Friends who are more disciplined and creative than I embark on 30-day projects. I haven’t yet had the nerve to start my own, but I am hopping on the bandwagon for this month of July.
July 2008: A Blog Post Each Day
I’m not promising scintillating commentary. But I am pledging a daily snapshot (in words or images) of life at WTOC.
Above, a snapshot from Monday evening’s Candide rehearsal with The City Choir of Washington – the first entry in a whirlwind week of Bernstein.
Creativity
Want to know where creative juices come from? Visit this post on the Stages blog. Really. You have to see this one.
Of course, we were looking forward to the piano rehearsal with Maestro Lord (whose title might more appropriately be Mischief Lord). Knowing as we did that he had recently been named one of the opera world’s most influential people by Opera News, some of us may have been expecting a more serious, austere presence. Ha! Mr. Lord swept into the room radiating energy and puckishness from his pink Polo shirt, jumped on the podium, and in no time had baton in hand, sat on the stool behind his music stand, and apologized for being fatigued. (!!!)
Thus commenced our transformation from very proper, attentive choristers to cruel, lynching-loving, debauched, syphilis-ridden Inquisitors and execution picnickers. Mr. Lord’s direction to approach the 16th-note descending arpeggios (as Candide is flogged) as a pulsing, sadomasochistic, tittering, emotional joy ride should dispel any lingering worries among City Choir of Washington singers that we might be typecast as a Baroque chorus.
When we weren’t laughing, rolling our eyes, and giving each other the occasional knowing wink, we were getting Mr. Lord’s message: bring your well-learned notes and your lovely diction and imbue it with all the raucous, cynical energy you can. And of course, at the end, reserve enough diaphragm strength to support the hushed, painfully simple acceptance of life–neither good nor bad—where “Good and bad and joy and woe are woven fine.”
Kudos to all the Wolf Trap Opera Company summer interns. What a great group of talent.
So with a piano rehearsal like this, can two dress rehearsals and a performance be even better? You bet. And we can’t wait.