Today is two three hour calls for what is called the “Piano
Stage” . For us , of course, there is no piano. In fact we had Rachel, leading
on violin, Erin, harpsichord and chamber organ, Danny on the new basse de
violin together with Nils Weiboldt on his basse de violin, Laura Vaughan on
gamba, Deborah Fox and Tommie Anderson on guitar and theorbo and Neal Peres da
Costa on harpsichord. That sure beats a piano any day in my book!
This is when the soloists and chorus first get on the stage
with the full set. They are almost in full costumes- just some details to be
added. The set is completely built and they all need to be familiar with it and
where they are moving on and around the stage. As there is a raked area the
singers all need to be familiar with the slope.
Chas is in charge of this rehearsal as it is about the
production mostly. It goes very
well. Chas stops action from time to time to alter positions but generally it
goes very smoothly. Chas is pleased.
We fed the lot of them between rehearsal as there was only
an hour’s break. I have never seen food disappear so fast. The chorus came out
saying
–“We are very hungry” and then there was not much left in a
very short time. Love this chorus - they are so important to the production and
they are so very talented. You will get to hear a lot of the individual voices
in this production.
All finished up at 9.30.
A long, productive day.
A lovely young woman from the French school at Maroubra sat
in for a rehearsal today as she wants to be an opera singer. Our singers were
very generous with the time they gave her to talk about the different paths to
an opera career. Her joy at experiencing the rehearsal was inspiring.
Liz
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