Les Mis will not be doing the originally planned three-week extension. I have mixed feelings. Playing 80 Les Mis performances would have been even more taxing than the 55 I’ll now do. But the income! I will miss the three weeks of work. The family will too. But this is life and there you go. Being a freelance musician is stressful. I’m thankful that I have several guaranteed jobs (Opera San Jose and Symphony Silicon Valley) that I put on my calendar and know will happen. (Unless we ever pull another San Jose Symphony (RIP), that is.) So anyway, we will play our last show on July 24. And this will be the last time this tour will come through San Francisco. So if you want to see it, see it now!
This week of Les Mis is especially long. We are doing nine shows, rather than the usual eight. Our work week begins on Monday, in case you’re interested. Scheduled were shows Tuesday through Saturday night plus the normal Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees, and added to all this is an evening show tonight. Next week is a near-normal week, but we have doubles on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday rather than any Sunday show. While two doubles in a row is tiring, it’ll be great to have two days off in a row! Normally my only day off is Monday. (Mondays then become my “recover and clean” day.)
I’ve been playing on my newly purchased oboe just during a few loud tutti passages of Les Mis. Since I’m not sure how much it had been played recently I have to break it in carefully, and even if it didn’t need that I want to be more familiar with it before I play it on any exposed passages. So far, though, I’m liking it a lot. It’s a little less rich than my oboe, but the low E is actually more reliable. This makes me wonder if I have a bit of an adjustment problem with my “first” oboe. (Rather than calling the oboes new and old I’ve decided first and second make more sense. After all, the newly purchased one is actually older than my “older” (first) oboe.) It’s so much fun to have another instrument! I still think I got quite the deal, too.
Last night was one late night. One thing about musicians; many like to go out after and seem to have unlimited energy. Because I commute with a friend, and I hate looking like a party pooper, I said yes to going out. I was designated driver, so it was soda water for me. I’m an introvert, so partying for an hour and a half was a bit much for me. And then I had the hour drive home.
Extrovert musicians are a bit of a puzzlement to me. Many of us are introverts (and I always “test” at the extreme introvert level); we “come out to play” when we play, and otherwise we are somewhat quiet and enjoy our privacy. But there were quite a number of people at this party (most from the Mambo Kings orchestra) and I guess they were having a great time. I didn’t have a bad time. It was just … as maybe Kelsey, my daughter would say … “meh”.
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