Dear Readers,
My second week here with Opera Theater Pittsburgh is coming to a beautiful conclusion.
As for Wednesday, it was an intense day:
I sang two performances, had an hour coaching with Maestro McDonald and then two staging rehearsals - not too mention what has become my Steel City morning ritual.
The first performance was for the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. I sang about a half hour's worth of music for some wonderful children. I sang some Neapolitan songs, some musical theater and some operetta. We wore some funny hats - it was a blast.
I then rushed back to the Twentieth Century Club and then over to the Pitt music building for a second, very rewarding coaching with Maestro Bernard McDonald, Cat Schaeffer, and Michaella Calzaretta. We worked on the Merry Widow music - I even offered the musical staff my rough Italian translation of At the first kiss of April (Wie Eine Rosenknospe [Jeremy Sams' translation]). Truly, my two coachings with Maestro have been vocally, artistically and emotionally very satisfying. He finds a way to both lead and follow in such a wonderfully organic way. It is true music making. Maestro was very complimentary of our work and we are all looking forward to the Merry Widow.
I then headed to a staging rehearsal with Mo, Gale and the musical staff. We rehearsed our scenes (No. 2 and 11) which are starting really gel!
I had to run off to my second performances, which was at the PAA (Pittsburgh Athletic Association). What a lovely building, with a friendly and welcoming staff. They even offered dinner, which I took to go because I had rehearsal (I ordered the Filet :-) ) - the rehearsal was with the chorus. Nearly our full compliment of singers is among us! I've never sat in a theater eating a steak out of a Styrofoam box.
Today, Thursday was a fairly regular day.
After my morning practice ritual I decided to take it easy after the many hours of singing yesterday - I read through some more of the Stillman & Stein book to further refine my methodology for my Bottesini project. I had a rehearsal and a photo shoot. I worked on memorization and analysis of my Strauss Songs.
Some good news to come :-) finalizing some details for upcoming performances.
Thank you for reading,
Joe
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