Campbell Vertesi

Opening night was today - for the 2008 season, for Rigoletto, and for the brand new minty fresh renovated opera house... and it was a great hit.  My cousin Tim was in town to see the whole thing, and I think he may have gotten some pictures... so look for them later.  But he got to see the ribbon cutting and the whole shabang, including the after party still to come.  So maybe I'll post some incriminating photos of that, too (probably not, but keep hoping!).

The show went very well.  Michael Corvino sang the socks off Rigoletto, which we in the chorus have come to expect.  After weeks of rehearsing, we've learned that Michael is not stopped by rain, snow, or dark of night.  That man can SING.  Hell, the whole cast was very solid tonight, and the audience appreciated it.  It was a great way to open the new theatre.

Now I have to go get into the shower to get the curls out of my hair (they pin the hell out of it to get it in my wig), and get coiffed for the party.  Wohoo!! We've certainly earned it.

Not much new to report - I'm still singing my butt off (thankfully,  now with some technique back) and I'm still spending lots of time in rehearsal.  This week we started Rigoletto stagings, which has been fun.  There's some dancing - I can't believe how terrible I am at it, but somehow I still get picked for these things.  The best part is getting to watch the principals do their work.  There's nothing unpleasant about listening to Cortigiani sung well, over and over!    It also means that on breaks, I can stop in and watch the stagings for the non-chorus scenes.  Maybe it's only 5 minutes at a time, but it's still fun for me.  So sue me - I'm an opera nerd. :)

Today was our first day off - and our last for two weeks.  I'm going to have to learn to pace myself much better if I'm going to survive at the breakneck pace that seems to be the norm here!  Wish me luck. I'm going to bed early tonight...

Seems like in the last 24 hours, all the important people at Sarasota Opera have discovered this space. Some are friendly to the idea; at least one is a longtime reader,  and fellow blogger to boot.  That's not to say I get carte blanche to write what I want.  Our famous Artistic Director Victor Derenzi asked/told me (you can never quite be sure with him) very directly not to write about him or his opera company.

OK Maestro, you're the boss.

But I'm still going to write about what I'm learning here.  So far, a lot of it can be summed up thusly:

I am an artist.  I may not be rich or famous, I may be a baby in this art form, but I am still an artist.  I make my own artistic decisions, and you're not going to like all of them.  I bring something unique and special to the stage, and no one will take that away from me.

 I'd like to encourage all my opera singing friends to consider that little mantra.  How do you make your artistic decisions?  Do you cede all your power to coaches and teachers, asking THEM to make decisions for you? Do you ever made musical choices that you KNOW some people are going to hate, but you love?  Or do you make your choices based on what you think auditioners will like?  

Because in the modern industry, most singers DO cede all their power away, along with all their money.  I'm not suggesting that teachers and coaches don't have (very) good information to offer; but I AM suggesting that it's OK to disagree with them.  You SHOULD disagree on several points, if only because you're a separate individual. You SHOULD NOT try to second guess the auditioner, to make yourself fit a nice pretty little box of what you THINK they want to hear. 

What I've really learned here is that what audiences and auditioners want to hear is NOT a pretty little box.  They want to hear an individual with a unique sound, a distinct take on the music, and an overwhelming passion for their art form.  EVERYONE responds to that.  

And that's what I've learned in my first week.  Mr. Derenzi, if I've mentioned anything I shouldn't, please let me know and I'll take it down.  No one wants to be a mamaluke.

We've been working for four days here at Sarasota Opera - but it feels like a long week already.  Since starting up on Friday morning, the apprentice artists have had 10 and 12 hour days basically every day.  When we aren't in rehearsal, coaching, or classes, we're working on music, translating, memorizing, and warming ourselves up for our next whatever.

If you want a relaxing vacation in Floriday, may I recommend that you stay the hell away from Sarasota Opera.  If however, you want to work your butt off, and learn Romantic opera from serious experts; if you want a music staff whose passion for 19th century music is extraordinary, all-consuming,  and infectious; if you want to spend every possible minute thinking about music... then Sarasota Opera is the place for you.

I've really enjoyed it so far.  Yes, the days are long.  Yes, we get hardly any time to be non-musical.  This really is opera camp: for three months, you're paid to do nothing but opera.  I know that to a lot of people, that sounds awful... but I love it.

I will write some specifics about the kind of things I've been learning so far, but right now I'm exhausted and have worked (another) long day.  Tomorrow will be much harder I think... I'll be actually applying everything I've learned over the weekend.  So you guys will have to give me some time, and I promise I'll write out the choice elements of my notes.

Note to any of my Sarasota colleagues who might tease me for screwing around on the Internet (as our artistic director might put it) instead of actually doing music.  I write this stuff to help solidify it in my own head.  I find that I clarify things very well by writing them down... and if writing them in a public place can help out a few other singers, then I'm happy to do it.  I happen to believe that our art form is in a terrible state at the moment,  and anything I can do to spread the gospel of artistry as I discover it is a Mitzvah.

I started working on my scene music for Sarasota this week.  It will be a fun lot to sing: a Baby Doe scene, the Figaro act II finale, a Pasquale scene, and one from La Vida Breve.  The Baby Doe is one of the parts I learned when I was mistakenly assigned a cover for one of Tabor's "cronies", so I'm set on that... and of course I just finished performing in Figaro, so the finale will be a lot of fun.  The new pieces for me are Don Pasquale and Vida.

Pasquale looks like an incredibly fun role for a good buffo bass.  It was composed at the end of Donizetti's career (his third last opera, I think...), so his comic style is in full form.  Plus, it pull heavily from the old commedia dell'arte tradition, which means that corny sight gags and slapstick are a must.  Sounds right up my alley!

Unfortunately, I'm not a "great buffo bass".  But I'm working on it!  This duet lives on my passaggio, which is a tricky part of the voice in which to live.  It's very easy for the throat to tense up, or (for me) to get very shouty... not good things.  The worst though, are the Ebs at the end.  They're very well set vocally, they would be a cinch to sing in isolated phrases... but as is always the case, it's the context that kills.  You get those Ebs after living in passaggio land for 5 straight minutes of patter, and without a breather to relax in between.  This means that in order for  those Ebs to be good, I have to spend the rest of the piece working my butt off to stay vocally relaxed.  So far, I've taken the piece apart phrase-by-phrase, and it seems fun and even easy to sing.  The trick is going to be stringing those phrases together without building tension.

Interestingly, the Figaro scene is the other one that I expect to take some work.  I know I can sing the part just fine, but since October I have quite literally taken my technique apart and put it back together again.  I want to sing the scene with my new technique, and that will take some unlearning of old habits.  I forsee hours in a practice room.

All in all it looks like it will be a great season in Sarasota... I'm really looking forward to it. 

One very good thing came from my time in Chicago - I finalized my agreement with Sarasota Opera to be one of their Apprentices this year. There had been some problem with my work permission - it's complicated, just don't ask - but we finally got it all sorted out, and I got the official job offer. I'm thrilled! I've heard so much about that program from my colleagues; it really seems like a good fit for where I am right now.

Not to mention, it's a steady paycheck for 3 months. That's a pretty big deal for me. :)