Guest Post 3

Susan has another post to share with us regarding Romeo et Juliette (thanks, Susan!):

Monday, July 9, 2007

Social Dynamics

Had another run-through yesterday. Guess what? I got put into another scene! The director actually remembered my name, which is impressive since there are so many people involved in the production and I've only been to three rehearsals. He decided to have the supers do one of the scene changes, which I think is a cool idea. I've seen it done in other operas and I like how it looks. Definitely better than black-clad stagehands skittering about moving things around in the dark. So now I go on as R&J leave after their wedding. I pile a bunch of odds and ends into a basket and carry the basket off. Two other supers take the table, and Sharron (with 2 Rs) takes the chair. I feel like it's so silly to be excited about this and writing all these minute details, but it's really so much fun.

They went through the sword fight a few times, first as part of the run-through, and then a few times silently while the fencing guy (I assume that's who he was...) gave them tips. It looks like a lot of work! There are tons of people all jumping around, clashing swords and pretending to punch and be punched. One guy had to keep falling down flat on his face each time. Ouch!

It's weird being a super. There's a social dynamic that must occur with any production and we're sort of in our own little universe. Everyone seems very nice but I really haven't interacted with anyone except the other supers. I had one very short conversation with one of the singers yesterday about curly hair because we have similarly textured hair. But then the swordfight got a bit too close and she had to move or get stepped on. The chorus members have been rehearsing together for weeks now and all seem to know each other really well. They drape all over each other when they're not on and have all these different little social groups. Some stay in the room during rehearsal, others move to the green room. And the truth is, as outgoing and friendly (pushy?) as I can be, I'm actually a little intimidated to talk to anyone. What's up with that??

I took a bunch more videos and put them up at Photobucket.

Next rehearsal: Friday the 13th! Eek!

R&J Videos

If you didn't see it in Susan's previous post, I thought I'd point out here that she took some fun little videos of the rehearsal process for Romeo & Juliette.

Here is the link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v259/luindriel/Romeo/

Guest Post 2

Here is a second guest post from Susan:

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Super R&J Business

I've been to two more rehearsals for Romeo. On Saturday we carried Juliette in and out on that stretcher thing about 5 times. That was a bit much on my arms! But I survived.

Yesterday was the first run-through. Once again it was amazing to hear all the singing! And what was really cool too was that I didn't care that all these extra people were watching. Not that I do anything momentous or requiring any skill, really, but I had no problem taking a deep breath and lapsing into, "Sad, accepting, respectful monk-mode," or, SARMM as I just this moment decided to call it. I hung out for a while after I was done, just to watch. It was such a treat! I wish I understood more French so I could follow the dialogue. Actually, I wish I could sing like that!

I was sitting near the assistant stage manager and she was buzzing with adreniline. She was everywhere at once, grabbing props, cuing people checking the score.

At once point a bunch of guys ran offstage past me and past the stretcher that was leaning on the wall. It started to go over and one of the other supers caught it. I was sitting cross-legged on a chair filming at the time and you can hear me squeak and see my knees come up as I tried to make myself smaller! All the videos are here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v259/luindriel/Romeo/.

Guest Post

We have a guest blogger for us today. Susan Myers, one of our supernumeraries (non-singing extra role) has generously offered to write some of her observations for this blog. She also gave me some pictures and stuff, so I'll post more shortly.

Here's her post from June 24:

Super Duper

I went to the rehearsal this morning for Romeo and Juliet and I'm in as a super! I'm going to be a monk. (Ok stop laughing now, especially those of you who know that I was a nun in my high-school's production of The Sound of Music!) So the opera starts out with a the chorus and a monk lamenting the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The monks (hey, that's me in that brown robe!) bring them in on pallets. I'm one of the 4 who carry Juliet. It's a dancer double, not the opera singer. I'm in the front, near her feet. We bring her on stage and stop at an angle. The 4 other monks come in from the other side with Romeo. The friar uncovers each face, then we straighten out and place the pallets down. The monks near the front of the pallet (hey, that's me!) cross over to the front side of the stage while the friar does his thing (he wasn't there so I'm not quite sure what that is...) and then we come back and carry them out. And that's it, I'm done, as far as I know. We rehearsed with the chorus after lunch and that was awesome. They sound amazing.

After the rehearsal we went to the costume dept to get fitted into our robes. Mine was too long of course, but the sleeves were too short. The costume dept is quite a scene - costumes stuffed onto racks everywhere, and desks with sewing machines crammed in between.

On one of the performance days we're going to see Die Zauberflote at 1pm and then I'm in Romeo that night at 8! A long day at the theater!

What have I been doing?!

So for all of you wondering where I've been, here are some shots of my desk, to which I've been chained for the last 2 weeks or so, working on the program book.

So after a couple of looong weekends and many near all-nighters, the program book is complete and is at the printers, getting ready for opening night (which is this coming Friday)!

I have a ton of backlogged photos that I've taken and a slew of them from a cast member and a volunteer, so stay tuned. In the next day or so you're sure to have MANY posts and images to view.

Nassau Park Pavilion

There was another Preview Concert on Saturday night - this time at Nassau Park Pavilion in West Windsor. The weather was GORGEOUS (much better than last year's deluge) and there was a huge crowd - about 385 people. It was a great night of music - a fewPirates, some Flute, a little Romeo & Juliette and a bunch of Musical Theater - how great does that sound?

You can see more Nassau Park Concert pictures here.

Don't forget that you can catch more Musical Theater THIS WEEKEND at Palmer Square in Princeton: Friday at 7:30pm and Saturday at 2pm.

2 Previews down, 1 to go

So last night there we had 2 previews (one was a mini-concert). The big concert was at the Princeton Public Library and from all accounts it was amazing. There were at least 150 people crammed into the Community Room - since I had only made 125 programs, they had to scramble to photocopy more. You never can tell how many people will show up! As you can probably guess, I wasn't at that concert last night. Instead I went with a couple of our singers and a pianist who were performing a mini, 20 minute concert at Crossing Vineyards in Washington's Crossing, PA. It's a really gorgeous place and we had great weather last night, so it was lovely. We sang just a few numbers at the start of the dinner concert that they were having. We had a great time and we should be back there next year - stay tuned!

Tonight is the Nassau Park Pavilion preview. I'll be there, so be sure to look for more pictures tomorrow. As always, the web album will contain even more photos!

Preview Concerts

In case you're dying to hear what our wonderful singers sound like, you're in luck! This weekend we have 2 (count ' em) TWO preview concerts.

The first takes place at the Princeton Public Library at 7pm tomorrow (Friday) evening. The second preview takes place at Nassau Park Pavilion in West Windsor (behind Panera) on Saturday evening at 7:30pm.

There will be pieces performed from each of the three operas (Romeo et Juliette, The Magic Flute and The Pirates of Penzance) as well as some Musical Theater.

Summer Season Poster

Everyone's here!

So the whole gang for the summer is here - they have been for a few days, but as usual I've been too busy to tell you all about it. Mea culpa.

But I do have TONS of photos to share with you. Take a look at our web album!

Sounds of summer

OK, so while singers did arrive last week and they were rehearsing the scenes concerts, the chorus music and participated in a series of masterclasses, it wasn't until today that it seemed like the season really started.

The principals for Flute and Pirates arrived today (see full company meeting to the left). Now we're just waiting for the Romeo crowd to arrive later this week, then we'll be fully set.

So we started music rehearsals for Pirates and Flute, which is really exciting. To the right is a picture from the first few minutes of the Flute music rehearsal. I think we should take it as a good sign that our 3 Ladies happened to show up dressed similarly - that kind of like-minded thinking can only help their harmonies! :D

Scott, who is stage directing Flute, was at the Flute music rehearsal today, observing before he starts staging later this week. A little while into the rehearsal , he leaned over to me and said "I am so happy," meaning that he's very pleased with how everyone sounds. It made me think about how scary it must be casting our season. I mean, you hear hundreds of singers for just a couple of minutes each in December and then have to wait until June to hear them sing the role!

Switcheroo tidbit

So the opera world is really funny sometimes. We often will schedule our season and our singers a year or 2 in advance - it's not unusual for our Artistic Director, Scott Altman, to rush into the main room of our offices and say something like "Who wants to hear about my plan for 2010?"

Yet at the same time, there are also very often last-minute casting changes. Sometimes a singer will get sick at the last second, so we have to scramble for a replacement. These things happen, so it's great when everybody's quick on their feet and has the connections to make a good switch.

This past Friday was just such an example of this "rolling with the punches." At about 7:30am on Friday morning, one of the chorus members was forced to leave our season due to a personal reason. Well, by the end of business on Friday we had found a wonderful replacement, thanks this time to the connections of Jose Melendez, our summertime Principal Coach.

Hopefully we don't need to demonstrate our ability to be quick on our feet again this summer season, but I'm sure we'll be able to handle it if it does...

Sweet Masterclass

So after I left the costume shop, I made my way over to the first day of the Sharon Sweet Masterclasses. We do a whole bunch of masterclasses over the next 7 or 8 weeks with a variety of presenters - most of these masterclasses are in July, but we've decided to open our rehearsal process with a series of Masterclasses with Sharon Sweet, international soprano (no mystery, though).

If you've never been to a masterclass, they're really interesting. Basically, the teacher will work with a series of students individually. The singer will sing their chosen, prepared song through first then the teacher will work on certain items with the singer to improve their performance. Those "certain items" depend on the teacher's particular angle or expertise; it may be interpretation, acting, ornamentation or, as in Sharon's case, technique.

I used to study voice myself for a while a few years ago, so the process is pretty familiar to me. But I imagine that to a non-singer, it must look really bizarre. For example, yesterday, Sharon was trying to get one singer to relax her neck and drop her jaw while singing high notes. In order to get the singer to understand how that should feel, Sharon was grasping her belly and shaking it while the singer sang with 4 fingers in her mouth. It was amazing because the singer - who was great to begin with - really sounded so much better.

NJOpera's masterclasses are free and open to the public. The schedule is available online.

Costume Shop Visit

So I made it over to the Woolworth Music Building for a while yesterday afternoon to check out how things were going over there. It was funny being in that building for the first time in a year, but luckily everything pretty much was set up the way it was last summer.

Anyway, Scott and I stopped by the costume shop, as you can see here. (By the way, that is Scott's hand and drink at the left of the left photo. He doesn't like it when I put photos of him in the blog - like Tuesday).
To the right in the background is Patty Hibbert, Costume Designer. I should tell you that according to Stu Duncan (reviewed our Turandot for the Princeton Packet), "she is becoming a legend in opera circles..."

And don't you forget it!

Summer Season 2007 has arrived

Hi everyone!

As you saw in my last post, I'm back to bring you information about New Jersey Opera's Summer Season 2007. As some of you may already be aware, we've got a ton of stuff going on this summer. We've got masterclasses, preview concerts, musical theater concerts, a kid's camp, scenes concerts, family workshops and, oh yeah, 3 fully staged operas. Whew... I'm already tired just listing that all out...

Anyway, the whole season kicked off today, when the Studio and Associate Artists arrived for rehearsals. These guys sing the chorus parts in the operas (The Magic Flute, Romeo & Juliette and The Pirates of Penzance) and do the musical theater concerts and the scenes concerts as well as take on some of the smaller roles in the operas. They have so much to do that we brought them in a whole week ahead of the other singers to get their coachings in!

I stopped by the morning meeting today to say hello to the new arrivals and make my usual first-day announcements and take a couple of pictures for the blog. The above picture shows the singers taking in all the information. To the right, you can see Artistic Director Scott Altman (foreground) and Principal Coach Jose Melendez tag-teaming some announcements.

Tomorrow we have more rehearsals and our first masterclass with Sharon Sweet. She's presenting a masterclass every day this week (Wed-Sat) at 2pm in the Woolworth Music Building of Princeton University. They're free and open to the public, so stop on by!

I stink

Yeah, I pretty much do stink. I got you all excited about a New Jersey Opera blog, gave you great info and pictures during our fantastic Turandot in March, then I abandoned you for several months. You must hate me. :(

Do you forgive me? OK, good, because I'm back and ready to give you some great inside info on NJOpera's Summer Season! If you're really good, then you might even get some guest bloggers from the cast... (but shhh, don't tell them that, because they really don't know it yet).

Check back later today for some photos from this morning's first meeting for the singers!

Courier Post

And here is another review, this time from the Courier Post:

Sweet, Glassman excel in McCarter 'Turandot'
By ROBERT BAXTER
Courier-Post Staff

The curtain barely rose on Puccini's Turandot before the audience that crowded McCarter Theatre knew they were in for a special afternoon of opera.

Conductor Steven Mosteller took the measure of Puccini's opulent score from the five crashing chords that launch the opera. Then Matthew Burns uttered the Mandarin's proclamation in a firm, resonant baritone.

From that impressive opening, the New Jersey Opera Theater's semi-staged Sunday concert performance took flight.

Interest focused on Sharon Sweet. The American soprano left opera nearly a decade ago when health issues ended her stage career. She returned in triumph in the murderous title role of the princess who beheads all of her royal suitors.

Sweet began cautiously in the strenuous aria that introduces Turandot. She took a lyrical approach to the aria... When the vocal line blossomed to high B and C, Sweet's soprano rang out powerfully.

She was even better in the final act. Now in full control of her voice, Sweet sang impressively, as did everyone else in the cast.

As the prince who melts Turandot's frozen heart, Alan Glassman sang with thrilling intensity. In the confrontation with Turandot in the riddle scene, Glassman hurled high Cs that cut through the orchestra and chorus. His incisive, full-toned tenor rang out powerfully, but also caressed the lyrical arias.

Barbara Shirvis made a touching Liu. Her silvery soprano soared through the slave girl's shimmering vocal lines. Raymond Aceto brought a firm bass voice and a noble stage presence to Timur.

The ministers Anton Belov (Ping), Jonathan Green (Pang) and Joel Sorensen (Pong) sang suavely. Belov's attractive baritone sounded impressive.

Mosteller shaped a model performance. He paced the music admirably and summoned assured playing from the Westfield Symphony Orchestra. The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia performed the big choral scenes with distinction.

Siff staged the opera. He clarified the action with spare but appropriate movements. Adding to the effect were Patricia A. Hibbert's attractive costumes.

Here come the reviews!

We had a bunch of reviewers at Sunday's performance of Turandot, and as the reviews come in, I'll be sure to post them here for you to read.

Here's one from The Star Ledger:

"Turandot," With a Touch of Royalty
BY BRADLEY BAMBARGER
The Star-Ledger
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

One has come to expect increasingly fine things from New Jersey Opera Theater, as it grows in ambition from season to season. The Princeton company, which stages its summer offerings at the McCarter Theatre Center's 360-seat Berlind Theatre, launched its fifth season Sunday with a nearly sold-out debut at the house's 1,100-capacity Matthews Theatre.

The event was a semi-staged presentation of Puccini's "Turandot," which will also serve as New Jersey Opera Theater's debut at New Brunswick's 1,800-seat State Theatre on Sunday. The education-oriented company makes the most of the Berlind, casting young singers from around the country in intimate productions. This starrier "Turandot" — which includes two Metropolitan Opera veterans in the cast — had no trouble projecting in the bigger McCarter venue, despite not having the usual grandiose trappings accorded the work.

A chamber-sized Westfield Symphony Orchestra and the 100-voice Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia are on stage behind the costumed singers and a few props. (A camera on conductor Steven Mosteller projected his cues to stage monitors for the singers upfront.) Although not as colorful and physical as the Trenton production of "Turandot" by Boheme Opera New Jersey in November, the Princeton performance was more persuasive musically.

The drama still seemed as grimly pointless as ever, but no amount of spectacle can hide that, anyway. Puccini was never happy with the "Turandot" libretto, and he died before completing the music. (Franco Alfano composed the last part of Act III.) The story is one of blind desire and vengeful cruelty, set in ancient China. Obsessed with avenging an ancestor's rape, the title princess subjects her suitors to a riddle contest with fatal penalties for losing. An exiled prince, Calaf, is obsessed with melting the icy Turandot, even though he's never seen her. He ignores his ailing father's protests and the devotion of Liu, a slave girl. Calaf solves the riddle to possess the princess, but not before Liu sacrifices her life for him.

None of the characters are more than cardboard cutouts, but Puccini wrote one of his most moving tunes — the tenor aria "Nessun Dorma" — for Calaf. And the composer tasked Turandot with arias as cruel as her temperament. Sharon Sweet, who has sung Turandot from the Met to China's Forbidden City, is the rare soprano with the mettle to hit those high-flying top notes while phrasing with some lyrical subtlety. ...She sang the daylights out of those arias.

As Calaf, tenor Allan Glassman excelled in steely outbursts, his Met credits revealing themselves as hefilled the room. ...Soprano Barbara Shirvis was an attractive Liu, her tremulousness apt.

If Puccini's use of Far Eastern scales seems like postcard exotica now, the choruses can have power — at least when performed with the amplitude of the Mendelssohn Club chorus (prepared by Alan Harler). The lack of scenery didn't matter, as Patricia Hibbert's opulent costumes — especially those for Turandot and the ministerial clowns Ping, Pang and Pong — gave the eye plenty to enjoy.

Performance today!

Don't forget, everyone! New Jersey Opera Theater's first performance of Puccini's Turandot is TODAY, Sunday, March 4 at 3pm in Princeton. Tickets are limited, but still available, by calling 609-258-2787 or through www.mccarter.org. You can also walk up to the ticket office prior to curtain and try to get tickets.

See you at the opera!

Have yesterday's papers?

So if you haven't read yesterday's papers yet, then I'll give you an incentive. NJOT has a couple of articles in yesterday's papers.

In Time Off (Princeton area) and Tempo (Middlesex Co), both published by the Princeton Packet, Megan Sullivan wrote an article called "Love and Let Live: New Jersey Opera Theater brings Puccini's beloved 'Turandot' to the stage in Princeton and New Brunswick."

In the Trenton Times, NJOT has the front cover of the weekend "Good Times" section. Unfortunately, they haven't put the article online yet. When they do, I'll keep you posted...

Dress Rehearsal

So our dress rehearsal was on Thursday night. Unfortunately, I had to teach a class, so I couldn't get there until the beginning of the third act - I literally walked in the theater as Allan was really leaning into "Nessun Dorma." He was truly spectacular, I have to say... Really everyone, though, sounded great. And they looked fabulous! Here are some pictures taken by Jeff Reeder, NJOT's photographer.

Some more pictures

Here are a few more Turandot rehearsal photos. Sorry they're a little bit blurry - I only seem to get over to rehearsals in the evenings when the light is low (and the flash would distract too much).

Back for more?

While I was at rehearsal the other night, it occurred to me that quite a few members of the cast are returning to NJOT after having performed with us in the past. So if you are an avid New Jersey Opera Theater fan, you'll be familiar with at least a few of these singers:

Sharon Sweet (Turandot): 2006 gala, and presented masterclasses

Allan Glassman (Calaf): 2005 and 2006 gala, presented masterclasses, 2005 production of Il Trovatore (Manrico)

Barbara Shirvis (Liu): 2006 production of Falstaff (Alice Ford)

Anton Belov (Ping): 2005 production of Le nozze di Figaro (Count), 2005 Gala, and 2004 production of Don Giovanni (title role)

Stephen Lavonier (Emperor): 2006 productions of Gianni Schicchi (Spinelloccio) and Buoso's Ghost (Magistrate), and will sing in 2007 production of Romeo et Juliette (Mercutio).

Super tale!

Mike P., the supernumerary captain, has written a really interesting account of Tuesday night's rehearsal that he wanted to share with you:

At the end of the rehearsal of Act III on Tuesday Ira came up to the supers and Barbara Shirvis (Liu) after we had practiced the carry of Liu offstage. He said that it just didn't look right. He said he was sure there was something that other productions had done that looked better. I said, "They lift Liu to their shoulders." Ira said, "Yes, thank you." He was concerned that we might not be strong enough to lift her to our shoulders. Our strongest super, Dave, had already left but I was confident that we could to the lift. Kyle and I both have training in ballet partnering and Bob and Pradeep are in good shape. I looked around and saw Amy, our smallest dancer, and asked her if she would let us practice on her. Ira said, "Oh, you are going to practice now." Amy laid on the floor and Pradeep, Bob, Kyle and I easily lifted her to our shoulders. Ira liked the way it looked so we decided to demonstrate it on Wednesday with Jennifer, another dancer, so that Barbara would be confident that we wouldn't hurt her. On Wednesday Jennifer readily agreed to practice the lift so with Dave now replacing Pradeep we did the lift once for Ira and then for Barbara. Barbara was willing to try it and Raymond Aceto (Timur) joined us since he sings to Liu as we hold her and then holds Liu's hand as we carry her offstage. It worked flawlessly! As a final detail, Ira had Pradeep support Barbara's legs and lead the group offstage.

Excitement Builds

Sorry for the dearth of posts on my part over the last few days. As usual, the program book was more troublesome than I planned. But the files just finished uploading to the printer, so the hard part is done! Hopefully that means you'll be hearing more of me (and seeing more photos that I take at rehearsal)...

So there was some excitement at rehearsal on Saturday. Rehearsal of certain scenes had to be rearranged because our Pong (Joel Sorensen, right) had to dash out of Princeton to take the stage at the Metropolitan Opera! Turns out he was covering the role of Monastatos in the Met's production of Mozart's Magic Flute (conducted by James Levine), when he got a call that the regular Monastatos was sick and that Joel had to go on. So THAT's pretty cool, huh? I have to ask him what he thinks of the production - this one was directed by Julie Taymor (of Broadway's Lion King) and everyone I know either loves or hates the production. It's interesting how a certain directorial viewpoint can suddenly turn a traditional beloved opera into something controversial again.

Another fun thing on today's agenda is that Ray Aceto finally arrives (right). He had to come late to rehearsal in order to finish an engagement from Royal Opera, Covent Garden in London. So now we are finally complete! DJ (NJOT's Artistic Administrator) picked him up at the airport and brought him directly to rehearsals - how's THAT for some jet-lag!

So today's a pretty full day of rehearsals, from about 10am-6pm. Tomorrow we rehearse in the late afternoon and evening, but I'll probably swing by rehearsal and let you know how things are going. Too bad there's no WiFi there, or I'd publish directly from rehearsal, so you'd feel like you were right there with me!

Rehearsals begin!

We have begun! Yesterday was the first day of rehearsals for Turandot.

We started at 9:30am with a quick meet-and-greet session which gave everyone a chance to introduce themselves and also gave the staff time to explain the big things on the agenda. It sometimes really surprises me how small the opera world can really be. It seemed like almost everyone in that room has worked with everyone else at some point in their careers - it was really fun listening to them try to figure out when and where they knew each other from.

Anyway, as part of the introductions, Scott Altman (NJOT's Artistic Director) explained to the cast about the set up of the stage. We're doing a "concert staged" version of Turandot, which means that the orchestra, conductor, and chorus are always on stage; the singers are fully costumed and they act out the action at the front of the stage, but there are no big set pieces. So the singers have their backs to the conductor, which means that we have to have monitors to display a real-time video of the conductor so the singers can pick up his cues and tempos. This is a little unusual, so we're going to practice that this week... In the picture at the left, Scott explains to everyone what the set up will look like.

So yesterday was music rehearsal day, as is usually the case on the first day of an opera rehearsal period. Basically, all the singers sit around the conductor and pianist and sing through the whole opera to get an idea of what musical ideas the conductor has. On the right, we have a picture of Steven Mosteller (conductor - in the blue sweater) working on the beginning of Act II with our Ping (Anton Belov - on the far side), Pang (Jonathan Green - in the middle) and Pong (Joel Sorensen - closest to you).


The big thing on the agenda yesterday (at least in my world) was the photoshoot. We had photographers from the Princeton Packet and the Trenton Times scheduled to meet us at McCarter Theatre during the lunch break to take photos for some upcoming articles we have coming out (both scheduled for Friday, March 2). This was really fun we hadn't seen the costumes yet (designed by Patty Hibbert). On the left, Patty arranges the costumes during the shoot. (in addition to Ping, Pang and Pong, we have Stephen Lavonier as the Emperor and Barbara Shirvis as Liu). On the right is another shot during the shoot, this time also including Matthew Burns as the Mandarin. (and, by the way, yes that is me on the right holding up some lighting equipment).

So it was a long day, as you can see by Anton Belov's expression on the left. But it was a lot of fun, too, and we got a lot accomplished. In a few minutes I'm going to head over to rehearsals again and see what's going on today. Today starts the staging of the opera, so that will really be exciting.

More soon!

Getting closer...

Turandot is rapidly approaching. Our first performance is on Sunday, March 4 at McCarter Theatre in Princeton and the second is on March 11 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, both at 3pm.

Even though the first performance is still almost 2 weeks away, we're very busy here in the office because rehearsals begin on Thursday - yes, this Thursday. And in between all the music and staging rehearsals (pictures to follow once said rehearsals begin), I'm busy arranging photo shoots and interviews with the cast and creative staff. (Don't worry, I'll let you know which newspapers to snatch up when the time comes).

Actually, technically speaking, rehearsals have already begun. The chorus (Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia) and the orchestra (Westfield Symphony) have been rehearsing their parts for several weeks now. Soon it will all come together... That's a LOT of people to fit on one stage - not to mention the supernumeraries and dancers!

I'm also working on getting you a couple of "guest bloggers" to come tell their stories. Otherwise, you'll be reading lots about the status of the program book, why Adobe's InDesign is the best layout program out there and what it's like to watch rehearsals. My hope is to get you the real inside scoop on what it's really like to be in the rehearsal process.

Will I succeed? I hope so. You'll just have to keep coming back to read more, now won't you?

Welcome!

Welcome to New Jersey Opera Theater's inaugural blog post! We can't wait to tell you about all the exciting things we have going on here at NJOT.

Through this blog, we'd love to share with you some of the behind-the-scenes action that goes on with an opera company. You'll get some insight into rehearsals, the design process, the singers, designers and much more.

The first production you're going to hear about is Puccini's Turandot. Our first performance is on March 4, 2007 at McCarter Theatre in Princeton and the second is on March 11 at State Theatre in New Brunswick. Click on the image to the right for a larger view of the poster and visit the Turandot page of our website for more information.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, so please leave comments here or email us at info@NJOT.org.

Have a great day and we hope to see you again soon!


Patricia Kiernan Johnson
Development & Marketing Associate