We have our second rehearsal for La Rondine today. It’s our first with one of the casts. This is when the fun begins! I love hearing the voices, and the music does make a lot more sense then. La Rondine is about as close to musical theater as can be for opera, I think. I wonder if this might be a good first opera for people who love musical theater.
Here’s a bit of the fun (not us, of course!):
I did a really stupid thing today. (Well, okay, I probably did more than one stupid thing but this is the one I’ll ‘fess up to.) I left my part under my chair! Argh! I planned on going over a few little sections that are a wee bit tricky. (There’s really nothing in it that is as difficult as other operas we’ve been doing, but I of course want to be as close to perfect as possible!) I left the original on the stand thinking, “Well, I bought my own part, so I’ll practice with that and be safe about leaving this part here.” Of course I forgot that I had put my music folder under my chair when we began the rehearsal. I did look under the chair before I left, but the folder is black, and the pit is quite poorly lit. So no practicing the part tomorrow morning after all. Rats and double rats!
I do have reeds to be worked on, so that will easily take up the morning in any case. I played on two different reeds for today’s rehearsal, neither of which had me completely happy, neither of which was even close to perfect. (But when does a reed have us completely happy, eh?) One was too easy and is dying, and the other is definitely not stable yet. The latter is new, so I’m hoping it will decide to become the Perfect Reed. But of course I must have more than one, and I know how likely it is to be absolutely perfect.
Oh dear … I’ve used the word “perfect” far too many times. Man, oh man, that’s just … well … you know … perfect.
