Campbell Vertesi

Last week we started rehearsals for Giulio Cesare, with Miami University.  I don't remember if I've posted about this before, so I should give a little backgrounder.

Bryn and I have talked for a long time about the idea of "making your own opportunities".  Basically, since work is hard to come by and so valuable at this stage of an operatic career, it's very useful to be able to create your own performance opportunities; ie by producing an opera yourself.  This has been something I've considered doing for some time now, but magically the "bass advantage" has kept me busy enough that it hasn't been necessary.  For sopranos of course, it's a whole different story.

So Bryn took it upon herself to put together a production this year.  Miami University doesn't do a spring opera (turns out this year is a semi-exception, but that's another story), so she knew many of the singers there would be available - and of course, she would never want for a bass!   Together with one of her closest friends (who was looking for a role to prepare for her own graduate work), Bryn spent months putting together a production of Handel's Giulio Cesare.

It is a fully staged production with chamber orchestra, directed by Bryn's teacher, Alison Acord.  Roles are played by our colleagues at Miami, and of course, by your humble blogger.  It goes  up at the Oxford Art Gallery on April 21st of this year.

All this to explain that we started rehearsal last week, and I've been learning ever more about ancient Egyptian history.  I play Ptolomy XIII (Theos Philopator), Cleopatra's younger brother, her husband, and king of Egypt.  This character is, at the time of the opera, about 15 years old, historically.  This presents me with some new challenges.

As a bass, 99% of the characters you have to play are older men.   The youngest in the popular repertoire is definitely Colline - who is my age, at youngest.  Consequently, I've spent plenty of time learning how to act "old".  Your center of gravity shifts, you have a different style of motion, you don't move as much, in fact.  Character traits for old people can be things like a tremor, a limp... things that definitely don't work with a younger character.

So here I am, throwing out all those old physicalizations to find new ones.  Some things are easy -your center of gravity for instance, is much further forward as a young man than as an old one.  I get to fidget with this role, but I have yet to decide how.  One thing I like to do is to find small characteristic 'tics' for a role.  These tics can be directly associated with the character's position in the show (Sparafucile the assassin absent-mindedly fidgeting with his knife), or they can be personality-based (high priest Sarastro breathing through his nostrils when he's trying to keep his control).  These things can act as anchor points for the audience - a visible reinforcement of who this person is.

 But what do I do for a young man?  A young, brat king, what's more?  I'm still working on it... will keep you all posted!