The Washington Post has run a preview piece on The Inspector. I’m happy to see a light shone on this wonderful new opera and the Wolf Trap Foundation’s commitment to supporting the creative spirit! (I do end up sounding like a bit of a plucky frontier wife, with my “can-do” attitude, but I won’t complain.
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The Inspector: Final Dress
Dress rehearsal: Done, done and done. Lots of laughs, not always at the places and of the durations we expected. Another week of previews and we should be able to get the timing just right :)
Read MoreThe Inspector: Tech Week Photo Diary
24 Hours in the Life of a New Opera
So you want to produce a new opera? Do you hanker after the artistic satisfaction that comes from shepherding a work of art from creation to performance? Ever wonder how the magic happens? Come along for the ride. Thursday, April 21 2:30pm: Check in on orchestra reading. All on track. 2:40pm: Learn that one of
Read MoreINSPECTING: Meet Beatrice
The Mayor’s daughter was ecstatic about escaping Santa Schifezza for college. Unfortunately, it only took a year for her mother to realize that her daughter was growing up, learning to think for herself, and developing ideas of her own. Beatrice was yanked out of school and is suffocating back in her parents’ house. She prays
Read MoreINSPECTING: Meet Sarelda
An ambitious woman. Married to an influential and ambitious man. She has many political echos in our own time – on both sides of the aisle, as we say here in the capital of the free world. (Although many of the woman of whom she reminds me are prominent in our own time, I love
Read MoreINSPECTING: Meet the Mayor
Signor Fazzobaldi is the Mayor of Santa Schifezza. (loosely translated: filthy disgusting town) Lucky guy. Actually, it has turned into a pretty good gig. By the time we meet him, Fazzobaldi is pretty happy with the mix of bribery, graft, fraud and racketeering that makes up his life. He must have taken this backwater town
Read MoreThe Inspector, Scene 5: Municipal Mayoral Day!
In the village square, after the Santa Schifezza anthem is mangled, the Mayor enters and announces he will be accepting a position in Rome and that their daughter is engaged to The Inspector. Bobachina and Bobachina stumble on with startling news. They have opened and read Tancredi’s letter to his mother. He is not an
Read MoreThe Inspector, Scene 4: Ciao Mamma, Ciao Pappa
Municipal Mayoral Day, the next morning. The Mayor and Sarelda are both now convinced that Tancredi will offer the Mayor an important post in the new regime. But, just to secure the deal, they ask Beatrice to “be friendly” to Tancredi, a notion that inexplicably offends their daughter. As the Mayor and Sarelda prepare for
Read MoreInternal Monologue: 04.08.11
4:45 pm – Home: My Music Room What good fortune to have the opportunity to crawl inside music that teaches me about the world and about myself. On top of that, I get to do it with and for other people. Here, alone, the music flows clearly and effortlessly, and I promise myself that when
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