Saturday afternoon saw the one (and only) performance of the Miami University Giulio Cesare in Egitto. It was a great success. I don't think anyone expected to see this scale of production come from a bunch of students!
First things first - the singing was all very good. Everyone was in fine voice - even your erstwhile sickly blogger - and to my knowledge we were all happy with our vocal performances. Particular kudos must go to Ellen Graham (Caesar) and Bryn Vertesi (Cleopatra), who have the bulk of the singing in the opera, and both of whom presented some very moving work. Dramatically I was happy, too: the singers I had coached really made progress. I heard particularly strong compliments for Ali Falcone (Cornelia), the youngest member of our cast, who made a strong showing with her first dramatic role.
What was really amazing to me though, was the interest level of the audience. It never waned. I'm used to boredom at Handel operas. I expected at least a couple of snoozers at this matinee performance; but the audience was really with us the whole way. My Father-in-law, who otherwise wouldn't be caught within a hundred feet of a symphony hall, even came out saying he enjoyed it! To me, this qualifies as success. Making Handel interesting and keeping it there for two and a half hours, is a significant dramatic feat.
As for my own performance, I'm satisfied. My first (and more difficult) aria never found a comfortable tempo, and in the performance it felt like I was singing at half-speed, which doesn't make long phrases and runs any easier. Still, I made it through with only a couple of unsatisfactory notes. Mostly I was worried dramatically; it felt like the dramatic idea played itself out about halfway through, and I was left up there with nowhere to go! My second aria was much better, and though "the moment" took me to a different place than I had intended, I felt engaged the whole time.
Recordings may or may not be coming. In the end we couldn't get a recording engineer, so we set up a digital video camera. Last I heard (about 5 minutes before curtain), there were some technical problems with even that recording though, so I'll have to keep you posted. I'd love to be able to put some video up here!
