knock knock who's there ABT!

Funny life...

Most of my facebook friends are dancers...so while I am mourning the fact that the Met OPERA is closed - they are all REJOICING that that American Ballet Theatre has occupied the Met building for the next few weeks. While I SHOULD be far more used to people writing "AT THE MET WATCHING DON Q!!! DANIIL SIMKIN IS SO AMAZING." It just strikes me as odd and wrong and I want to go hear some amazing singing there instead! Even weirder is that I probably have about 15 friends PERFORMING with ABT there now - vs. well...ZERO friends performing with the Met. But it just feels wrong. Since Mid-September, the Met OPERA has been my happy place - and I like it that way!

While I do not want to run away and become a professional opera singer - this experience has undoubtedly made me a better musician and MUCH better performer and done wonders for my confidence. I know I can sing a four hour long opera in FRENCH - EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK! Remember when I couldn't make it through a single aria? I had a lady stop me in the street today, apparently she's the mother of one of the kids in the childrens chorus - who told me what a beautiful BIG voice I have and that I should feel lucky. (I wish I could hear this beautiful big voice - because when IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII listen to the recordings - I mostly just want to say YICK! LETS FIX IT! But I'm told that's normal for everyone but tenors! lol.) And I found kindred spirits - which I've had a very hard time finding!

And NOW - I have an evil plan and know what I need to do to actually BOOK WORK! I AM a great actress and I AM a great singer and I AM a great dancer. What I don't have a very deep well of audition material. I have ONE song that is my book the job song - then a bunch of songs that in the same vein but not quite as awesome. So - I made a list of songs and roles I need to learn, and I am going to work on them - with Mary - with Mary's performance workshop - with my new found musical friends - through a theoretical concert/cabaret me and my friend Loralee are plotting and planning - and I am going to let myself shine through - whatever this "wonderful energy" everyone in the CARMEN audience keeps talking about, and I'm going to book work and it's going to be awesome! I am so extremely excited!:)

the past two weeks.

The past two weeks have been INSANE and AMAZING!

I've been performing CARMEN at night and rehearsing (and sometimes performing) HMS PINAFORE during the day. I've hardly had a second to myself to clean or cook or properly feed myself - or even say hi to my non-amore opera friends. But the past two weeks have also been two of the most ridiculously satisfying and rewarding of my performing life.

First of all, everyone keeps coming up to me telling me how I "stand out" in the chorus. Well - I could have told you that. It is my greatest blessing and biggest curse. Makes me very hard to cast - but when cast - I get awesome parts. It's still wonderful to have people come up to you after each show and tell you that your acting is just stupendous and your high Cs are gorgeous. That at every moment on stage - you are completely engaged and engaging. I know that I'm doing my work and it's thrilling.

Secondly, I had a voice lesson with Mary. I took my role in Pinafore to her, and my role is actually quite small. I have a total of two speaking lines, and maybe 8 lines of singing. (or heck - let's make is 16 bars of singing - what you would get at most non-equity auditions.) No arias or anything. The director told me the character was supposed to be snooty stick up her butt prim and proper matronly character who turns into an S&M vixen with her two lines at the end. Wait...I play PRINCESSES. Let's be very clear about that. PRINCESSES! FAIRIES! things with GLITTER! Young innocent teenaged girls who dance ballet. No stick up the butt S&M vixens. So I went to Mary and said HELP! And she helped. And I went to rehearsal, and now I apparently steal the show. Everyone just cracks up at everything I do, and people who performed with D'Oyley Cart (The RSC equivalent of Gilbert and Sullivan) tell me I'm am hysterical and need to do Offenbach operettas. Apparently Offenbach wrote these operettas for a girl who was a soprano but got cast as mezzos - apparently looked somewhat "peruvian," was funny, and could dance very well. Ummmm - MEEEEE!!!!!!!! But I also think its hysterical that I'm stealing the show as Cousin Hebe - I'm not sure that has ever happened in the history of the production - and the director came up and hugged me and said he was convinced I could act any role at any time. Tres interessant.

And I must say - that is the greatest thing about doing Carmen and Pinafore. I've had the freedom to explore my acting without having any pressures of being "the lead." And - not a single one of my characters is the slightest bit princessy. I'm a mean feisty street fighting girl who works in a cigarette factory, a Spanish bar maid, an earthy gypsy smuggling contraband through the mountains, and a spectator at a toreodor match. Oh - yeah - and a stick up the butt matron turned S&M vixen. And I feel like I've gained back something I had lost - or had been buried underneath insecurities etc... my "it' factor - the thing I had as a junior camper at Interlochen that let me be cast as Little Moon. The pure JOY of performing - none of the trepidations of "don't let me mess up" or "PLEASE LET ME GOOD." Just being up there and having FUN. Creating a world and living in it. And SINGING THOSE HIGH NOTES LOUD AND PROUD!

I've also met so many wonderful people. People who have seen MYSTERY MEN people who READ THE NEWS and listen to podcasts - heck - one of our leads studied cosmology in college and we can have astronomical discussions - one of the girls is reading Tina Fey's autobiography so we can compare notes, they introduce me to all the opera singers and songs I should know, I help them learn about Musical Theatre (where they all want to go since it is actually possible to GET PAID - as far as I can tell - no one actually pays you to do opera unless you are at the Met. It's quite depressing actually. And makes me thankful for AEA as frustrating as it can be.)

I have a week more. I hope I continue to enjoy it as much as I have the past two weeks. 6 more CARMENS one more PINAFORE. Here's to good shows for all!

A good idea

Every community theatre, summer camp, high school, college, educational theatre facitlity, etc... in the country - probably the world - should take a lesson from the AMORE opera company. They quadruple cast ever role AND have a set of "covers" or understudies who get their own performance as well. Do you have any idea what this does for morale!? Instead of everyone tearing eachothers hair out for ONE lead - EVERYONE gets to learn at an appropriately challenging rate. (Well its not PERFECT - but far better than doing Hamlet where only one guy gets to play Hamlet and everyone else picks their nose in the back for four hours.) I'm a huge fan!

happy list

Some things that have made me quite happy this week:

The music director telling me I am a blessing to the company. (I'm still convinced he is listening the the Michaela cover NOT me - but whatever.)

My very pretty albeit incredibly dusty costumes

Late night conversations about music, politics, random facts, and Doctor Who over pizza with my glorious cast.

An Escamillo (the character who sings the famous TOREODOR song in carmen) who understand the thrill of a Wings victory and the sadness of a Wings defeat.

The Meatball shop.

Tina Fey's autobiography via audiobook that makes my 90 minute commute to the theatre incredibly enjoyable. (Moving on to Steve Martin's today!)

Discovering absolutely insane opera interpretations of Shakespeare plays.

The fact that when I saw my dance friends at an audition - I was actually glad and realized I missed them! (I was experience serious overdose of all things dance before.)

The hope that Blair will choose the Prince over Chuck. This sounds completely trivial - but she simply has to!

That I FINALLY get a voice lesson on Monday.

That NATHAN and his awesome girlfriend who I have never met in person but had many FABULOUS facebook conversations with WILL BE HERE TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That so many of the leads in CARMEN have offered to help me learn my mezzo harmonies for Pinafore during their downtime.

And now I have to do real world stuff - like pay bills. Which - for the record. Does NOT make me happy. lol.

A list of some things I have learned.

Some things I've learned while doing opera.

1- they are LONG. So - a 7:30 curtain means - you'll be done at 11:15...and tired. Because you just performed a 4-ish hour long opera in a heavy dusty period dress.

2- a good musical director is AMAZING and makes the scary foreign language and tricky rhythms and musical dynamics easy! (YES - our music director is GREAT - and he is the alternate conductor for the NYPhilharmonic. He knows what he is doing!)

3- The boys aren't gay - and they watch sports.

4- The girls aren't fat. In fact - most are skinny, well dressed, and extremely pretty.

5- An opera director, in order to be effective, needs to work completely differently from a musical or straight theatre director. It ALL needs to planned in advance because everything in quadruple cast, so the staging is more of a "put in" than an organic learning experience. I imagine the BEST directors make the put-ins feel like a collaborative process. I am told this is the case with my opera directing hero Peter Sellas.

6- I have a great instrument. I kind of know how to use it. Still have no idea how to read that freaking music or harmonize on anything but first soprano. And I need it.

7- High notes are awesome.

8- Most opera singers (NOT all - just most) - really can't act. Like - even a little. And even fewer can stand on one foot or move very well at all.

9- One should never volunteer to play a lead, be head of press, AND costumes designer at the same time. It will result in a nervous breakdown and everyone will think you are crazy - even you are the sweetest most upbeat person on the planet.

10- the opera girls are so ridiculously supportive and helpful - baritone basses all think they are super sexy - and tenors are completely convinced the world circles around them and everyone should kiss their feet.

11- Even the TINIEST opera company still has super impressive sets and costumes. I suppose its part of the art form.

12 - Most opera singers don't realize - Shakespeare didn't compose music. So Caliban's "Be not afeared" speech - is not always spoken by a bass/baritone. Or music Ariel be a countertenor male. They are always confused about how I can know all the LYRICS but none of the music to "The Tempest" or "Midsummer Night's Dream" opera.

And that's all for now - I'm pooped! Time for sleep!:)

Oh Blair

Oh Blair Waldorf - how I wish I were you. Engaged to a prince - living in a HUGE MANSION in centrally located Manhattan with a private chauffeur to drive you around wherever you wish to go and a wonderful maid you cleans up after all of your messes - both literal and metaphorical. Not to mention the most amazing wardrobe in the world and every meal catered by the most amazing restaurants in Manhattan. It would be really really really cool to be you right now.

singing/dancing/blair/extra

The opera world is VERY scary - esp. when you are the only first soprano and can't memorize your freaking French words. (Can't I just sing the whole thing on LA?) Actually - as it would turn out - I was the ONLY chorus girl SINGING for the first half of rehearsal today. HORRIFYING! However - I have also come to realize I am FAR from the worst in the room - where for the first few weeks I was convinced I was. I am actually one of the strongest chorus members - and the music director has realized that - and realized I am just fine so long as he conducts me. (This sounds like a DUH - wouldn't the conductor conduct you? But truth be told - most singers dont look at the conductor and just do their own thing. I know I have no rhythm - but I CAN see a baton bouncing up and down and follow the conductors cues - so I GLUE my eyes on the conductor and they get all happy someone cares that they are flapping their arms around.) So THIS conductor has realized that - and things are great. And because I am nice and LOUD (How did I get so loud? Im glad I'm loud - but I didnt realize this was a gift! I thought all singers were loud.) - I can make up for a lot of missing sopranos.

But all of this aside - something MORE miraculous has come out of being in this opera. Everyone int he opera - wants MY body. They call me "legs" or "miss legs" and tell me my body is their "ideal." Girls say - if I looked like you I would walk around naked. And guys - well - they ask me out on dates - most of them INCREDIBLY bizarre and uninteresting - BUT - in the opera world - I am PRETTY! IN the dance world - I am short and fat. In the opera world - I am "legs." WHAT? It's amazing.

ALSO - they asked me to be one of the leads in their produciton of HMS Pinafore. I didn't even have to audition! I think this is a sign I'm not sucking. I would like to be doing better (STUPID FRENCH WORDS) but I'm thrilled that I'm not sucking enough that they asked me to be one of the leads in their Pinafore production. Oddly - its the MEZZO ROLE - NOT the soprano! What does this mean. It means - as Candace says - OH SHIT - we're going ot be working every day arent we. And I say oh yes we are. First of all - I've done Pinafore TWICE - both times as a first soprano - so I have to unlearn and relearn the whole show. Also - there is an OCTET I sing in - and i"m the FREAKING MEZZO! Which means - the hardest scariest harmonies of ALL! Good news - the role was written for the same girl who originated the role of IOLANTHE. I guess I found a type. Apparently Gilbetr/Sullivan described the girl (Jesse Bond) as always dancing around and smiling. O.k. - I guess I can see a similarity.

Oh yes - and as I predicted to EVERYONE - BLAIR CHOSE TO MARRY THE PRINCE OF MONACO on Gossip Girl and NOT Chuck Bass. I told everyone - she is BLAIR - of COURSE she is going to choose the prince. Every said I was wrong - but AHA! I was right. Why? Because I seem to understand Blair disturbingly well...which is awesome OR horrifying depending on your view point. I make sure to read the news every morning - just to keep myself from becoming TOO vapid and vain like Blair.

AND I GET TO MAKE MONEY TOMORROW! YAY! WAHOOOO! Extra work - MERCIFULLY with a 1:30 p.m. calltime.

Oh - also regarding the great "news" that consumed all the t.v. stations last night - today - the world did not feel ANY different than it did yesterday. AND - John Stewart was right - when he pointed out that most people celebrating on the white house lawn - and Teenagers NOW - which means- when 9/11 happened - they were - 5 or something. Making the celebrations in the street even weirder.

Hate

My friend Phil's facebook status:

I'm not sure happily celebrating someone's death makes us any better than the person who just died for doing the same thing.

I concur. Yes - I think it's great we finally got the big bad wolf and people were extremely heroic in accomplishing this mission - but I am a little sickened by the people chanting USA USA USA in the streets and begging to see the dead lifeless body. We are so full of hate - and vengeance - and disgusting pride. We need to have compassion, understanding, education, empathy, knowledge. Isn't this the attitude that makes people dislike us as a country to begin with? We aren't finished. The fight isn't over - we don't know what sort of retaliation will result from this "victory." Is it like a hydra - we cut off one head and it sprouts two more? Or have we made the world a safer more peaceful place. I just wish we could all toast marshmellows and sing KUMBAYA and be happy! (and all magically be able to sing in six part harmony whilst doing so!)

Another friend posted this as their status - I think this is a far more appropriate way to "celebrate."

Okay switching off the news now. For my two cents, being right outside the city on 9/11, knowing people who died, people who lost loved ones, needing to turn off the ventilation system in our school because the debris from the trade center was floating over it, I feel in some sense tonight justice has been served. That being said I am not out on the streets celebrating. No one's death should be celebrated. I lit a candle on the Saddle Rock Bridge in memorial to those who died on 9/11 and in Iraq and Afghanistan since then. I hope and pray for a more enlightened future. And with that goodnight.