You have no doubt been waiting with bated breath to hear what I've been up to. My absence from blogging is precipitated by the unfortunate sense of obligation I feel to finish writing about Germany. You'll have to keep waiting (forever?) to hear about the rest of Germany.
In the meantime, it's hot in Virginia. A little too hot, if you ask me, to be very opinionated about whether or not the sound of the air conditioner adversely affects the artistic product. I've been playing for a production of Puccini's opera Il Trittico. While it was fun writing about the productions and concerts we saw in Germany, I prefer to do that a little less when I'm playing. In lieu of that, I'm providing links to a couple reviews here and here.
The productions are very interesting, but given the limitations of the festival tent's size (and also the fact that it's a tent and not a real theatre), the set changes between the three acts are 45 minutes long. It's a long afternoon or evening when we perform the entire opera. But Il Tritticohas three separate acts that have nothing to do with each other plot-wise, so on several occasions we have presented two acts together, or even just one act at a time.
Here's the set for Il Tabarro, plus a view into the pit:
And yes, the pit literally is a pit dug into the ground, then planked over with wood. Fortunately for us, that means it's a degree or so cooler than the seating area. Unfortunately for us, that means we have to deal with the occasional spider.
This particular act is set on a barge, as you can see, though the title translates as "The Cloak." The barge owner's wife falls in love with one of his employees, the barge owner finally figures out who his wife is having an affair with and kills the guy, and then hides the body under a cloak before revealing her dead lover to her.
That's all I have for pictures of the sets, though the other two are based off the same wood paneled frame, transformed into a bedroom for Gianni Schicchi and into a convent courtyard forSuor Angelica. As for the plots of the other two (in case you don't care to read the reviews, and sorry to repeat things for those of you who already know this), the rich uncle in Gianni Schicchijust died, and his relatives realize that he left all his money to a monastery and not to them. Since no one knows yet that the old man has died, they get Gianni Schicchi to help them rewrite the will. Meanwhile, his daughter wants to marry the young man in the family, but the family is opposed to it because the Schicchis don't have any money. GS pretends to be the dead man (who everyone besides the family thinks is still alive) so he can rewrite the will, and then he writes himself into the will, which means that his daughter can get married, but leaves the dead man's greedy family with nothing. Not really the best introduction to your future in-laws, in my opinion. You've probably heard the famous aria O mio babbino caro. It isn't really a smarmy love song, just the daughter manipulating her daddy to convince him to help out.
Usually Suor Angelica is the middle act between Tabarro and GS, but in our case it's at the end. None of us has actually figured out why that is, if it's an artistic decision or if it's logistic, dictated by set change necessities or something like that. "Emotionally manipulative" is a good description for this one, but oh, is the music ever beautiful. Suor Angelica's family shipped her off to the convent after she got pregnant four years ago. Her aunt comes to visit to ask her to sign away her rights to the family inheritance on the occasion of her sister's wedding and mentions, by the way, your little boy died a couple years ago, I didn't think it was important to tell you, but also I still think you're a whore who hasn't suffered enough for the disgrace you brought on the family. Angelica poisons herself to be with her dead son, but then realizes too late that suicide means she'll go to hell.
I probably have some little plot details wrong, but don't blame me--I'm not supposed to be watching the stage. All I can say is that love playing opera and I LOVE playing Puccini. You know how I know it's amazing? Because I'll think "this is my favorite part," then thirty seconds later "no, wait, this is my favorite part." And this goes on for the whole opera. The orchestral interludebefore the finale, as Angelica prepares to kill herself, is one of these spots.
We've also had a few orchestra concerts, including one last weekend of all French music, and American music this past Friday. The first concert, part of opening weekend, was all Italian music and hey, we had fireworks!
I guess when the NY Phil pays you $3.3 million a year you can afford fireworks after your own concert. Note: this also allows you to cross-breed your pet zebra with a donkey. I promise photos later.
Otherwise, things have been good. Andy came out to visit last weekend, and saw more Puccini than he might ever want to see in a three-day span. It was nice to show him around the festival and area and have him meet my hosts, since this is the second year I've stayed with them, and they're really wonderful people who live on an absolutely beautiful farm.
My roommate and I also spent an afternoon at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. It's kind of like the Alamo, in that it's not as big as I was expecting it to be. Nevertheless, it is filled with lots of interesting paintings and inventions of Jefferson. After spending last month in Weimar, where everything is Goethe this and Goethe that, it occurred to me that Jefferson is kind of like the American Goethe, but all up in politics instead of literature. Both men had such a ridiculously wide interest and knowledge in matters beyond those with which we initially associate them.
Here's me on the lawn at Monticello:
It looks like I was photoshopped into this picture, but I promise I was really there. This was also the beginning of a huge heat wave of 100 degree temperatures for several days. We hadn't checked the weather to know this, but it meant we spent a little less time there than I ideally would have chosen.
So for now that's all. I'll be leaving a week from tomorrow to head back to El Paso, and in the meantime we have rehearsals and an orchestra concert, plus two more opera performances to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment