I'm getting married...twice

The day after finishing St. Petersburg Opera (and getting an offer to return, more on that in a future post), I jumped head first into rehearsals for another Le Nozze di Figaro production, this time as a guest artist with the Bel Cantanti Opera Summer Festival in Washington, DC. The rehearsals have been going well and I am grateful to my friend, stage director Peter Kozma and new, wonderful conductor colleague Kathleen Scott for making the transition so very easy.

Part of the joy of singing Figaro, beyond Mozart’s glorious music and the richness of the character laid down by DaPonte is the interaction with the singer performing Susanna. I’m lucky to have two talented sopranos playing her and as an actor, it allows me to stay in the moment, because each singer brings her own colors to the role. It always feels fresh and alive (and sometimes confusing...who am I rolling on the floor with today?)

Other roles in the show are double cast as well including Cherubino, Marcellina, Bartolo, Curzio and Barbarina. This does make for a more complicated rehearsal process as sometimes things have to be repeated multiple times in order to solidify them, but it’s also great when someone “gets” it and you can have a new moment on stage. The downside is that I am in rehearsals from sun up to sun down and I have had to learn to mark a lot vocally, but the thing that I owe my colleagues is not to mark the acting, even when I am quite tired.

During the course of the next few days, I will have sung Figaro 6 times (Four full runs and two performances.) That’s a lot of love to give (to Susanna and to the art form), but I am lucky to get to do this every day. I am usually pretty wiped out at the end of rehearsal and sometimes it takes a lot of energy just to warm up before going into rehearsal, but once I get set and the music is playing, it’s like a fantastic roller coaster ride and by the time “Ah tutti contenti” (All are happy) rolls around near the end of Act 4, I am truly pretty happy.

The wedding dates are set for June 16 and 17…a few days away and there are many more “wedding rehearsals” ahead this week. I’ll keep you posted on all the developments.

Peace,

Eric