I can't hire you!

Day 25 - Thursday

Morning: masterclass with Tracy Dahl (incredible Canadian coloratura soprano). We are treated to some great performances today, and in between working on balancing registers, posture, stillness, coloratura micromanagement, calming down facial expressions, etc, Tracy delivers some memorable lines:

- 'I can't hire you, there's no point trying to impress me.'

- when vowel modification is done well, nobody knows you did it

- you have to find a way to marry your technique to a face that a director will like

- choose a place to be angry that doesn't cost you (in a surreal neo-romantic rendition of the Queen of the Night's second aria)

- comedy doesn't float, it's crisp with hard edges

Afternoon: Joel introduces staging in the Cosi overture, to set up the stage (we can't preset it, as a row of chairs has to be placed in front of the curtain line). After that we have another understudy session with Kinza, this time tackling the bigger ensembles.

Dan, psyched for the rehearsal

Evening: the Lillian Alling wandelprobe (first run through with orchestra, with the singers tracing their staging). Hearing it in it's entirety for the first time with this cast I'm certain it's going to be great show. The four main principals have a tremendous amount to sing, with the role of Lillian Alling rivalling the biggest in lyric soprano repertoire. They all manage to pull it off with style, and I'm sure it'll only get better. It's a pleasure and a privilege to watch Judith Forst (Canada's star mezzo-soprano, aged 68) perform, there's just no substitute for experience.

Chilling out between chorus entrances