Another Bohème over … now we only have two to go, and those don’t happen until next weekend. Both are with Cast “A” (or whatever they call them) so Cast 1 is already finished with their run. (If they’d added another performance, which I wish they had done, they would have performed once more, in between next week’s Friday and Sunday shows.) I find this upcoming final weekend to be annoying because we have a whole lot of time off between now and then. It actually begins to feel as if we are done and then we race back for two more. Ah well. It’s a good job. Why should I complain? (Other than the fact that I’m a musician and it’s something we do well!)
Today there was a man in the audience who was clearly in worse shape than MImi. I have never heard such a bad cough, and he was the sort who verbalized while he coughed too. The first cough made us smile because of its timing, but when he continued to hack away horribly (during the third act when Mimi and Rodolfo are singing about splitting up) it got a bit scary and certainly ugly. I thought we might even hear someone yell for a doctor.
I’ve been breaking in reeds as I play the opera. (Note that I wrote “breaking IN”, not breaking!) Playing new reeds during the louder parts give me a great chance to break in reeds for Don G. Of course I still have Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet (on English horn) and two Symphony Silicon Valley sets before I get to Don G, but Mozart requires “just so” reeds so I’m thinking ahead. (For a change!)
Now it’s time for a relaxing night. After yesterday’s crazy day I wound up skipping church today. I slept. Woke up and ate some shredded wheat. Slept a lot more. I think I needed that, although I was sorry to miss church. Which I also need.
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