutor.

Shakespeare in the mountains

Evening: the concert! We have a quick run through of most of the repertoire in our venue: The Club. Then it's showtime, performing a selection of English songs (Vaughan-Williams, Head, Elgar, Britten), arias (Weill, Stravinsky, Strauss II) and cabaret numbers. The audience is packed (135 is a number I heard mentioned by Stage Management) and very responsive. An enjoyable evening for both us and them (I hope). What next? Socialising, but responsibly, as I have hiking ambitions for tomorrow.

To add to the goodbyes, as tomorrow is our day off and she leaves on Sunday morning, we will also not have the opportunity to work with Kathryn (English diction) again in this program. Parting hugs are exchanged after the concert.

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