Posts Tagged: Touchstone

Tenor Alasdair Kent in the Spotlight

In honor of tonight’s opening of The Touchstone, I offer this interview with our lead Rossini tenor, who is quite a thoughtful guy. Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and learn a little more about his journey to becoming a professional opera singer! Which experience(s) most influenced your decision to become a professional singer? What’s the earliest

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Rossini Recipe

These amazing people + vocal fireworks + shenanigans = La pietra del paragone. Don’t miss it. Back tomorrow with some more serious content :)

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Getting Ready for Rossini

Forget miles per hour. Notes per second is usually a good way to think about our friend Rossini. What’s it like to prepare a role in which the vocal fireworks alone are a force to be reckoned with? Well, if you’re a thoughtful musician like Alasdair Kent, you somehow find yourself more absorbed by the

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The Virtues of Virtuosity

This rare comic opera by the young (20-year-old!) Rossini has really captivated us, and we can’t wait to put it on the stage. Today, I refer you to the digital version of a piece written by Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Roger Pines. Roger introduced me to La pietra del paragone over 20 years ago, and he’s kind

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Putting Rossini to the Test

Director E. Loren Meeker is working her magic with our Touchstone production, and there is some serious singing and laughter coming from that rehearsal room. A few months ago she wrote a short article for our season book, and I’ve linked to a digital version here for your enjoyment! Putting Rossini to the Test

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Touchstone Takeoff

Monday morning’s Touchstone costume design presentation included phrases like “Jay Gatsby Meets the Kardashians” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Regency.” What a fun and witty approach to this show! (Or, as director E. Loren Meeker is fond of saying, “fabulously wackadoodle”:)) There’s great dramaturgy and design behind the fun, though. Erik Teague’s costumes honor the period of origin, allowing us

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Christmas in April

One of the best things about April is the design deadlines. (Well, maybe not from the perspective of the designers, but…)  Every few days brings new “gifts” to be unwrapped – a notification that costume sketches are ready for download or set model photos are waiting to be viewed. From here on out, the shows

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Touchstone: The Recipe

Many rarely produced serious operas by Rossini have enjoyed recent outings in the U.S.: La donna del lago (Santa Fe and The Met), Ciro in Babilonia and Aureliano in Palmira (Caramoor), and Mosè in Egitto (NYCO) have been among them. But La pietra del paragone (The Touchstone) has been largely neglected*, and we’re about to change that. As always, the path to this show is

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