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On February 28th and 29th 2004 I appeared in some 'workshops' with Harrow Opera, which included scenes from Mozart's 'Idomeneo', Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes' and Rossini's 'Barber of Seville'. The Rossini piece was chosen because Rossini was born on a leap year, on February 29th. These were fully staged scenes though, and people did pay to come and watch it. I you would like to see some photos of cast members, click here. In The Peter Grimes scene I played the apothocary and quack. He's also as lady's man :-). The director for that scene certainly had some good ideas, but I did find myself singing over my shoulder a few times (by being asked to walk one way while singing to someone who's in the otehr direction). I was also restrained somewhat when it came to arm movement. I do tend to move my arms a lot on stage withtout thinking, but I know people who are worse. In the Barber scene I played the chief, who has about 4 lines, which were unacompanied, and sufficiently unchallenging as to allow me to sing them in a character voice. In Idomeneo, I was a member oif the 'Greek' chorus who were taken aback by the appearance of a great sea monster. Our main bit was singing 'Corriamo, Fugiamo' ('lets runs, let's hide') lots of times withtout running anywhere, except possibly across the stage once or twice! It reminded me of that scene in 'The Pirates od Penzance' where the policemen are all saying 'off we go off we go' and then the Major-General says 'but you don't go'...... But what else can you do. I supose you could pretend running with Scoby-doo style movin background.

On February 28th and 29th 2004 I appeared in some 'workshops' with Harrow Opera, which included scenes from Mozart's 'Idomeneo', Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes' and Rossini's 'Barber of Seville'. The Rossini piece was chosen because Rossini was born on a leap year, on February 29th. These were fully staged scenes though, and people did pay to come and watch it. I you would like to see some photos of cast members, click here. In The Peter Grimes scene I played the apothocary and quack. He's also as lady's man :-). The director for that scene certainly had some good ideas, but I did find myself singing over my shoulder a few times (by being asked to walk one way while singing to someone who's in the otehr direction). I was also restrained somewhat when it came to arm movement. I do tend to move my arms a lot on stage withtout thinking, but I know people who are worse. In the Barber scene I played the chief, who has about 4 lines, which were unacompanied, and sufficiently unchallenging as to allow me to sing them in a character voice. In Idomeneo, I was a member oif the 'Greek' chorus who were taken aback by the appearance of a great sea monster. Our main bit was singing 'Corriamo, Fugiamo' ('lets runs, let's hide') lots of times withtout running anywhere, except possibly across the stage once or twice! It reminded me of that scene in 'The Pirates od Penzance' where the policemen are all saying 'off we go off we go' and then the Major-General says 'but you don't go'...... But what else can you do. I supose you could pretend running with Scoby-doo style movin background.
	UN BALLO UN MASCHERA June 2004 CLICK HERE to meet the cast
The Masked ball was the first complete opera I did with Harrow Opera. In fact this was the first one that the company had done in four years. Four nights at the Winston Churchill theatre it was, with a 23 piece orchestra and the rest of it. It’s perhaps best if I don’t say too much about the amount of money that was injected by one or two company members. Anyway the story of this opera is vaguely based on he assassination of King Gustavus III of Sweden. In 1792 Count Johan Anckarström shot the king with a rusty nails at a masked ball in Scotland. He died of septicaemia two weeks later. He wished that the conspirators be spared, but that didn’t happen. I used the word ‘vaguely’ earlier because the final opera bears no more historical than what I have mentioned. Moreover, the opera is set in 17^th century Boston (the American one) in which Gustavus became Ricardo, a British colonial governor. Things had to be changed several times in the writing of this opera to get round the censors (the political climate in Europe was a little sensitive at the time and regicide was a ‘no-no’). Some of the other character’s names were changed also, Anckarström became Renato, conspirators Horn and Ribbing became Sam and Tom and the sailor Christian became Silvano. The witch Ulrica remained Swedish, well she could Swedish witch who has emigrated, or been banished to Boston. So a mixture of Italian, Swedish and English names. Of course most amateur companies, including Harrow Opera, use English translations for their complete performances. No censors these days are going to stop translators from reverting it to the original setting, and so they have done so. Anckarström is still Renato. Well, does anything rhyme with Anckarström? Whenever I hear the name Renato I was think of that chubby moustachioed tenor bloke who sang that song ‘Save you love, my darling, save your love…’ which was’ at number 1 of several weeks and I absolutely hated it. It’s not on my top ten list of least favourite songs, but would have been at the time! I still don’t like it though. In the translation the king is Gustavus, but a decision was made that we should say Ricardo. Anyway the opera begins in the king’s court where the courtiers are waiting for the king to arrive. However a group of them. Led by Counts Horn and Ribbing, introduce themselves as being the king’s enemies looking to avenge comrades who have died as a result of the Ricardo’s actions. The kings arrives and then some of the peasants hand him petitions and then Ricardo says ‘I’ll read them. It is my duty to listen to my subjects’ petitions and if worthy to grant them’. But then Oscar, the page, hands him an invitation list to the masked Ball it is going to take place the following day. He puts the petitions aside and reads that instead. This gives me the impression that Gustavus might have been a bit like Charles the 1^st, more concerned with artistic and leisurely matters than about running the country. There was no need to assassinate Charles though. Back to the story, Ricardo says ‘Go with the other and wait until I call you’ and the courtiers all leave. Renato then enters the stage. Oscar says to him ‘You needn’t wait my lord’. Hang on, that can’t be right. Would young boy greet one of his superiors like that? Surely it would make more sense if Renato was there with the others and about to leave with them before being stopped by that line. The reason I say this is because in this production it was done the wrong way round. Renato warns Ricardo that there is a plot brewing against him in a ‘national anthem style’ song. Ricardo waves it all away and prohibits Renato from mentioning any names because…. he’s stupid. A chief justice comes to visit and informs Ricardo about the witch Ulrica who must surely be banished. Ricardo decides, for a bit of fun, that the whole court should go and visit her and sample some of her fortune telling. He summons back all the courtiers and then a quick upbeat chorus number follows. The second scene switches to Ulrica’s den. The opens with some ‘spooky’ music as Ulrica summons the devil in front of a blanketed women. Ricardo, dressed as a fisherman, (or sailor, I’m a little confused) arrives a little early. Not long later a real sailor, Silvano, come to have his future read. He is a little disappointed that he has received nothing in recognition for his 10 years of loyal service to the king. Ulrica forecasts a reward in gold and a promotion. The disguised Ricardo hears this and puts some gold and commission in Silvano’s bag. Wow! That was quick. I guess it’s a case of ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Come to think of it, when am I going to get my pay review for 2004, or indeed the one for 2003? . It’s a busy day for Ulrica as the next person to arrive is Amelia, Renato’s wife. This comes as a surprise to Ricardo as they have been having an affair and Amelia is seeking advice. The real Mrs Anckerström did not have any such affair with Gustavus III. Indeed she was a little displeased when an earlier opera portraying this story, ‘Gustave III ou Le Bal Masque’ was written, introducing the affair. Amelia confesses her secret love but she wishes that it be taken away (I think many wish that sort of thing sometimes). Ulrica tells Amelia that she must pick a magic herb from a patch near the gallows at midnight. Eventually the other courtiers arrive. Many of them have also adopted the fishermen/sailor motif. Ricardo introduces his alter-ego in a rather Verdi-ish piece ‘So tell my fortunes as once again I set out to sea’. It’s actually quite a convincing song, considering how stupid he is. His fortune as read though is not good. He will die soon. He nobly states that he is ready to die for his country, which is almost certainly a fib. But in any case it is a friend who will kill him (shock horror!). Ricardo doesn’t believe a word ‘How can I take seriously the prophecy you make?’ Everyone else though believes every word she says. Horn and Ribbing are concerned that she knows something. ‘Although you hear my fateful words I do not se you laugh at me!’ Ulrica says to them lots of times. On asking Ulrica who the friend is, she answers ‘The next man to take you by the hand’. No one is keen to do this, except for Renato, eventually. This is great relief to everyone. Surely his best friend would never kill him, surely the prophesy is false. Ricardo then reveals his identity to Ulrica. ‘How can we believe you if you didn’t even recognise me?’ He says, approximately. Obvious the words ‘he’d kill me if he found out’ had never crossed his mind. Silvano then returns, having finally worked it out, with the women (though not in our version as they joined the male chorus a little earlier to provide a bit more chorus oomph) and another national anthem type song is started. A bit more anthemy this one. At the end of the song most of the characters are singing different things, because they are thinking different things, and so the audience can never really hear what any particular person is saying. Scene 2 takes place around midnight at the gallows where Amelia looks for 'the herb’, singing a long ‘Give me strength’ song while doing so. Ricardo comes to look for here and is overjoyed when she admits that she loves him. Not long later though, Renato appears, who knows that the conspirators are getting to work and warns Ricardo. During the trio that results, my favourite bit of music in the opera, a decision is made that Renato and Ricardo should swap cloaks so as to trick the conspirators and then Renato should escort the anonymous young lady back to the town…without talking to her or looking at her face. The conspirators enter the stage, thinking they’ve got him cornered singing (or whispering would have a better idea) ‘Now at last is the hour of vengeance’. As they move, Renato turns around. What a disaster! But then they could just kill him as well, and why not have a bit of fun with the veiled lady first. After some brandishing of swords they remove Amelia’s veil. Renato is somewhat alarmed. The conspirators are amused; they think it’s a scene from The Marriage of Figaro (‘Just wait till everyone hears this tale a new sensation around the town’). There are intrigued when Renato asks them to visit his home the following morning, not so that he can arrest them, but the opposite. Wow! I don’t think those gallows has ever witnessed this much night-time action. The first scene of the third act takes place in Renato’s study. It opens with Renato telling his wife that she must face the death penalty as a result of her infidelity. Seems a bit harsh. I’m not sure how he intends to do this, I don’t think he has enough evidence to do it through the courts. He probably has some power though. He allows Amelia to see her son one last time. After she leaves Renato sings a long aria to Ricardo’s portrait. ‘You are the other one!’ he says. It’s a very good aria. Renato’s meant to be a baritone role, but to sing this he needs to be quite a high baritone, or a low tenor. When it’s finally over the conspirators’ leitmotif is heard as Horn and Ribbing enter. Really it’s more of a heavymotif than a leitmotif. It’s not dissimilar to the heavymotif that I had in The Tales of Hoffmann. Renato indicates that he as aware of all their plottings. He offers to join them but doesn’t give them an explanation. Well, they go along with it and they sing a kind of camaraderie song. In our version they crossed swords, symbolically. Then to decide you should murder the king, Renato writes each of their names on a bit of paper and puts them into a vase. There is a bit of brass and percussion music while he’s writing the names, a bit similar to some of the music in The Godfather, I think. It ‘drums up’ a bit of tension. The tension is broken though when Amelia returns and states that Oscar has arrived with a message. Unfortunately he has to wait. Renato elects Amelia to carry out the draw. She knows what she’s doing, but does it all the same. Renato’s name is drawn (huuuuh….. it’s all coming true!). After a bit more camaraderie the patient Oscar is invited in. He (or she vocally speaking) has a leitmotif, a light one, a bit of a bird song. He delivers invitations for the ball that is to take place that evening. All in the room are invited. A perfect opportunity for murder. The conspirators, old and new, arrange a common dress code and a password, ‘Vengeance!’* Act 3 begins with Ricardo writing a letter that will send both Renato and Amelia back home to England (or Finland if they’re in Sweden to begin with), he wants to end the affair by adding distance. He agonises over signing it ‘My life’s greatest sacrfice’. Oscar hurries in handing him a message which states that there is a plot to murder him at the ball. He decides though that if he doesn’t go people will think that he is a coward. I think I’d be considered a coward than dead. The final scene is set at the ball. The curtain rises to reveal the masked guests. The opening music is quite dainty with words like ‘The feasting and the dancing, the music so entrancing….’.After the first dollop of that Renato enters and finds his to new comrades without difficulty but then Oscar recognises Renato. But will the murderers find Ricardo? Renato tries to coax Oscar into revealing Ricardo. He decides to play a game though and keep him guessing. After a bit more ‘feasting a dancing singing’ Renato presses him further and manages to attain some information about Ricardo’s costume. That is followed by the third and final ‘feasting and dancing’ sequence, an extended one. The guests then dance as Ricardo enters on the scene. Amelia finds him before the killers do to warn him a second time. Ricardo doesn’t recognise her until she starts to weep (so difficult it is to recognise someone you know very well when you have a mask over the top part of your face, apparently). Though briefly elated is also filled with sadness as he knows that this is the last time he is ever to see her, come what may. He tells her that she is to leave for Finland, but he doesn’t seem to want to heed the warning. They say their final goodbyes as Renato approaches. The blow of revenge is given. The guests then all hear Ricardo’s scream and seize the offender. After some very frenzied chorus singing Ricardo sings a long song as he dies. He honourably requests that Renato not be punished, knowing that he was in the wrong. He hands Renato the letter that he had written. Renato realises that he has jumped to conclusion somewhat. The final chorus results ‘Such a noble generous heart’, reminiscent in style of a few Disney films. Ricardo gives his last gasp only a few seconds before the opera is over. This was another double-cast show. I played Silvano in cast Y (he’s the genuine sailor, in case you’ve forgotten). The other cast was cast X. I decided that the best thing to use to represent gold coins were chocolate coins. The casts, or at least the principals, were very good once again. Many of them were in Carmen as it turned out. I was impressed with the two Ulricas. Some of the chorus bits though were a bit weak, simply because some of chorus members didn’t really learn it properly, and I include off-duty principals in that. As for the direction, well I eluded to a directorial anomaly that occurred early on in the production. There were others as well though. I don’t think the moment when Ricardo mistress is revealed to be Amelia was done very well. As directed, Amelia required little persuasion to remove her veil. I might not make me popular, but if I were to direct it, I’d add a bit of touching up and have the conspirators generally be more menacing. Only Horn and Ribbing had swords. If I were in their shoes and there had not been enough swords to go round, I’d give them to some of others and make them do the dirty work. That’s just a thought though, not a criticism. I think it was a good decision though to keep the dance routine during the ball straightforward. Had it been more difficult, there would have been errors, and might have been inconsistent with the mood of the piece. Interestingly enough, this is the first complete opera I have sung in that contained no dialogue. Sadly that means that the audience have to listen hard at all times to follow what’s going on. Not that there’s that many details to follow. Video recordings were made of this production. I have watched the Cast Y video. Looking at my first bit of action, it is obvious that I moving my arms a bit too much; I did a gesture on more or less every line. Something I shall look to put right in the future. In a more comical opera the over-gesturing might have been more appropriate, even though it’s quite a comical scene. You see, sometimes I find faults in my own performances. It looks as though the film editor did a bit of over-dubbing during part of Ricardo’s dying song, his lips don’t match with what he is saying for a minute or two. Perhaps the microphone failed so and he used the sound recording from the other performance. It might not have been a bad idea to record over the stabbing bit as well, as it was a complete mess that night. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the video camera being there on both cast Y performances. Then again, it was there at the dress rehearsal. I’m just waffling here, am I not? For the gallows scene there was a bare tree and a scary full moon effect. I don’t think there are many deciduous trees in Sweden. I might be wrong. The most impressive production feature I think was the cauldron with false flames emerging. Alas this production was not a box office success. The fact that the European football championships were taking place during this might have some effect, but probably not a great deal. However the company intends to put on Don Giovanni in June 2005. It is likely that I will participate. * I’ll admit that I didn’t come with that terrible pun. In February 2005 did some more workshop performances. I participated in these, but I didn’t just sing this time, I also directed. I played Nick Shadow in a scene from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. The scene I directed was from Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. Without a doubt it is the scene in which I did not appear that will live longer in my memory. To see some photographs from the dress rehearsal of these scenes, click here. If you are unaware of the story of Madam Butterfly, it is set in 1900. Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton of the US Navy has bought a house near the town on Nagasaki on the West coast of the Kyushu island (large southern island). He has bought a 999-year lease with the right to cancel every month! If only Japanese contracts were still as flexible as that! (thinking about work). He has also chosen a wife (from a catalogue?) named ‘Cho Cho’ (a.k.a. Madam Butterfly). The contract for the marriage seems to carry the same terms and he is looking forward to the day he returns home and marries an American woman…. Sharpless, a consul, is concerned that he might ‘damage the Butterfly’s little wings’. The wedding takes place at his house on the day he moves in. The contract is signed, but things go wrong when Butterfly’s uncle, the bonze, arrives, who has discovered that Butterfly has changed her religion. The result is that all of her friends and relations walk away, and never talk to her again, as far as we can tell. Pinkerton manages to cheer her up by convincing her that her that he loves her but he has to leave and promises to return before ‘the robin next builds its next’. However three years go by and Pinkerton has not returned. Butterfly has bore a son in the meantime. She turns down a proposal from a wealthy prince, certain that Pinkerton will someday return. Sharpless is certain that he will not and tries to break this to her as best he can. She doesn’t listen. However Pinkerton does finally return. Unfortunately, he returns with his new wife, Kate. Alas Butterfly kills herself with a dagger, one which her father has used to kill himself before…. Very sad indeed. The scene I directed was taken from the first Act including the marriage of Pinkerton to Madam Butterfly and the duet between them that follows. The scene ended at the end of the first act. It had been planned to end the scene well before that. The decision to extend was made in my absence, and nobody told me until much later. However it was not such a big problem as the extra section involved only the two main characters and we got by going over the movements in my own home. The performance actually started near the end of duet where Pinkerton and Sharpless are drinking some whisky together and drink to his return home, and to when he marries his American woman. Following the whisky toast Goro, the marriage broker, gives them notice of the imminent arrival of Butterfly plus her friends (‘a lively swarm of bees’ it said in the translation’). The next three minutes include some beautiful offstage singing while they approach. They all bow to Pinkerton and Sharpless. Butterfly introduces herself and rather keenly talks about her once wealthy family who fell on hard times and consequently she worked as a geisha. When Sharpless asks about her father she simply replies that he is dead. She invites Sharpless to guess her age. He is surprised when he discovers that she is just fifteen years old, even though his first guess is 10. That guess might just be etiquette, taken to an extreme. Pinkerton isn’t too bothered though. Goro hails the arrival of the relations plus the imperial commissioner and the registrar. Pinkerton is not particularly keen to meet these relations (‘Hired out be monthly trading’). The relations all then talk to each other; some think that Pinkerton is adorable, others think quite the opposite. One of Butterfly’s cousins even states that he was to her first! Butterfly’s uncle, Yakuside, is only concerned about the lack of wine. After all the chit-chat has subsided Butterfly leads a communal bow. Her and Pinkerton then start to get a little more acquainted and she draws a series of items from her sleeves. One of these items is the dagger with which her father performed his own execution (the hara-kiri). Then follows an aria in which she then tells Pinkerton her secret, which is that the previous day she went to the Mission to renounce her ‘family’s religion’ and embrace Pinkerton’s (whatever that may be). She thinks that her uncle, the bonze doesn’t know. The commissioner gives a little speech before the marriage contracts are signed. Sharpless then leaves with the commissioner and registrar, but gives him one last reminder before he goes. Pinkerton, hoping to send the relations away quickly, proposes a toast. But then a voice shouting ‘Chocho san’ is heard in the distance, accompanied but some chilling chromatic music. It is that of the bonze. Pinkerton proposes a toast with the intention of sending the relatives away quickly. The toast is interrupted by the bonze. The bonze should not be confused with the character from Happy Days. Like the Fonz, the bonze likes to make big entrances. He lacks the Fonz’s style though He knows what Butterfly has done and wants to share the news with the rest of the family. He issues some mystic curse ‘Kami Sarundasico’. Butterfly is understandably upset and Pinkerton tries to comfort her. It doesn‘t take too long ‘No matter what they do, not all the bonzes of Japan deserve one small tear from your sweet eyes, beloved!’. As evening draws in Suzuki is heard making her evening prayers before bringing Butterfly her nightdress. The duet the sees out the rest of the act starts with Butterfly removing her marriage garments and putting on the nightdress. During that she repeats the words ‘renounced yet happy’ (or ‘rinnegata e feilce’). A bit later, as the stars become visible, the tune that accompanied Butterfly’s entrance is repeated, giving the scene a sense of warmth. Just maybe, Pinkerton might not go home and find an American wife? Of course he does. Although I put myself forward to direct something, I didn’t actually choose this scene; it was rather chosen for me. It is interesting though I should be directing something from an opera set in Japan at this time in my life as in recent years I have ‘absorbed’ a bit of Japanese. If you’ve been reading the holiday pages you will have noticed that I visited Japan in September 2004. The company I have been working for over the last 4 years does a lot of business in Japan. I have also made friends with a few Japanese people; one of them became my girlfriend. That is no longer the case and just seem to want to talk to me anymore, but the reasons for this are not ‘Pinkerton-type’, I promise. As for the Japanese language lessons I took in evening classes just before I went to University back in 1995; they still haven’t been followed up! The performances had originally been scheduled for early December 2004 but were subsequently postponed. I was very grateful for this, not just because of the extra rehearsal time but I was rather unwell for most of that Autumn. Unfortunately, come February it wasn’t much better. However I found that in my production rehearsals I didn’t actually notice the illness much. Ultimately I did enjoy the weekend of the performances. Even with the postponement there were only 2½ production rehearsals, one rehearsal being 2½ hours of a Thursday evening. In those there were some necessary reparatory musical run-throughs, mainly because there were a lot of absentees during the main musical rehearsals….. I spent a fair bit of time writing down directions on the libretto and drawing them onto a plan of the stage. Of course actually conveying this information to the cast members in a relatively short period of time can be difficult, none of them were professional actors. Some directors when going over a scene for the first time read out everyone’s directions and expect people right down all of their movements onto their score or libretto. I decided not to do this because, going by own experience, I think it’s better if people do not carry bits of paper on stage with them if they don’t really need to and just try and remember what they can. It’s OK to get a few things wrong during rehearsals. My set design was fairly simple. At the back of the stage I had a long table (or several shorter tables end to end) with a pair of candles and pair of Japanese vases with some flowers. I had been informed that flowers do not normally feature in Japanese weddings, but I decided that they could be decorations that Pinkerton wanted to have outside his house anyway. The venue used was not a proper theatre, but a students union disco. The stage was reasonably wide, but not very deep. There was no exit stage left, so on that side I used a screen (vaguely Japanese in style) behind which people can hide when they men to be inside the house. I should really have explained this to the audiences before the start. I kind of planned on preparing a little speech, but I didn’t get round to it. I was rather too nervous to make something up there and then! I was a little thrown off-line anyway as the performances were advertised as ‘open rehearsals’ and there was idea to include audience participation. Even at the last moment I wasn’t certain whether that was going to happen. To be honest, I’d have been surprised if anyone from the audience did decide to join in. The music score we used included a lot of stage directions but I didn’t pay much attention to them though. In any case it seemed wise to try and think of ideas myself. Most of the directions in the score were nonsense anyway. I had the friends and relatives bring presents, wrapped in gold paper. I’ve heard that the sometimes the Japanese add a bit of padding to their presents to make themselves look more generous. It is customary to make monetary donations at Japanese weddings (for the paperwork), but I considered that an unnecessary complication to add. The one section which I knew was going to be difficult to get right was the ‘Right over there sequence’ as I called it, which is the chorus bit that follows the entrance of the relations. Madam Butterfly is not a humorous opera, but this is one part that can be a little humorous, mainly because of Yakuside. Pinkerton refers to him as a ‘toper’ in the translation, which rhymes with the word groper. Not a word you hear frequently these days. I decided that Butterfly’s aunt should be her mother’s sister and the Yakuside is the aunt’s husband. As a little joke I decided that Yakuside should grope the wrong sister and subsequently be told off by his wife. His excuse can be that they look alike J. This was one moment though when timing was important. It almost came off in some of the rehearsals but didn’t really come off in either performance (this was one direction I didn’t think he’d forget to do!). One joke that came off a little better involved the whisky decanter. I decided that when the servant was requested to remove the little table and whisky glasses he would forget to remove the decanter which Sharpless leaves on the long table after refilling his own glass. When Yakuside delivers the line ’Is there no wine?’ some of the chorus have a little look around. The line ‘They’re serving some that looks like tea’ follows and then the meaningless expression ‘Ah! hu!’ is repeated three times. These remarks are meant to be in reaction to the idea that this marriage might not last long. I decided that the second Ah! hu!, which was meant to sung only by the chorus tenors, of which there were none, should be sung by the particular friend who discovers that the liquid is neither wine nor tea. While that is going on I had Goro discussing important matters to the commissioner and telling everyone to be quiet a couple of times before deciding to go into the house to discuss things. In the first instance I had the registrar joining them. The registrar has only one line in the piece and I was quite keen to cut the part as I felt that it might be awkward fitting in three officials rather than just two. However the person cast as the registrar decided to stop turning up to rehearsals, without saying anything…… On this occasion it was not such a big deal. There was some impressive over-acting from Goro when examining the paperwork, adding to the humour of the section! Following that rather busy section comes a slower section which I wanted to be fairly still, at least to begin with and becoming a bit more interactive later. It begins with Butterfly leading a communal bow by counting to three in a childish way (is she pretending to be a school teacher? I haven’t got this yet). I had Butterfly unload her possessions on the long table. One of the items Butterfly unloads is a jar of red paint, which she disposes as Pinkerton ‘doesn’t like it’. I actually decided that Pinkerton should observe a bit of damage while saying ‘oh dear!’ and that should be interpreted as him not liking. She misinterprets a few things. For the sake a maintaining a bit of grace (and laziness) I decided that she should have the servant dispose of it. As an excuse for getting the servant onto the stage I decided to have him to come out and count the guests for the purposes of knowing how many cups of sake to pour out. I then had Butterfly hand him the pot on his return. Butterfly also produces some little statues of her ancestors ‘The Ottoke’. I decided that some of the relations might like to look at these. To escape their attention, I had Butterfly usher Pinkerton away to a more private place, in front of the screen, to reveal her secret in quite a nice little aria. I then had the servant bring on the drinks during that, and Yakuside’s wait is finally over! I did give the servant quite a bit to do it this (not just a cameo role by any means). During the first performance didn’t quite go to plan, indeed Yakuside didn’t have to wait very long at all for his drink to arrive. Or drinks even (I had him come back for an illegitimate second glass). Of course the arrival time of the sake was not crucial to the story, and the audience didn’t know any better, but it did mean that the section that I wanted to be fairly still just wasn’t (there were exchanges of glasses taking place). After the Commissioner’s big moment he and Sharpless make their exits with some rather holey music. I wrote down a complicated a sequence of bows, handshakes, waving between them and Pinkerton and Goro to fill the gaps in the music. It never quite came off though and there wasn’t really time to get it right. To be honest, I really got it sorted out in my own head! When I wrote things down in the first instance there was another person involved I broke one of the golden rules of staging by having Butterfly drop her cup when realising that the bonze knows about her trip to the mission. During the second performance the drop was a little overdone and later Suzuki had more work to do in cleaning it up a little later. Butterfly certainly went to some trouble in doing up her hair. I quite enjoyed watching her undo it at the appropriate moment. There is a section from the final duet where Butterfly calls herself the moon goddess (the ‘dea della Luna’ bit). I had her pick up one of the candles and do a little dance with it. It was perhaps a bit more Carmenish than Madam Butterfly. I thought maybe it might illuminate her white nightdress. It didn’t work that well as the nightdress wasn’t much more than a veil, and it wasn’t very reflective. There was a section where I had Butterfly sing to Pinkerton whilst looking at him in the hand mirror. I had trouble thinking of what to do during this bit, but I thought that this something playful that a girl of 15 might do. I might have looked more convincing had the stage been deeper. There is a dramatic moment when Butterfly says something like ‘There across the ocean, when butterflies are court, it is the custom to impale them and to cardboard nail them’. This bit is made dramatic by the return of the bonze’s leitmoftif. To add more drama to it I had Butterfly pretend to stab one of the Ottokes with the dagger. Towards the end Butterfly starts talking about the bright stars. I had her looking up and pointing in various directions. I doubt that most of audience got this. Following the final big note a put in the customary big kiss. I would like to have had Pinkerton carry Butterfly off to bed to take things further, but that was not really feasible! Instead I had them go off hand in hand with Pinkerton blowing out the two candles on the way. I could maybe have had Pinkerton wiggle his eyebrows to the audience, Roger Moore style, just before disappearing. But I didn’t think it quite appropriate. One amusing thing happened during the first performance. There is a moment where Suzuki is heard making her prayers, followed by Pinkerton saying ‘Who’s murmuring in there?’ Suzuki forgot to sing that bit and so there was no murmuring. At least I couldn’t hear any murmuring, but my parents who were sitting closer to that part of the stage could hear some. It turned out that Suzuki and the servant were having a little argument (presumably about what they were supposed to be doing). My parents came to watch the first performance. They commented on how this section included a lot of interaction, which is exactly what I wanted to here even though I knew was not all there. That in itself made the project for me a success. The second performance was definitely better than the first. I was certainly happy with my first effort at directing, given the awkward circumstances at least. I think that this is inline with the general opinion among the cast. I was pleased that many of the cast were able to find some costumes, adding colour to the scene. I was particularly pleased with Butterfly who came in late put in a lot of effort to do it well, both in the singing and in the presentaion. Let this not be my last directorial effort.
	Don Giovanni June 2005 CLICK HERE to meet the cast
The story about the compulsive womaniser, Don Juan. Except that it’s Don Giovanni. Oh yes, Giovanni is the Italian version of the same name. Had the libretto been written in Russian, he’d have been Don Ivan, sounds a bit sinister. Had it been written in German, he’d have been Don Johan; that sounds quite romantic. Don John, on the other hand, sounds like something he used a lot of, hopefully.* I played Leporello in this production. He’s Don Giovanni’s manservant and the character that provides much of the comedy to this story. It often involves having to tidy up his master’s mess. It is also the biggest role I’ve had thus far and also the first character to enter the stage and sing. As things turned out, I was not the first person to enter the stage. Following the overture Leporello introduces himself in a short opening song, he is on the lookout while Giovanni is partaking is his favourite hobby. However it turns out the recipient of his passes is Dona Anna, the fiancée of Don Ottavio, his best friend. Giovanni is disguised. Anna’s father, The Commendatore, steps in, possibly inebriated and challenges Giovanni to a duel. Giovanni doesn’t want a fight particularly, but they have a duel and he stabs the Commendatore. That is followed by a trio that sounds a bit like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It ends with The Commendatory final breath. It’s one of the better bits in the piece. I remember being quite surprised when I first saw this opera; I was expecting it to be mostly comical, and then this happened. Anna and Ottavio then discover the old man’s body. They then sing a duet which is in no sense comical. They aim to catch this masked villain. A little later there is a humorous piece of recitative in which Leporello tells his master that he thinks that his lifestyle is ‘that of a scoundrel’. Anyway the sun rises and it’s time for a new ‘adventure’. In this opera the word ’adventure’ means ‘conquest’. In modern speak, a conquest is a ‘pull’. Leporello asks what the woman’s name is so that he can add it to the list. It just so happens though another woman appears who is trying to find the man who deserted her. Don Giovanni decides to go and console her, only to discover that the lady is his wife, Donna Elvira. He insists that he had his ‘private reasons’ for deserting her. He slips away telling Leporello to tell her everything. Everything is a lot. He shows her his catalogue of 2065 conquests (that’s 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey and 1003 in Spain) in a famous aria that just goes on and on and on. The translation in the Dent edition that we used was quite good, as far as these translations go. I wasn’t keen on the translation for this song though, so I rewrote most of it. I’m quite sure that what I wrote would never make into a printed vocal score though. My favourite line in the song is ‘Delle vecchie fa conquista pel pià cer di porle in lista’, or as I translated, ‘Sometimes he tries older women just to add more names to the list!’ I decided to add in a joke about blonde women being ‘easy to take in’ (the old ones are the best). Another line I put in was ‘They’re all kinds of country lasses, courtesans there in their masses’. I would like to have sung ‘There’re all kinds of country lasses with big tits and curvy asses!” However I expected that some audience members might have considered those words inappropriate. There is a repeated line ‘È la grande maestosa’, which means something like ‘Tall women he treats majestically’. I chose to sing, ‘If she’s lanky, like a beanpole, he calls her the Queen of Sheba.’ I don’t know how tall the Queen of Sheba was, but with her headgear she probably was. As the lady playing Elvira was tall, the director had an excellent idea that I should pretend to change my choice of words when singing it! She also had an idea that Elvira should look at the catalogue, find her own entry and tear out the page concerned; who knows where it could end up? Of course I wasn’t going to let her get away with it easily so I tried to get it back. I thought I’d succeeded but instead I was handed a letter that Elvira had been reading earlier in the scene. It would have taken a keen-eyed audience member to notice the swap. As I was a little younger than the person playing Don Giovanni, we played on the idea that I was his son, an unplanned result of one of his conquests. That presumably means that the catalogue must have been started by Leporello’s predecessor. The main feature of the next scene is the celebration of the imminent marriage Masetto and Zerlina with their country bumpkin friends. I thought that it was bad luck if the bride and groom see each other on the big day until they’re inside the church? Don Giovanni arrives on the scene with only one thing on his mind. Leporello too is interested in the plethora of peasant ladies on offer. Giovanni has his sights set on Zerlina and he generously offers her his ‘protection’. Indeed Giovanni is not impressed when he sees Leporello chatting up one of the ladies. My reply to him was ‘Like you, my dear old master, I am offering this lady my protection’. The word ‘old’ I sneakily added in, so as to play on this idea on him being a generation older than me. Perhaps the era of him being chief womaniser will soon be over? Anyway Giovanni decides to lay on a proper celebration for these peasants. Of course, Leporello is expected to do all the hard work. Giovanni meanwhile wishes to have a private rendezvous with Zerlina. Surely she is safe in the hands of a nobleman? Masetto is not so sure; but what can he do about it? This he asks in his short aria that results. So, Don Giovanni has the opportunity to work his magic. There is an excellent line when Zerlina says some thing like ‘I have heard that noblemen are often not to be trusted when speaking words of affection to us country maidens.’ ‘All nonsense’ is the reply. He is one the point of succeeding when Elvira appears and spoils his ‘bit of amusement’. A little later Anna and Ottavio pay Giovanni a visit. Something that Giovanni says makes Anna believe that he is the masked villain. I haven’t managed to work out what these key words are. Anna recounts the events of that evening. In our production the events were acted out in one of the windows. I’m not convinced that this was right, at least not the re-enacted sword fight which we had seen anyway. While that was going on Elvira took Zerlina to Giovanni house where the wedding reception was taking place. Elvira decides to have a little rant before being led away by Leporello. Leporello tells his master all about this but he seems unmoved. In fact Giovanni seems to think this is going to improve his chances adding a few names to the list. He says so in one of the more famous pieces in the opera ‘Ficham’ dal vino’. Masetto finds his fiancée lurking outside Giovanni’s home. He is suspicious about what may have gone on in his absence. In our translation, Zerlina says “He never touched the tips of my fingers”. It wasn’t stated in the script, but there was more significant contact than that! She invites him to beat her if he doesn’t believe her. There some big chaps playing Masetto! The finale begins with Masetto hiding in an alcove to see what happens when Giovanni appears. Of course he tries to woo her again and then lead her into that same alcove…. Giovanni avoids a tricky situation by trying to make Masetto think that it’s his fault. Then three more potential guests appear, wearing masks. Two of them are woman, and that’s a good enough ratio for DG, so they are invited too. They are Anna, Elvira and Ottavio. They don’t come until they have sung a beautiful little unaccompanied trio. The scene switches to the dance inside the house. This was probably the most fun scene in the play to do. Giovanni asks Leporello to entertain Masetto while he makes another attempt to seduce Zerlina. Lerporello invites Masetto to join the dance, and to dance with him since there are no available ladies. He is not keen on that idea! Masetto has to force his way out of Leporello’s arms (not too difficult) only to find that Zerlina has disappear. Suddenly there is a cry for help. Leporello goes to have a look, only to be dragged back by Giovanni. In vain, Giovanni tries to convince everyone that his servant is the villain and threatens to kill him. But the late masked guests know what’s going on and reveal themselves. The act ends with people saying things like ‘Tremble, tremble vile deceiver’ But Giovanni seems unmoved by the whole thing. The music during the dance is very unusual, as there is section are three tunes each with a different time signature. The section ends when Zerlina’s cry for help is heard. As the music continues it seems to get more chaotic in accordance with the scene, which also is becoming more and more chaotic. Act 2 begins with a very fast duet in which Leporello decides that he’s going to walk out on his master. Don Giovanni manages to buy him back by offering 4 gold coins. One receives the impression that this has happened before. On our production, Leporello has a suitcase and Giovanni finds these gold coins in the case, such is the extent of his greed. Unfortunately I only had one pocket in the costume, which was on my waistcoat. A minute or so later I had to give my waistcoat to Don Giovanni in exchange for his tailcoat, and so Giovanni ended up making a profit. The swap is made as Giovanni wants to look like a peasant in his next quest, Donna Elvira’s maid. Thus begins the hot part of the show. This show coincided with something of a heat wave. I felt a lot warmer in Giovanni’s outfit. Giovanni might refer to it as the cool section. Anyway Giovanni reveals that it would be unfair of him to commit himself to one woman because that means that others wouldn’t be able to a piece, ‘they confuse infinity with infidelity.’ Of course they do…. Good line though. On arriving at Elvira’s house though, it is Elvira they see first. Next comes the Cyrano de Bergerac trio. Giovanni sings a serenade and Leporello, dressed as his master, does the movement. The opposite cast did this bit rather well, with intentional mistakes in the miming and things. Although Leporello does find it quite amusing, he does also show some sympathy towards Donna Elvira. Giovanni pretends that he wishes to reconcile with her in his serenade. She has trouble believing him but ultimately she comes down and Leporello is left to entertain her while he works on the maid….. Giovanni is not too pleased when they start to get a little intimate so he scares them away. Thus ends another fun scene! Giovanni takes out his mandolin and sings another serenade, which is very similar to the previous one. We put in a little joke where the maid was behind a curtain and couldn’t be seen properly. When she appears later she turns out not to the young pretty maiden that he had had in mind. Either way he wouldn’t had much time as the Masetto appears with some of his farmhands, armed with various gardening implements, out to kill Don Giovanni. Not only are they going to kill him, they are going to ‘chop him into bits’. Sounds a bit harsh. Giovanni, pretending he’s Leporello, disperses the farmhands before knocking out Masetto and running away. Zerlina finds Masetto reeling in pain. He says that he’s been knocked out by ‘Leporello, or some devil who looks just like him’. Zerlina asks him where it hurts and kisses it better, somewhat reminiscent of a scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Karen Allen kisses Harrison Ford in various places. This time though, Zerlina sings an aria before there is any genuine kissing. Next comes the sextet. I wouldn’t have minded leaving some of it out. Due to the lack of light Leporello and Elvira have lost their way and find their way into The Ottavio grounds. Leporello wants to hide when he sees torches approaching, not wanting to discovered. The torches are being carried by Donna Anna’s servants, who are accompanying her and Ottavio to the sacred place where her father fell. Why they are doing this in the middle of the night I don’t know. Leporello manages to evade their attention, but not that of Masetto and Zerlina. They all think that he’s Don Giovanni, not that it matters since they are now both considered rogues. Thus begins my least favourite section of the show. I was kneeling for a long time whilst being held by Masetto and Zerlina. I had pins and needles in my legs and Masetto certainly had a strong grip. If I tried to adjust myself, he’d just take it as pretend struggling and grip a bit tighter. Sometimes this bit just seemed to go on forever. On release Leporello sings a short aria, though not an easy one, saying all that’s happened on his side. Putting it all together, Ottavio is now convinced that Giovanni is the murderer. The next scene is either Ottavio singing an aria about how justice will be achieved (yawn! yawn!), or a crazy scene in which Zerlina finds Leporello and ties him up again, but then he escapes again when she’s not looking. We did the former, well I suppose the tenor needs a chance to shine. A few months after the opera’s opening in Prague in 1787, some new songs were written to suit a new cast in Vienna. The tenor playing Ottavio found the aria too difficult and so the alternative section was written. Mozart then wrote a new aria for him in the first act to make amends. That wouldn’t happen these days with the standard among professional singers; if you can’t sing the song well enough, you don’t get the role. The next aria is one of the highlights, although it’s rather long. Elvira is understandably upset about her husband latest deception. The hot section comes to an end in the next scene master and servant and reunited when they both stumble into a graveyard. There is one quite amusing exchange. <>DG There he is. Oh, Leporello! L. Who’s calling me? D.G. Don’t you know your master? L. I wish I didn’t know him! D.G. What’s that,? rascal! L. Ah, is that you? Excuse me. You can imagine Inspector Clouseau saying Leporello’s lines there. Giovanni is not at all sorry for putting Leporello in such a sticky situation, and has been causing more chaos by making out with one of Leporello’s conquests, most likely his wife. You’d expect that Leporello’s wife would have quarters in Giovanni household(?) All of a sudden a mysterious voice is heard. It belongs to the statue of the Commendatore that stands over his grave. Only a day has passed since his passing, so it was presumably sculpted when he was alive. A duet follows a difficult recitative section in which Don Giovanni tells Leporello to invite the Commedatore to dinner. The statue nods (‘shock!’). Giovanni disbelieves all this but then asks the Commendatore himself. ‘Yes’ is the simple answer. Leporello almost drags him away as the scene concludes. That scene ending came as a relief to members if the chorus who had been posing as other statues for 15 minutes and had been unable to scratch that little itch! I had to stand still for much longer periods in Sweeney Todd though. I had to do a lot of mock hiding behinds one of the statues. As the statue was a little shorter than me, my face was not hidden. Anna and Ottavio sing a duet in the next scene before we come to the nitty-gritty, Don Giovanni’s last supper. There are many ways of doing the scene. Giovanni is invited to be a bit of a bully in this scene to Leporello while he eats his food, drinks his wine and caresses his ladies. In our production, he didn’t really do much eating. I had a line ‘Oh, it makes my mouth to water when I see the way he’s eating!’ I sang it using my frustrated singing voice. I hope it came off, but I felt odd saying it since he wasn’t eating. Still, if you consider women to be his food, then he was indeed eating. My Don Giovanni (David Rose) was certainly good at mock-groping. A band is playing during this scene. One of the tunes it plays is ‘Non più andrai’ from the Marriage of Figaro. Giovanni, on seeing Leporello pinch some of his dinner, invites him to sing along. Here was the bit where I could get away with singing badly. Just as Leporello is sent to deliver Giovanni’s compliments to the chef, Elvira bursts in announcing that she never wishes to see Giovanni again. Giovanni is unmoved. Leporello though admits that she has sympathy. After she leaves she screams. Leporello goes to see what the cause is. It’s the commendatore’s statue! He hasn’t come for his supper though, he’s come to try and make Giovanni repent for his sins. As expected, Giovanni does not repent. So he must face the ultimate penalty. There is an excellent line in the translation when the commendatore says ‘Will you come dine with me?’ and then Leporello intervenes with ‘No, no, no, no! Say you’ve another engagement.’ I do hope that the audience heard it properly. During this sequence I was cowering in a corner near the front of the stage, trying to do a believable shiver, while Giovanni was just sitting on the couch having a few sips of wine showing no emotion whatever. When Giovanni takes the statue by the hand to led away he finally shows some fear. After he has been led away the other characters all enter and ask Leporello what has happened. He explains and then all is right. The opera ends with a moral with all the singers singing ‘Sinner pause and ponder well, are you going to heaven or hell?’ The first time I watched this opera, not knowing the story, I was rather surprised by the ending. Don Giovanni is taken away to hell and everyone talks about him as though he were a common criminal. But is adultery a crime? A few politicians over the years have resigned after revelations of extra-marital affairs, but none have gone to jail because of it. If you took Peter Stringfellow to court for having had multiple partners he’d probably just say that you’re jealous. Bigamy is a crime but we don’t know if he’s done that. I suppose that at the time this story was written extra-marital affairs were taken less lightly. I suppose Stringfellow might end up going to hell, we just don’t know. Don Giovanni is also considered to be a murderer, but really it was self-defence, wasn’t it? For a sort-of comic opera, there is a lot of mention of death. I suppose that he may have tried to rape Zerlina during the dance scene; that would have been a crime. In my opinion, and in that of everyone else involved in the show as far as I know, the show was very well directed. Right through the rehearsal period and the performances there was a positive vibe among the cast and it was great to be a part of it. There was also a very efficient and friendly crew involved this time. However not everyone who saw the show seemed to think it was so well directed. Most of the criticisms were aimed at the mute members of the cast, the demons and sprites. These were a set of young ladies dressed in orangey-pink, who took up various poses throughout the show. If you’ve looked at the photos page, you’ll notice that their dresses are rather dainty, not really devil-like. Some of them did a bit of dancing throughout the overture. At the show’s climax a group of them carried Don Giovanni away; hell might not be such a bad place after all? The sprites were the two littlest demons. Although they were sweet, they didn’t always do as they were told. On the first evening they did a lot of running around the stage during the finale of the first act, eating a few grapes here and there. The bigger demons though did a bit of writhing about in a fairly erotic manner, in pairs facing each other. That’s the best way as I can describe it. Clearly some viewers took objection to it and it was the last thing to happen before the interval. Rumours say that some left at the interval, but I expect that most of those people just moved to different seats. It perhaps wasn’t the right thing to do at the right time, but as I am a young heterosexual male I didn’t mind that much (J). Demons aside, there were other problems as well. The opera is very long and it started at 7.30pm. It didn’t finish until about 10:50pm. There had been intentions to cut sections when rehearsals started. Ultimately though there were no cuts except for some of the either/or songs. The late finishing time meant that there was no opportunity of visiting the bar after each performance. More importantly, there wasn’t really enough rehearsal time to get every section good with both casts. One thing I was pleased about though was that the recitative sections were kept as recitative instead of being converted into dialogue. I consider the recitatives as being essential parts of Mozart operas. There were other problems though. Things were not helped by the fact that the first rehearsal in the theatre was the technical rehearsal. The two dress rehearsals were on the following two days, then came the main event. No matter how prepared you think you are, there are problems that only reveal themselves when you start rehearsing in the actual theatre. The most significant one was probably the plan to introduce some of the musicians onto the stage during the dance at the end of the first act. The plan had to be abandoned as the musicians would have had to go all the way round the back of the stage via a corridors to get onto the top level and there wasn’t time. Alas, the hours that one chap spent carving some fancy music stands were wasted. The quality of the singing was extremely good, once again. There were several good new people, or new to me at least, and some strong acting performances. The Masetto in my cast certain enunciated very well. A certain pompous chap from NODA, whose name I’ve forgotten, wrote a review and seemed rather reluctant to give out many compliments. He had a few things to say about my lack of projection at certain points. I do know what he means; I expect he was referring to second half of the catalogue aria and some of the deeper notes late on. He did a least start his paragraph about me the words ‘Although he acted well…..’ a semi-confident. Others came off worse, he decided to be a bit picky about some of Don Ottavio’s top E’s, for example. When there is so much quality in a cast it’s easy to forget that most of it’s members are giving up their time and money to do these performances, and there are going to be imperfections. It’s interesting how people in the audience tend to focus their attention on aspects of a show. Those who are interested in singing are keen to comment on the singers’ ability and seem to forget about other aspects. This chap was clearly one of those. Others tend to only notice what’s right, or wrong, with the acting or the staging, or the accuracy of the props perhaps. What really annoys me though is when I’m watching a show with a ‘techie’ and afterwards he or she says something like ‘Did you notice how that follow spot was centred a foot the left of where it should have right through that song about (blah, blah, blah)?’ My response to questions like that is invariably, ‘No, I didn’t notice.’ Even if I were to notice something like that, I’d forget about it quite quickly. There were no major stage disasters in this production. Certainly there were some wrong lines, or the right lines sung at the wrong time, particularly in the recits. But there were no long, awkward pauses. There was an occasion when the lights over the recently deceased Commendatore should have been turned off but weren’t. He was thus very visible as he stood up and walked off. My most awkward moment came during the finale in the first performance. I took a big bite of cold chicken and then found it difficult to swallow. I took a goblet a wine from one of the servant’s trays, but it was empty, as were all the goblets in the vicinity. Fortunately I had a handkerchief in my pocket and spat it out into the hanky at a convenient moment. I don’t think anyone noticed. The audience figures were a little better than they were for the Masked Ball. The good weather may have kept a few punters away. Although it was very hot, it was quite a pleasant hall to perform in. The orchestra were situated to one side of the stage, which meant there was a lot of looking across. I think Leporello is a suitable character for me, he’s the sort of person who just does what he’s told… I tend also not sin much these days (no really, I haven’t had a one-nighter since 2001). It is easily the largest part I’ve played to date. It’s a little disappointing that I could only do two performances, considering how much work was involved in learning it. But it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. * In case you haven’t got it yet, Don John sounds a bit like condom. My next stage assignment was a set of operatic scenes with Harrow Opera in December 2005. If you want to see some pictures from the dress rehearsal, click here. The program started with the card trio from Carmen, next came the final scene from Fidelio. The third scene was the final scene from Walton’s ‘Troilus and Cressida’, followed by a short section from Act 2 of Puccini’s ‘Manon Lescaut’ and concluding with the fugue that ends Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’. It was a nice mixture of styles, though all of the scenes were quite short. I was fortunate enough to have another shot at directing, and it was the Fidelio scene. The scene is set in a parade ground in Seville. In the previous scene Leonora, a lady in disguise as a male prison worker, has tried to rescue her husband, Don Florestan. Florestan was close to starving to death deep underground and was soon to be executed by Don Pizarro, the governor of the state prison. At the scene’s climax Leonora reveals her true identity and draws a pistol. But everything is dissolved when news of the arrival of the minister and Pizarro’s superior, Don Fernando, arrives. The final scene starts with fanfare-type music and then chorus section with lots of ‘heils’ (‘Heil sei dem Tag, heil sei der Stunde’ or ‘Hail the day, hail the hour’) . The chorus in split into two groups, the prisoners and villagers, and I had them gather in the square and greet Fernando. The prisoner chorus is just meant of men. However as nearly all the men in the scene had a role, I decided instead to have an all female chorus of prisoners. They acted suitable boyish though! I didn’t have the other prisoners wear fetters, mainly so that they could use props (they weren’t murderers, they’d just evaded a few taxes). Fernando sings a mini-aria about ‘helping one’s brother’. Rocco then appears asking that he helps out Leonora and Florestan. Fernando and the crowd are astonished to learn of their identities. The story is told and Pizarro is led away by the guards. Fernando orders that Florestan be released. The honour of turning the key to unlock his manacles is handed to Leonora. The music then changes to a slower tune as Leonora says ‘O Gott! Welch ein Augenblick!’ or ‘Oh God! What a moment!’. The others all join in later. I made this section quite static before moving into a faster and jollier tune. It closes with the repeated lines ‘Nie wird es zu hoch besungen, Retterin des Gatten sien!’ (‘Never can we too much hymn the saviour of her husband’s life’). All are happy in the end, except Marzelline, who have just realised that her fiancé is a lady! This was much shorter than the Madam Butterfly scene that I directed and there was no need for any set this time, so a lot less work was involved. It was held at the same venue, the disco hall at the Westminster University. So there were some of the same difficulties, such as getting everyone into positions where they can be seen. It’s cheap though so I shouldn’t complain… Much fun was had in the Fidelio scene. One source of the fun was the sherry bottle. I decided that one of the prisoners should go into Pizarro’s office and steal his bottle of vintage sherry, he wasn’t going to need it. And so the bottle was passed around among the prisoners, the first glass going to Florestan. Some of the other principals had a bit later. Another enjoyable bit was the capturing and imprisonment of Pizarro. I say this partly because Pizarro was taken off by a guard half his size. I had Pizarro come on at the end for his bow wearing the manacles that Florestan had been wearing previously. I ended the scene rather unconventionally. One of the villagers was carrying a basket of groceries. Rather than having the main couple having a big kiss during the final playout, they had a brief hug before the villager passed him an apple from her shopping basket, which he started eating with relish! One disappointment with this scene was that the option was that chorus members were given the option of using the music score during one of the performances. A few more people took the option than I would have liked… Despite that there was a lot of enthusiasm among the cast. There were some highly commendable performances, from Fernando in particular (if I may say so). The Troilus and Cressida scene was done in a bit of a West Side Story fashion with two gangs, one wearing suits, the other wearing black leather jackets rather than togas and things. The music during the piece resembles the prologue from West Side Story somewhat (with lots of augmented fourths). Perhaps that’s how the idea came about (?). My ‘big moment’ in this was having the honour of stabbing the leading man (Troilus) in the back. That resulted in me being sent away in fetters, and thus left the manacles made a third appearance. I won’t attempt to explain the story, but the opera ends with Cressida singing a long song whilst looking over the dead body of Troilus, her former partner, and then stabs herself. That was the end of the gloom though. In the short section of Manon Lescaut I played Manon’s brother (simply known as Lescaut). A group of singers have come along to entertain Manon. Lescaut is sufficiently tight not to give them a tip. The show ended with Falstaff conclusion, which is a bit of a party. That was backed up by some whistles and bells (cracker toys) during the final playout. My next performance was in April 2006. It was a series of scenes entitled 'Esperanzas' or ‘A Romantic View of Spain’. To see some photos, click here. My next performance was in April 2006. It was a series of scenes entitled ‘Esperanzas’. To see some photos, click here. This included scenes from operas by Spanish composers and also scenes from operas that happened to be set in Spain. Plenty of famous operas are set in Spain as I’ve previously described. The clever thing was that the scenes were all linked together such that they formed a continuous story. It was explained at one of the rehearsals, I can’t remember much of it! It is not something that an audience member would be able to work out. Everything was sung in its original language. The language was Spanish in many instances and I, like many of the cast, had never sung anything in Spanish, so it was an interesting learning experience. The ‘overall story’ revolved around the adventures of Don Quixote. Consequently there were 4 scenes taken from operas about Don Quixote, though two them were from the same opera. In order that all the Don Quixotes could be played by the same person, there were some significant transpositions in the music. As Don Quixote was easy to spot, with his corroded brass armour, I wouldn’t thought it necessary to have the same chap playing him throughout. Sadly I didn’t get to put on any armour, tilt at windmills or point a sword upwards at 45° degree angle and shout ‘onward’. However I did put on 5 costumes, nearly all of which came from my own wardrobe, and do some other fun things. After playing a shy student in a scene from El Barberillo de Lavapiès I became the Marchese di Calatrava in Verdi’s ‘Forza del Destino.’ He makes a brief appearance at the end of the opening scene of the opera. He tries to prevent his daughter, Leonora, from eloping with the young rascal Alvaro. But Alvaro has a concealed pistol which goes off by accident and kills the Marchese. I had to one of those ‘sing while toppling over things’, which can be awkward. An ingenious piece of stage effects was used. When I was shot I pulled out some red ribbons that were concealed inside my shirt. My next appearance came in a scene from Boismortier’s ‘Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse’. I played Merlin, a wizard, who advises Don Quixote that he can find his Dulcinea at the cave of Montesinos where lovers are held in a deep sleep. In reality the wizard is the Duke in disguise and the whole adventure is a fabrication. Next I was a barmen (nicknamed ‘Lillas Pastia’) in a scene from Granados’ ‘Goyescas’. The scene was called ‘El Baile de Candil’ (Candlelit Fandango), probably the best scene in the piece. In this scene one chap (Paquiro) has tried to woo Rosario, who’s Fernando’s lady. Paquiro has invited her to join him for a drink. Fernando finds out though and decides to accompany her. As the tavern scene continues it looks more as though a fight is going to start, but it doesn’t quite happen. It’s kind of a flamencoey scene and few little dances were included. My main activity was attempting to keep out the riff-raff, namely Fernando. I just had a couple of lines. I participated in some of the dances as well, which I enjoyed. My next bit was the opening scene from Manuel de Falla’s ‘La Vida Breve’ (‘the short life’). This featured my finest performance, or at least compliments from family and friends seemed to suggest so. The scene is set in a village square and I played a beggar who tries his luck with the various shopkeepers and charity workers, pretending that he is blind and has an injured leg. This character is not in the script, he was added in. My final performance came right at the end, when I played Montesinos in a later scene from Boismortier’s Don Quixote. This time I wore a black cloak (a graduation robe) and various items of bling. He sings quite a jolly song as he awakens the lovers from their sleep and reunite. Some of the lovers have solo lines and it was arranged so that some of couples from the other scenes all join up. The final pair to join in are Don Quixote and Dulcinea. Both the scene and this program ended with a church anthem type chorus. It’s certainly not the end of that opera, but it was an apprpriate way to end the piece. There were a few errors here and there. I came very close to making a horrific mistake; one that many actors have made. In between my beggar and Montesinos acts there were two lengthy scenes but in the second performance I managed to under-estimate their duration… It was case of ‘Oh, is that my cue already?’… Not all of my bling was in place, but apart from that I got away with it. During my beggar act I was pushed over by one of the shopkeepers. In one of the dress rehearsals she touched me gently on the shoulder, which I didn’t think was meant to be the push. I realised after a few seconds and so there was a delayed fall. And so next time, during the performance, the opposite extreme. A massive push, and I did hit the floor! On the stage there were 4 wooden frames with muslin that were moved into different positions at various points, marking out the entrances and exits. The photos I took during the dress rehearsal, at which time the muslin had not been put on. The cast moved them about in between many of the scenes, there were no gaps in the music. Sometimes there were moves within the scenes. For the most part they went smoothly, though there was one notable exception. I think my favourite moment from the program was the transition between a scene from Mendelssohn’s ‘Die Hochzeit des Camacho’ and the Baile de Candil scene that followed. The Mendelssohn scene ended with a bridesmaids septet. It ran nicely into the Baile de Candid scene with Lucinda’s veil being removed just as the dance began. So a new and enjoyable experience and generally there was good buzz, and lots of very good singing. If I should have the opportunity to work with Ian Rutherford and Carlos Aransay again, I shall gladly take it.
	Cendrillon January 2007 CLICK HERE to meet the cast.