Well, look at what I found in my unpublished blog list. Seems I started writing a post about preparing for a new opera back in January of 2011, Enemies, A Love Story. Not surprisingly, the actual preparation soon overtook my blogging and I was left with a posting consisting of two images and no writing. Now that the performance has LONG since occurred, it seems as good a time as any to reflect upon the preparation, and now the performance.
Preparation:
Thankfully there were several sources to check out regarding the performance. There was a great movie released back in 1989 with Angelica Houston in the role of Tamara (the role I was preparing), a holocaust survivor seemingly come back from the dead to find her husband holed up with a new wife and mistress in New York City.
A good portion of character preparation is simply observing people. Watching a film version of the character helped to flush out some physical ideas pertaining to movement and stance. Tamara had certain physical side effects from her internment in prison camp. I'm learning how to draw inspiration from other sources, specifically people not directly linked or resembling the character I'm playing. The film however, was a nice staring place and really helpful since Ms. Houston has a pretty gosh darned good reputation. Simply put, I trust her.
As always, the best source is the original source. The opera was based off of Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel. The librettist for the opera did a fantastic job of setting text directly from the novel in many cases. It was a good read, as well as being a good reference material.
Rehearsals:A new opera is a living and breathing organism. Even before Enemies reached the singers, the libretto had already undergone its own workshopping period. Actors learned and presented excerpts from the show for an audience and a panel of professionals who shared their opinions. I was lucky enough to be present for the presentation and panel discussion.
The rehearsal process for the semi staged opera performance, was different from anything I've ever done. Before meeting up for rehearsals, the cast had individual coachings on the music with an accompanist, the composer and later the librettist. We worked on achieving the sound that the composer was looking for in the music and telling the story the way in which it was intended. Sometimes minor revisions were made to better communicate to the audience or to accommodate the singing voice and sound production. It was a wonderful collaborative process and very rewarding to be a part of.
After our period of rehearsals, we had several performances. Perhaps in another 6-9 months, I'll post a clip of the performance on my website. Until then, here's hoping I can at least get caught up on blogging to my present project - Hansel & Gretel with Opera Omaha.
