The Thrills and Spills of Opera: Part 2!

by Melissa in What's New

Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy! That kind of describes opera rehearsals as of now.

We have gotten further since the last entry. Our accompaniment has increased into a mini-orchestra consisting of a piano, a high-quality keyboard, and a string bass. All our costumes and finished and two dress rehearsals are lined up, the first of which happened earlier tonight. We are using two casts, thus we have to do the usual dress rehearsal sound-checks and such twice.

Tonight’s dress rehearsal went very well. Most of the children have been here for years and are now very familiar with the process. Firstly, students go into a small auditorium to the side of the theater, lovingly called “Costumeland”, and retrieve their garments from a closet and change in a nearby dressing room. After costume, hair style, and make-up have been applied, they enter the actual theater to immediately warm up, then be whisked away backstage to wait until the performance begins. Once the orchestra plays it’s first notes, there is no stopping to correct any glitch. After performance, the cast reconvenes onstage to hear if there are any corrections to be made. The evening ends with dismissal and the boring procedure of standing in line to turn in our costumes, assured that we have all the pieces are together. Not very tedious, the only real challenge is if you are a principal cast member. They are fixed up with body microphones which are hidden in the costumes and hair. The children are trusted to handle themselves carefully to not break the expensive equipment and must return the microphones as carefully as they were installed.

And now for some exciting news! Well I find it exciting because it’s an WYOW first. Two rehearsals will be broadcast over the Internet. The web-cast performances will be on July 24th and 25th, both at 7:00, P.M., Eastern Standard Time. There is no charge to view. Here’s the link:

http://media.rider.edu/broadcast/

We’ve been working very hard for the past two months and hope to have a decent-sized audience at each performance. I have given ticket info in the entry entitled “Why Didn’t Think of This Earlier?”. We promise you’ll enjoy this year’s performance.

See You There! Mel.

P.S. While I have you clicking around, sample previous shows and check out WYOW’s YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/Youthoperas

 P.P.S. Update! Update! An encore webcast is scheduled for this afternoon at 3:00 PM at the same web address. Also, opening night has been put in an archive for a limited time for anyone who wants to see. There has been some complaint about the recording’s quality, but the performance itself is good. Here’s the link. Enjoy!

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/584604