Don Giovaaaaannni!! and other thoughts...
Last night, I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to the opening night of Don Giovanni at the Seattle Opera! I was so excited I could hardly stand it. It was my first time to see a live opera as well as to check out McCaw Hall. Yay!
The evening started with dinner at Buca de Beppo's with some of the CWU Opera Club kids. I hung out with J_T_ and C_O_ and had a blast. We split a large serving of the ravioli with meat sauce and a small garlic bread between the three of us...and we ate it all. I'm still full. It was definitely a great start to the night.
After finishing dinner, we had a ton of time till curtain so we ended up attending the pre-concert lecture. I didn't get a whole lot more out of it that I wouldn't have gotten from the synopsis (I think the same guy wrote the program) other than a few inside jokes (EROS!!) coined while making fun of the speaker. He was very animated and fun to listen to/watch, but his favourite words were most obviously 'eros' and every derivitive there of. We know the opera is about sex, we get it - move on.
The opera itself was awesome. I had a great seat - halfway up the right side gallery, I could see everything perfectly. Since my favourite voice type is baritone, I was looking forward to the show already. The second Don Giovanni started singing I melted. First of all, he was HOTT. Second of all, his voice made me want to bear his children. I was falling like one of his 3000 women - and I am not ashamed at all. He really was brilliant. Leporello, though, for me, stole the show. He was SUCH a good actor, he took the part where it needed to go. The Commandatore was magnificent. Such a strong adjective is what is needed. The man was HUGE with a voice to match. Of all the recordings I've heard, his voice was one of the most ominous and commanding. Though not a fan of the tenor voice, Don Ottavio really did captivate the audience. During his arias the show would seem to stop as we hung on each word. (i know it sounds like i'm writing a review - bear with me) Of the female roles, my least favourite voice was prolly Zerlina. I didn't think that the girl did enough with her role. It was beautifully sung, don't get me wrong, but I'd rate it a B performance - so much more could have been done. I felt bad for her as well because of the costumes she was put in. Already terribly short, the dresses made her look like a munchkin. I think my favourite voice was Donna Elvira - so clear and clean and wonderfully expressive. She had me empathizing with her character more than I ever have before.
Seeing this performance only reemphasized my love for opera. I want to sing that well - to capture an audience and bring them into the story. (Not to mention meeting baritones like that...yum)
I think the only downer to the evening, though it didn't last too long thanks to my dinner buddy, was all the pecking that went on afterwards. A bunch of the Central people met on the mezzanine afterward and the first things out of everyone's mouth was what they didn't like, what they could have/would have done differently or better. Not everyone was doing this, but it bothered me. Aren't we there for the music? I was, maybe I was in the wrong place. I guess my idea of opera is about the performance of the MUSIC, where costumes and set are designed to enhance the MUSIC in addition to the story, not play a major role in of themselves. I started getting a little agitated when C_ came over and expressed the same concerns. So we started talking about everything we liked. How the MUSIC was really awesome. Of course we might not have enjoyed something, but that wasn't the focus of the conversation. We were both elated after our first night at the opera and want to stay excited. This is the only thing that makes me think I might not be cut out for opera or any sort of professional performance of music - I just like music. It's sad that I'd prolly be considered naive or simple because of that. Meh - whatever.
I had a great time and that's what's important. I still love opera, and I am excited to take some ideas back to our humble production.
In other news, I've been having pretty bad tension problems in my singing of late. So much it's starting to really bother and hurt. Not one to sit by and hope things go away, I decided to take up Alexander technique again. I had taken some lessons awhile back, and really liked what it did for my playing, maybe it would help my singing? I had my first lesson this week - good lord. If any of you don't know, Heather Babbitt is a licensed instructor and above all, she works with your instrument to make sure that you aren't performing with tension. She had me try to sing simple vocalizes while working with me to release all of my tension. It was incredible. My voice had NEVER felt that free - I started crying I was so happy. It's going to be a long road, but now I can see the light. There is a way for me to fix this problem though I'm going to have to work very hard to kick so many bad habits.
I love learning new things. I'm thinking about reading some Nietzsche...
Well, I've rambled enough, and kick-off is in a couple of minutes. Have a great rest of the 3-day weekend everyone!
The evening started with dinner at Buca de Beppo's with some of the CWU Opera Club kids. I hung out with J_T_ and C_O_ and had a blast. We split a large serving of the ravioli with meat sauce and a small garlic bread between the three of us...and we ate it all. I'm still full. It was definitely a great start to the night.
After finishing dinner, we had a ton of time till curtain so we ended up attending the pre-concert lecture. I didn't get a whole lot more out of it that I wouldn't have gotten from the synopsis (I think the same guy wrote the program) other than a few inside jokes (EROS!!) coined while making fun of the speaker. He was very animated and fun to listen to/watch, but his favourite words were most obviously 'eros' and every derivitive there of. We know the opera is about sex, we get it - move on.
The opera itself was awesome. I had a great seat - halfway up the right side gallery, I could see everything perfectly. Since my favourite voice type is baritone, I was looking forward to the show already. The second Don Giovanni started singing I melted. First of all, he was HOTT. Second of all, his voice made me want to bear his children. I was falling like one of his 3000 women - and I am not ashamed at all. He really was brilliant. Leporello, though, for me, stole the show. He was SUCH a good actor, he took the part where it needed to go. The Commandatore was magnificent. Such a strong adjective is what is needed. The man was HUGE with a voice to match. Of all the recordings I've heard, his voice was one of the most ominous and commanding. Though not a fan of the tenor voice, Don Ottavio really did captivate the audience. During his arias the show would seem to stop as we hung on each word. (i know it sounds like i'm writing a review - bear with me) Of the female roles, my least favourite voice was prolly Zerlina. I didn't think that the girl did enough with her role. It was beautifully sung, don't get me wrong, but I'd rate it a B performance - so much more could have been done. I felt bad for her as well because of the costumes she was put in. Already terribly short, the dresses made her look like a munchkin. I think my favourite voice was Donna Elvira - so clear and clean and wonderfully expressive. She had me empathizing with her character more than I ever have before.
Seeing this performance only reemphasized my love for opera. I want to sing that well - to capture an audience and bring them into the story. (Not to mention meeting baritones like that...yum)
I think the only downer to the evening, though it didn't last too long thanks to my dinner buddy, was all the pecking that went on afterwards. A bunch of the Central people met on the mezzanine afterward and the first things out of everyone's mouth was what they didn't like, what they could have/would have done differently or better. Not everyone was doing this, but it bothered me. Aren't we there for the music? I was, maybe I was in the wrong place. I guess my idea of opera is about the performance of the MUSIC, where costumes and set are designed to enhance the MUSIC in addition to the story, not play a major role in of themselves. I started getting a little agitated when C_ came over and expressed the same concerns. So we started talking about everything we liked. How the MUSIC was really awesome. Of course we might not have enjoyed something, but that wasn't the focus of the conversation. We were both elated after our first night at the opera and want to stay excited. This is the only thing that makes me think I might not be cut out for opera or any sort of professional performance of music - I just like music. It's sad that I'd prolly be considered naive or simple because of that. Meh - whatever.
I had a great time and that's what's important. I still love opera, and I am excited to take some ideas back to our humble production.
In other news, I've been having pretty bad tension problems in my singing of late. So much it's starting to really bother and hurt. Not one to sit by and hope things go away, I decided to take up Alexander technique again. I had taken some lessons awhile back, and really liked what it did for my playing, maybe it would help my singing? I had my first lesson this week - good lord. If any of you don't know, Heather Babbitt is a licensed instructor and above all, she works with your instrument to make sure that you aren't performing with tension. She had me try to sing simple vocalizes while working with me to release all of my tension. It was incredible. My voice had NEVER felt that free - I started crying I was so happy. It's going to be a long road, but now I can see the light. There is a way for me to fix this problem though I'm going to have to work very hard to kick so many bad habits.
I love learning new things. I'm thinking about reading some Nietzsche...
Well, I've rambled enough, and kick-off is in a couple of minutes. Have a great rest of the 3-day weekend everyone!