I’ve been home for over an hour … La Bohème isn’t a terribly long opera. It’s nice to get home at a rather decent hour and I should be in bed, but of course it takes me a while to come down.
The performance went well, but did have its glitches. It’s funny how we will have little surprises on opening night … cases of nerves and brain freeze, I guess. Fortunately nothing went noticeably wrong with my part (and I won’t ‘fess up about the unheard things!). I did have a sudden rapid heart thing going on for my silly two notes (when Mimi faints). It’s so goofy—I play an oboe middle C (an octave higher than piano middle C) that I hold for two measures and then I move a half step down to B and hold that for nearly two measures. It’s supposed to start pianissimo and get softer, but it’s ALL alone, so it’s usually played a bit stronger than that. So my heart was going kabong kabong (if hearts do that) and I was SO annoyed. The solo is as easy as any solo can be, but being all alone just causes me to get nervous sometimes. Go figure. So I hated what I did tonight with it … not that one can do much with two notes like that. I haven’t a clue if it came across as weak and wimpy as I think it did, though. And I’ll never know, since I don’t get to hear a recording. Ah well. It’s over. That’s live music for you.
I saw a conductor after the performance and he just raved about everything. I do hope he was being honest … I am always distrustful of compliments and take every criticism as gospel truth. Yep. That’s me!
So. One performance down. Seven to go. But I never tire of playing Bohéme. Not ever.
I hear that tickets are selling very quickly. If you want to see and hear the Opera San Jose production of La Bohème, get those tickets now!
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