Today, dear readers, I thought you might be interested to hear some thoughts from a different perspective. May I introduce to you a very talented young man, James Laing, who is our counter-tenor.
2nd February 2007
Well, much like our illustrious director, this will be my first time attempting to 'blog' and I'm actually rather nervous about it. What if I say something that he doesn't agree with? What if my spelling sucks and my sentences don’t string together coherently? What if.......oh well I can’t dwell on these things now because we're about to start the first of Stage and Piano rehearsals (the first time we go on stage) and there ain’t no going back over things!
It's been a pretty hectic rehearsal period for me. I started out staying with an old school friend’s parents (who were extraordinarily kind) and have just, last week, moved into a bungaloid in Ripon with my wife, Annie, and dog, Macey. There are boxes everywhere and it's all a bit crazy but it seems every time I come home something else has found a place (thanks Annie) and it feels more like home. Because I'm going to be based at Opera North for a while we thought it best to base ourselves up in Yorkshire so we are renting whilst looking for the perfect familial home with a couple of acres, so if you happen to know somewhere.........
(James,left, with Nicholas Sharrat, one of the two tenors. Photo: Brian Slater.)
Enough of the home life, you really want to hear about the show, and what a show it's going to be. Up until last week I think we'd all found it quite tough. I try not to think about what my character is going to be like before we start, because generally it's always different from the director’s vision, but I thought I was safe thinking that I would be a "Shepherd" buddy of Orfeo as in the score. In actual fact I'm an ego driven pop artist who's rather jealous of Orfeo's greatness....quite a change. Now that we are doing run-throughs it's all becoming clearer, and it means that our characters can develop that little bit more.
The hardest thing about rehearsing a show is the fact that it can all get rather bitty. You rehearse one thing, leaving you in one particular frame of mind which you then take to the next scene, except that when you next come back to the original scene something has happened later on that means that your character wouldn't necessarily have acted as you'd originally done it so you have to put your brain into a different mental state! It's all part of finding the best way to tell the story though and it gives your character real depth.
I suppose I ought to mention our director, Chris. He's been totally fantastic so far (until he changes the whole show next week) and I don’t envy him having to deal with 13 principals who are onstage for the whole show, especially ones with egos like ours! It must be rather distracting trying to fine tune a scene with two or three singers while the rest chat away and do Sudoku - I blame it all on Amy (Freston) who's costume if far too distracting).
(James in rehearsal. Photo: Brian Slater.)
Even though the opera world seems so small I only knew three of my colleagues when we first started rehearsing. It's been great getting to know everyone, experiencing how they perform and their work ethic. There's always something to learn. The main exponent of this has to be Paul Nilon who blows me away every time he sings. He's perma focussed, totally in character, gives it everything and then when the break comes he's back to being laid back Mr Smiley.
We had our first rehearsal with the Orchestra today. I always love the moment when, after 4/5 weeks of rehearsing you get to hear how it's actually going to sound, and this show sounds special. I can't believe how amazing Monteverdi's writing is. It's completely out there in terms of rhythm, harmony and texture that I find it hard to believe that it was written 100 years ago let alone 400! The added bonus for me are recorders.....I love recorders.
Before I sing off, err I mean sign off, I ought to mention the music staff of Chris, Rob, Annette and Rosabla who have been a thorn in our sides correcting our Italian, introducing us to feminine cadences and generally messing our heads up with statements like "If it's written as a flat, you actually want to be sharp on it and vice versa".....crazy! Basically they've collectively made us work our socks off, which I'm sure, dear reader, you will appreciate in two weeks time!
See you then,
James
If you want to try out something new in sudoku, try shendoku, using the sudoku rules but playing two people, one against the other, like battleshipps. They have a free version to download at http://www.shendoku.com/sample.pdf . Anything else they are bringing out or they are working on you can find at www.shendoku.com or at they´r blog www.shendoku.blogspot.com . Have fun, I am. I specially like one slogan I heard about Shendoku: SUDOKU is like masturbation (on your own)…. SHENDOKU is like sex (it takes two).
Posted by: armando | 10/16/2007 at 12:47 AM