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!