Campbell Vertesi

I got a call yesterday from the woman who is organizing that Rigoletto in New York.  Apparently they're having a hard time finding a Rigoletto they can afford.  The production is officially suspended, pending schedule or content change.  Personally, I think they should do a different show, one that is easier to cast with young artists.  We'll see...

All sorts of news!  I've spent the last 3 days in transit from Mendocino to Cincinnati... as you can guess, it sucked.   But I'm ahead of myself.  I last posted after the opening night of Rigoletto.

My day off was delightful and relaxing. I finally got to spend some quality time with my camera on the bluffs (see new pictures here), got drenched by a couple of waves, watched a spectacular sunset, and generally relaxed. The best part of the day was finding out that this trip had been a success - after the first performance, the artistic director offered me Sarastro in their 2009 Zauberflöte!  To be asked back is a very good sign in my books, and I happily accepted.  So now I'm booked for a solid month in the distant future.  There was some talk of other, nearer possibilities, but nothing firm so mum's the word.  Sorry!

Then it was on to performance number two - closing night.  Having done theatre work (and Central City with it's incredibly long runs...) it seems so funy to call the second night closing night, but it's pretty common in opera.  Even my Dayton Opera gig is a three show event!

Despite some personal politics backstage - which will remain personal for the sake of those involved - the entire cast pulled off a solid show. A fog had rolled into town about 2 hours before the show, throwing everyone (except Moore, our experienced Rigoletto)'s sensations of their throats off-kilter.  Casey (the duke) in particular walked on feeling like his throat had just committed ritual suicide... I don't know how he felt after his first sing ("Questo o Quella"), but seconda me if his voice was dead, it was doing a great job from beyond the grave. 

In fact, we all seemed to respond similarly.  Because we were worried about our odd-feeling throats, we all gave that extra little bit (ok, we pushed), and it made a very positive difference in the house.

There was one typical stage mishap, which threw the Storm Scene off.  I got a little carried away telling Maddalena to "rattoppa quel sacco" (mend this sack), and threw the cloth in her face, almost bowling her over!  Poor Kristina: I don't know if she got her next line out or not - either way, it was muffled in a pile of cotton!  After that, we were all a little wary, but the scene went by without any serious derailings.

Overall, I was very happy with my experience with Opera Fresca.  I learned a lot, my voice grew tremendously, and I made a good enough impression (ha! got THEM fooled...) that I've been asked back for a larger lead role! On the way home,I decided to make this the model for every show I get, in terms of my goals for success.

And now, the moment I've been postponing for so long - it's recording time! We had some piano difficulties, so unfortunately neither of the Storm Scenes recorded well enough to post.  I do have the Act I duet however, which makes this the first recording of myself I've posted in what, three years?  I'm not Cesare Siepi, but I'm proud of my progress.

But enough chatter - here's the recording! Don't spend it all in one place.

Opening night was a success! Everyone sounded good, though it seemed to be one of those times that none of us  felt like it was our best singing.  Rigoletto James K. Moore gave a strong showing as Rigoletto.  True to form, his singing got more and more toneful as the night progressed.  Some people are just like that I guess - most singers collapse in exhaustion sometime in the fourth act, which has the most dramatic singing.  For James on the other hand, when he gets to his most dramatic singing ("la malediziooooooone!"), he is in full swing and sounding fantastic. Gilda sang better than I've ever heard her, with some moments in her "Caro Nome" that had the audience on the edge of their seats.  Casey Finnigan sounded totally solid as the Duke.  I was particularly impressed with his "ella mi fu rapita", which was smooth and even. Though he betrayed his displeasure with his own sound by pushing a couple of phrases unnecessarily, his sound was consistently full-throated and rich.  (I should note that Casey is one of those rare tenors who sings tonefully without resorting to nasality.  Definitely a name to watch).

I think that Kristina Moore sang well as Maddalena.  I say this because most of her singing is in ensembles with me, when I'm not listening critically at all.  That being said, her sound is syrupy and rich, and is a pleasure to hear when she gets to open up in a flowing phrase.

I'll tell you what I liked best though, was the act IV quartet.  You know, the famous Rigoletto quartet.  If you don't know it , you'd recognize it. Trust me.  Go listen to an Itunes preview or something.  The quartet last night had the audience so enthralled, that after the final cadence I swear you could hear them sigh in contentment.  Literally.  I was in "the wings" (such as they are in this concert space) at the time, and the sigh was loud and clear.  Wonderfully satisfying, even though I had nothing to do with the scene. 

And as for my performance - well, I felt very good about the show.  The Act I duet in particular felt good from the inside, and I even dared to draw out that Eb "Spaaaaaraaaafuciiiil mi nomino" for a few more seconds of glory.  Hey, I take what I can get! :) 

There is a recording, there are pictures and video... but I don't have any of them yet.  

The other half of this title is "bass-itis", and that takes some explanation.  Bass-itis is the term I use to describe issues that are particular to my fach.  Everyone knows about "bass-itis" in the speaking voice, but there are lots of other areas.  The symptom that hit me last night was in the structure of most bass roles.

for 95% of the bass repertoire, you sing a bit in the first act, and then disappear for two hours to work on your knitting.  In the last act you get your  really fun dramatic singing, but - here's the rub - by then your voice has cooled off, and you're not in as good voice anymore!  Every production I've done before has had a space where I could go to sing and keep myself warm between my scenes.  Not here.  For this concert we were in a hall where the performer's area was distinctly audible from the house.  Not exactly a good warm up spot.  I didn't even think about it, until I got onstage for the Storm Scene, and found I had to work my throat more than I expected.

I haven't figured out how I'm going to solve this problem for Sunday's matinee yet.  Most likely I'll keep myself doing humming excercises, and perhaps take them for a walk outside.  Yeah, that's a good idea.  Any others from the peanut gallery? 

Sorry about the break in posting. I warned you, I wasn’t going to be posting regularly in California!

Tonight is opening night for Rigoletto. Everything is going smoothly. By and large, the quality of singing in our cast is very high, and everyone seems very comfortable with their parts. My only real complaint is my wooden knife. Not much of a “strumento”, but hey – it gets the point across, right?

As with most “semi-staged” productions, this one has ended up being partially costumed, black-box setted (is that a word?), and completely staged in terms of action. The only thing really semi- about it is the length of the show: this is a highlights production, after all. The Duke gets the entire first act!

In other news, I finally got my camera charger… photos are already on flickr here. So you start to get some idea of just how beautiful it is around here! The hardest part is being here without Bryn… And cell phone signal is spotty enough that I can’t even close my eyes and pretend, you know? I’m in a part of the world that I know she would love, and it absolutely kills me that I can’t share it with the one person who counts most.

What’s more, she sings a hell of a Gilda, so if I could only break the knees of our leading lady… kidding, of course. (or am i?) Still, I’m definitely leaving a copy of Bryn’s audition CD for the producer of this company.

So go, have a look at the pictures, and brace yourself for the next post. I’ve gotten my audition recordings back, and I’ll be posting them here shortly, along with my Sparafucile exerpts!

PS - for you guys whe were having trouble with the site in IE... the problem is solved. Let me know by email if you still can't read the site.

Rigoletto – day one

After a very long day of travel, I’ve finally arrived in sunny Mendocino, California! OK, CLOUDY Mendocino California. It’s gorgeous here, despite the cool weather. Sometimes I forget just how much I miss the ocean, living in Ohio.

First thing this morning, the cast got to take a road trip from our airport hotel up to Mendocino. The cast are all young singers around my age except of course the Rigoletto, who’s our token experienced pro (try and find a Rigoletto in his 20’s!). Everyone is great, and eerily connected to one another. The Rigoletto (James Moore) is the dad of one of my friends from IU (and the dad-in-law of another), the Gilda (Juliana Ferrell) did a summer program with half of CCM, the Maddalena (Kristina Moore – no relation) has worked with a handful of my friends before… even the director and I have friends in common! It’s a not-so-subtle reminder of exactly how small this industry is.

We had our first rehearsal today; the moment we’d all been waiting for. The five of us hummed and sighed and did lip trills for a few minutes before we started – a futile effort to shake off the symptoms of “airplane voice” – and then we were off! We ran through all the ensembles in the piece. Though I think we were all a bit crusty-throated at the beginning of the rehearsal (I certainly was!), after the first half hour or so everyone sounded much more warmed up. This is going to be a fun production! Everyone seems very comfortable with their rep. Of course Jim Moore sings his Rigoletto well – but then, he’s the experienced one of the group, having sung the role many times before. I have to say though, that despite our age disadvantage, the rest of us manage to keep up! I’m particularly impressed with the youngest cast member, Casey Finnigan as the Duke. He’s only 20, but he holds his own admirably among his older colleagues. Duke is a hard role for someone so young, and he sounded completely in control the whole time.

I was a little disappointed when we had to cut the rehearsal short at the beginning of the Storm Scene. Augh! I had been first to sing with the Act I duet (which went well, aforementioned crust aside), and then did the “bass thing”, and sat on my hands for the next few hours, waiting for my second act entrance. I got a couple of lines in, but I don’t really sing again until the Storm…. by the time we got there though, everyone else was too tired to work effectively anymore, so we called it a night. There is only so much singing you can do in a day, particularly a day after long travel and not much sleep! This is a hard opera to sing, without stopping an starting throughout. Tomorrow we’ll continue from where we left off… and I’ll give you all the scoop as it happens!

Oh, and my internet access is limited, but I think I have blogging from my phone working, so I’ll post as often as possible.

Wow, only the second day of the "post every day" regime, and I'm already onto stuff you guys probably won't find interesting...

Normally I would keep this sort of thing quiet in a notebook somewhere, but I thought I might share my character work for Sparafucile.  Please comment, argue, offer input etc.   This roughly follows my own thought process in developing a character on paper, so if you have ideas about the process, I'd be happy to hear those as well.

 What we know from the score

• Sparafucile is an assassin. 
• He is from Burgundy
• that's 750 kilometers from Mantua (along major routes)!
• why did he leave Burgundy and move as far as Mantua? 
• He has a sister who serves as his lure. 
• He goes into the streets and puts the hard sell on strangers 
• as a hunchback who's talking to himself and has a hot "girlfriend", Riggy's an easy mark
• He has no fondness for nobility, and certainly no illusions that they are superior to him in any way. 
• He seems to enjoy the obvious deception of the Duke in his aside to the audience. 
• His prices are dirt cheap for killing nobility.
• He doesn't seem to have any love for his sister, either...
• he dismisses her when he can, 
• the instant she gets pushy, he blows up in anger (defensive reaction?)
• he lets himself get manipulated/pushed around by his sister, despite his better judgement and moral code

My Backstory

Sparafucile grew up in Burgundy, the son of an assassin.  As children, he and his older sister Maddalena were often used as bait (the same way Spara uses Madd as bait today).  His father was a high-class assassin, frequently working for nobility.  By 9, Spara would have been employed by his father as an apprentice... and his older sister would have started acting as bait in a sexual way.   Something went wrong - his dad was publically exposed as an assassin in the murder of a prominent nobleman, and was killed.  The children escaped, and had to flee France entirely (Mantua was controlled by the Gonzaga family at that time). 

In Mantua, Sparafucile took on the family business.  Too unknown and amateur to work in the noble circles, they would find clients in the seediest parts of the city. Sparafucile always insisted on preserving the code of honor taught by his father - be proud of your profession, and never sink to the level of a common thief.  

His entire life, Maddalena has been the brains of the operation.  He feels emasculated by this, and resents her terribly for it. She controls him, and he hates it.

How this ties in

Spara presents himself honorably to Rigoletto, as a man of the sword...  but he shares his father's contempt for the social caste system, and enjoys the fact that he is capable of things that "higher" men aren't.  Rigoletto (though only a jester) is miles above a peasant, and Sparafucile tells him about his work in gruesome detail.  He enjoys watching Riggy squirm at the thought of Spara's job.

Throughout the opera, Sparafucile acts with the highest professional comportment towards Rigoletto.  He clearly can't stand the Duke, and every comment towards the noble is made with a sneer.  

In the storm scene, when Maddalena tries to plead for the Duke's life, Spara dismisses her comments as a way of maintaining control.  She becomes insistent, and he yells at her when she suggests that he stoop to the level of a thief.  She has pushed two of his buttons, by pushing Spara around and by suggesting that he violate his moral code.  Maddalena keeps pushing though, and after being reduced to comments like "leave me alone!", he gives in a little.  "if someone comes here before midnight, I'll kill him instead."  There, are you happy?  It's 11:30pm, in the middle of a raging storm, he thinks.  No one will come, but this will shut her up.

Spara feels momentarily in control as Maddalena agrees to his compromise.  When Gilda knocks on the door, he first tries to pretend it didn't happen (fu il vento!).  When it becomes clear that this is the perfect target for his compromise, he balks (al quanto attendete).  He can't believe that someone actually showed up.  Now he is in a moral conflict - whatever he does, he will violate his word.  Maddalena pushes him that last bit, and Spara gives in.  She controls him.  There is some frantic shouting as he tries to regain control of the situation, but in the end, he opens the door and kills Gilda to his own disgust.

 ---

I welcome your comments.  There's a lot more detail than this in my notes, but I don't want to bore you THAT much. :)  I'm taking a personality test as Sparafucile tonight, for shits and giggles... if anyone's interested, I'll post the results, too. 

Woohoo! The blog finally proves its worth:

Last week I was contacted by a young director/singer, working for a company in Northern California (Opera Fresca).  He was looking for a Sparafucile for a concert Rigoletto they're doing in October.  Thanks to the website he was able to look me up and listen, and poof! - there was an offer for one of my dream roles!

 I would have posted it here immediately, if I'd been able to answer him that fast.  Thing is, Sparafucile is not an easy role for a young, heavy bass.  I had to be sure, and my teacher gave me a week to work on it, at which point we would decide whether I should sing this or not.  Most of the singing is just fine, but there's one page of sheer masochism in the storm trio.  (my GOD that moves fast!)  Once you get your mouth around the rapid-fire verbiage, you have to move your voice around the difficult vocal part.  A page long run of eighth notes without pause, ascending first to a D, then an E, and then (ulp) an F#!  I called my old teacher Mr. Tozzi for advice on the part, and I worked my butt off to make it singable.  In some ways, that section targets precisely my biggest demons - staying open, relaxed and free on runs, and extreme high notes.

The good news is, after a lot of work, I can do it.  I'm excited to build the role with my teacher, and even more excited to sing it in a month!  It really is one of my dream parts, and I'm totally thrilled for the opportunity to get to sing it. I made sure that my contract includes a provision to allow me to post excerpts - so you'll be the first to hear!

(no, really - you think I have a better way to send recordings to my parents and Bryn than this website?  You'll be the first)