gigs

Catch up

Submitted by Campbell Vertesi on Thu, 2006-11-16 12:35.

In the last few days of minimal postage, a lot has been going on in my life... hence the minimal postage(!)  So it's time to play catch up.

First and foremost, I got an email from Opera Fresca, the company that hired me to sing Sparafucile a few weeks ago. It seems that their Zuniga for their Spring production of Carmen is unable to make it after all, so they asked me to sing the role!  I'm excitted, but there are some practical considerations before I can accept.  First of all, as much as I love singing, the money has to be right.  I would sing for free anytime, but this is a 4 week time commitment - that's a lot of income not made in Cincinnati.  If I can break even, of course I'll go.

The other, (larger?) concern is the time off from school.  CCM has a policy of excusing performance absences whenever possible, but 4 weeks is a big chunk of a 10 week quarter.  It might mean delaying my degree, and that's not a good thing.  So I'm working on it, and I'll keep you guys informed.

More news - I've been workshopping a new opera with Cincinnati Opera this week.  It's a lot of time, but I'm enjoying it.  I have no idea what aspects of the piece are confidential as yet, so I won't say much... only that I get to sing some nice low chorus bits, and that a big group of my friends from CCM are involved, too.

More more news - Bryn's Die Fledermaus was a success.  Review to come.

Aaaaaand I have an audition tomorrow morning, with famous blogger Kim Witman of Wolftrap Opera. It's odd- the size and stature of the company doesn't make me nervous at all.  What I'm most anxious about is meeting Ms Witman, who's a celebrity in the opera blogging world.  Or at least, a celebrity in my little corner of the opera blogging world. OK I just think she's cool.  The point is, I'm nervous about making a good first (vocal) impression with someone I respect so much.  And that's all I'm writing about that, before I psych myself out.

Aaaaaaaaaand I got to see my awesome sister Janet this weekend, because she came in to see Fledermauus. We hung out, had a great time, and set up her website... no content there yet, but I'll link again when she puts stuff up.

Add a dash of wedding franticness, just a hint of sleep and a smattering of Theory homework, bake at 45 degrees, and there you have my life so far this week. 

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Inappropriate uses for opera

Submitted by Campbell Vertesi on Mon, 2006-10-30 13:41.

Wellsung has a great post up today about an "only weird for opera people" moment.  The setting is a community choir Halloween concert, with a theme of "dangerous women."  They sang lots of stuff, including the lascivious "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Salome. Nice, right?  Until they had the local dance troupe come out to perform that number - who were all actual 15 year old girls.  Can we say "awkward"? 

I can think of lots of great stories like that, where a piece of opera was taken completely out of context in a way that is just plain wrong if you know the meaning of the words or the plot.  Not wrong like a test answer is wrong, but Wrong like a 10 year old at a striptease class is wrong.  Or Wrong like the wild success of the Jackass movies is wrong.

A tenor friend of mine was asked to sing at a funeral - they had him sing Nessun Dorma ("no one sleeps", the aria of a man facing his death in the morning).  I can't count how many times I've heard of O mio babbino caro being used at weddings (the aria of a girl twisting her father around her finger to let her marry her boyfriend, of whom the father disapproves) .  I mean, we can all aknowledge that this is beautiful music, but couldn't you pick something else?  How about the Liebestode?  That would be a fine fit for a wedding...

 Anyone else have good stories about inappropriate uses of arias?

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