Campbell Vertesi

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. 

Today is my only day off for the next week and a half, so I'm asking myself - what tasks do I need to get accomplished? 

The big one is character development for the Ash Lawn opera scenes.  The problem is, how much should one work on a character for this sort of presentation?  Obviously, with time so short there's no way I can build a fully fleshed out character with depth for all of these scenes.  So how far should I go?  Which characters get precedence?

Personally, I'm giving preference to Bartolo first, then Leporello, then Sulpice.   I give Bartolo first hit because I'll actually be performing the full character in the fall, so I need to get on that work anyways.  This means reading the Beaumarchais play, and asking serious questions about this guy and how his mind works.  Leporello is next, because it's a role I want to study in the next few years.  By no means is it an easy role to sing, but it's a fun one, and one that gets a lot of play.  Sulpice is last because when was the last time you saw Fille du Regiment?  It's hardly ever done, and when it is it's a more buffo bass in that role.

 I'm interested in comments here though - how much role prep should you do for a scene, or an excerpt?  How much would you do?

We got our scene assignments today.  At some point over the next few weeks, we're putting these all together and performing them. I love scenes - they're a way to get a taste of roles for which I'm not yet ready... my favorite!  

Heads up - some of these are broadway, for one of the concerts in particular. 

My scenes are:

The Tenderland (Copeland) "The Promise of Living"

Don Giovanni (Mozart) Sextet "Sola sola in bujo loco" (I'm Leporello!)

Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) Sextet "Riconosci in questo amplesso" (Bartolo)

La Fille du Regiment (Donizetti) Trio "Tous les trois reunit"

Street Scene (Weil) Ice Cream Sextet

Guys and Dolls (Loesser) "Fuge for Tinhorns" (Rusty)

A Little Night Music (Sondheim) "Weekend in the Country"

I'm also looking for cool ensemble music for a recital I'll be giving with a tenor and soprano.  Any suggestions?