Reflecting on the nature of the beast

Sunday, September 4th

I'll spare you the details of this morning's rehearsal of Scene 3 (as tempting as it is, but I just can't find the right words to describe my anal rape scene), let's just say that we're moving forward with the blocking at a swift pace.

I will focus instead on the sitzprobe, which took place this afternoon. It was interesting for 2 reasons, the first of which is that there was an invited audience of teenagers, presumably as part of Scottish Opera's educational projects. Not only did the conductor have to run a rehearsal, but also address the audience with brief explanations of the plot.

The second interesting observation has more to do with what I'm doing here, namely covering. Two of my understudy colleagues sang at the rehearsal. One knew that she would be singing for some time, as her counterpart had arranged to miss the sitz due to another engagement. The other had to step in on much shorter notice, as his counterpart had a car accident on his way into Glasgow. Luckily it was nothing serious, and he rejoined the cast just after the halftime break... just as Toby (the cover) was about to sing his aria. It's disconcerting to think that we can only go on in the case of unfortunate circumstances, and also that not only may we be required to step up to the plate on short notice, but also to step down on even shorter notice. It's a strange thing, this covering. What I write may of course seem obvious, given the nature of the job, but oddly enough I hadn't spent any time thinking about how I might feel about the whole thing. A friend asked me today if I'm silently hoping to go on at some point during the run, and to be honest, I hadn't even considered the possibility until today. And after today, I think that if it should come to that, I'm going to make sure I could do a good job of it, but as far as hoping is concerned... I'll refrain from even thinking about it. The stress would be tremendous, but more importantly I'm afraid I may feel as though I'm stealing something (nonsense of course, but I'd feel like that anyway).

Monday is our day off, and I'm looking forward to having lunch with Catriona in Edinburgh to catch up with her and keep the spirit of Banff alive.