Although I am not allowed to write about our actual rehearsals, I thought it would be interesting to write about the process of researching and creating a character. Vanessa, the opera I am currently rehearsing,  is a very psychological work; dark, gothic, atmospheric. The libretto, unlike those of many operas, might stand alone without the addition of music as a play. Much of the text is natural dialogue, though the arias are more poetic. Of course, one of the things that makes opera as an art form so appealing  is that the music adds layers of meaning to the action that mere words could never express. The characters are very strongly drawn, and even the smaller roles such as the Majordomo, Nicholas, are given moments that beautifully reveal insights into their characters. And there is a delicious, deliberate ambiguity about the entire story.

Vanessa was controversial from the beginning. Composer Samuel Barber and his partner and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti considered it to be an American opera; but it was not set in America, and this upset the critics. The location was deliberately obscured; Menotti wrote only that the action takes place "in a northern country". Since Menotti also stated that the story was inspired by the atmosphere (rather than any specific action or story) found in Isak Dineson's Seven Gothic Tales. The action of the opera takes place in an isolated, wealthy, noble house; it begins on a winter night, and even as the months pass it is always cold and snowing. An oppressive atmosphere, to be sure.

The central characters are Vanessa, a beautiful baroness in her late thirties; her niece Erika, a lovely girl of twenty; Anatol, a young man in his mid-twenties; the old family doctor; and the Old Baroness, Vanessa's mother and Erika's grandmother. This is the character I play.

There are several dramatic challenges presented by the Old Baroness. The biggest is that she only speaks to Erika, but she is onstage quite a lot. She is also quite old, walks with a cane, and it is heavily specified in the score that she always moves slowly. She is almost always described as sitting in her chair by the fire.

So, we have a character with very limited mobility and speech, who nevertheless is present for much of the action. She is an observer; and she does participate in the action, but often in very small ways.

It's detail work, and believe it or not, it takes a great deal of concentration and physical energy. Where do you start to develop the character?

I like to start by reading a libretto like a play, cover to cover, several times. If there is direct source material (for example, to prepare the character of Marcellina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, I read the original Beaumarchais play) I read that. I study the composer and librettist, and try to discover what their influences were, especially at the time the work was created. I research the era and country in which the opera is set ; the clothing people wore, what they ate, how they traveled, how they lived, the political and social climate. What could have influenced their lives?

Then, of course, there are the specifics about the character. How old is this person? What is the state of her health? What is her social class, her education level? What is her relationship to the other characters? How did she come to be in the position we find her in at the opening of the opera? What does the composer say about her, through the music he writes for her? What do the other characters say about her?

Often, you find that a lot has been left for you, the actor, to fill in on your own. For example, in choosing how to express the Old Baroness' personality through her movement and carriage, I called upon what I know of Victorian clothing and manners, as well as what Menotti tells us about her in his libretto. She is an old lady; she uses a cane; she moves slowly; she spends most of her time sitting and when she does stand or walk, it is with aid and not for very long. She has a daughter who is in her late thirties; so even though her age isn't specified, we can guess that she is probably at the very least in her seventies. She lives in a country where it is usually very cold and she sits by the fire at every opportunity. So, my choice for her, as an actor, is to play her as very arthritic. I happen to have a touch of arthritis in my hips, and at times when it has been particularly bad, it has limited my movement. How much more would it do for a much older person, especially if it were worse? How would I move if my own arthritis got so bad that my entire lower body were stiff and painful most of the time? So that is how I try to walk and to move in general; how I get up and down out of a chair (and of course, I also observe old or infirm people at every opportunity).

Also, as I mentioned, clothing plays a huge factor in how you carry yourself and move. Victorian corsets were extremely restrictive. They were stiffly boned and reached from the pubic bone to just over the breasts, and were intended to help create that coveted hourglass figure. When properly laced into a Victorian corset, you can't bend your torso (and you can't breathe very well, either, which is why ladies fainted so frequently; and as you can imagine, presents all sorts of challenges for an opera singer). You cannot slump in a chair; the best you can do is lean (which is also why Victorian furniture is so stiff, hard, and uncomfortable. It was there to provide support, not for you to sink into). Most Victorian ladies' clothing was also high-necked, with sleeves that restricted movement; you might even have a bustle. The point is, even if you were in good health, your dress deliberately restricted movement, especially if you were wealthy (servants always wore less restrictive clothing).

For me, playing a wealthy, elderly aristocrat, who is in a great deal of physical and emotional pain at all times, this very much informs how I will sit. Most of the time I sit ramrod straight. I no longer remember where I first heard the phrase "A lady's back never touches a chair", but it is most certainly a Victorian sentiment, and as a proper lady, a noblewoman, and a generally rigid person, the Old Baroness would never deign to sit any other way. There is only one point in the opera where I allow myself to slump a little, and it is very specifically chosen to indicate a mood and situation.

As a character who is silent and relatively immobile much of the time, when I do make a movement, it must be very deliberate, and for effect. As actors we are very specific about where we focus on stage; changing a point of focus is often enough to change a mood or introduce a new idea, and if you change focus at the wrong time or in the wrong place, it disturbs the flow of the work. It feels wrong, to you and to the audience. My work in this show is almost all about where I am focusing my attention; as I spend a lot of time listening, and any movement  that draws attention to me can make a powerful statement.

To be a good listener on stage, you must be an active listener. You can't sit there and zone out. The Old Baroness may be ancient but she is sharp, rigid in her judgments and decisions, observant, and interested. She has a vested interest in the proceedings. To show this without drawing focus away from the main action, it is necessary to listen to the dialogue and react as if it is spontaneous. It's necessary to study the text and figure out what your character knows about already and what is a surprise to her; how she feels about it and the people delivering it; what she will want to do with this information; and so on. In this opera, I spend a lot of time figuring out where I want to look, which way to face, how to hold my cane, when to turn my head. Often this is the only way I have to make a statement.

Because my character is largely in the background, if I'm doing my job right, most of the time the audience won't really notice me any more than they do the furniture! Yet, my presence will be actively contributing to the whole impression, and when I do speak or make larger gestures, they will be more noticeable.

A character like this is a real challenge, but I also really enjoy it. I get to change my own physicality so much and it's fun to experiment with small details. Once I get into wig, makeup, and costume (all of which are gorgeous), it will add even more layers and allow me to inhabit the character even more fully. The nature of this opera requires very naturalistic speech and action as opposed to grand gestures that you sometimes see on the opera stage. In many ways, it is very intimate; I think the audience will be very much drawn into it, as if it were taking place in their own living room. And it's fun for me to be a part of something like that.

If you're in town, come hear Vanessa at Sarasota Opera!  We open March 10 and run through March 24. It's a great opportunity to experience a beautiful production of an important American work which is not produced very frequently. And it is, of course, in English!

In a way, travel by car is easier than air travel (well, these days, anyway). You don't have to worry about getting felt up by the TSA or whether you have to pay $100 for the two extra pounds of underwear that shot your luggage over the allowance. Besides, I like to drive across the country, because then you get to see cool stuff like this:

And this:

And this:

So, yeah. That was pretty much our drive from Texas to Florida. Giant crawfish, trucks painted to look like female body parts (at least, I think that's what it's supposed to be .. angry, angry female body parts), and alien attacks through the trees of an otherwise innocent looking rest area. AWESOME!

We spent night #1 in Pensacola, and had dinner at the Atlas Oyster House (highly recommended, y'all ... I had their Baked Oyster Sampler followed by sinful, sinful fried oysters with greens and fried green tomatoes. I don't normally eat fried food but sometimes you just have to live a little, and this was most definitely one of those times). Hubby and I shared key lime pie for dessert and it was DIVINE.

Then we drove on down to Homosassa Springs. It was a very pleasant, beautiful drive along a route lined with oaks hung with Spanish moss, peppered with palmettos beneath. But there was one very disturbing sight. We pulled off looking for gas in a small town, and there was this truck with a cage of pit bulls (three crammed into a very small cage) tied to the roof, and a fourth dog not even in the cage, tied directly to the luggage rack! It was below 40, and every last one of those dogs looked scared and miserable. Poor things. I did call it in and I hope those dogs are taken away from their owner.

Homosassa Springs was fun. It is the home to a beautiful park, the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. Wild manatees come to enjoy the warm waters of the springs --- you can see them on the manatee cam here! Your visit to the park starts with a guided boat ride through Pepper Creek.

It was too cold out for us to see any critters, but we saw them later. The park rehabilitates native Florida animals and re-releases them into the wild when possible, or houses them. There were of course gators, a wide variety of birds including some beautiful owls and bald eagles, Florida panthers, black bears, bobcats, foxes, red wolves, of course manatees, and ... a hippo named Lucifer. Now, hippos are not exactly native to Florida, but 49-year-old Lu got a pass to stay. Before it became the property of the state of Florida, the park belonged to Ivan Tors' Animal Actors, which provided trained animals for film. They couldn't find anybody to take Lu, so the governor declared him an honorary citizen of Florida, and he got to stay.

My husband Eric loves the birds, and we really enjoyed watching some of the nesting pelicans attending to their babies, as well as all the flamingos, storks, ibises, spoonbills, and varieties of cranes and egrets.

But for me, the highlight of the park was seeing the manatees, and especially seeing my first one in the wild. We only caught a glimpse of it as it was swimming away from the spring, but I turned into a twelve-year-old and ran over the bridge yelling, "There's one! There's one right there!" I almost cried, I was so excited. Later, we saw more of them in the distance, frolicking in a little cove. And of course, we got to watch the resident manatees munch lettuce and huddle in the warm spots. It was actually quite chilly, and apparently the last few winters have been on the cold side, so the wild population is stressed. They like their warmth, those manatees.

After this excellent adventure, we had dinner at a local joint which I absolutely loved --- it was sort of old-fashioned and homey, unpretentious, just good food and friendly, service from a sweet local girl. The place was called the Riverside Crab House, and if you go in the daytime (we didn't) you can sit by the windows and watch the antics of the monkeys on Monkey Island (as well as discover why there are monkeys there. I won't spoil it for you).

We got up early the next day and a few hours later were in Sarasota, getting settled into the condo. Rehearsals for Vanessa started on Valentine's Day! Now, as per my contract with Sarasota Opera, I am not allowed to blog about the rehearsals, but I can tell you that it's a fabulous cast and a gorgeous production. I had my costume fitting yesterday and even though I am playing the old grandmother, every one of them is GORGEOUS and fits me like a glove, thanks to the expertise of Howard Tsvi Kaplan and his team. It's a luxury these days to have costumes built for you, so I can't wait to see the full effect.

Sarasota is a beautiful town. Eric and I wasted no time --- once we were settled in--- in going for a nice walk along the beach.

I can't wait to ride my bike over the causeway to one of the keys, and to visit the beautiful Marie Selby Botanical Gardens again. Stay tuned!

It's been a quite while, but  I've decided to attempt to revive this much-neglected blog (I blog regularly about fitness, weight loss, and sometimes even opera over at The Next 100 Pounds). 2012 promises to be a season of adventures and I am happy to take any readers out there along for the ride! Seeing as how my last entry was in 2009, I'm not going to try to do a complete catchup, but instead start with Fall 2010, when a big change occurred ... I joined the roster of ADA Artists Management, and suddenly things got really busy!

Right off the bat, my manager, Shawn  Marie Jeffery, sent me packing to Syracuse Opera (along with a slew of my roster mates) for a Mikado. The photo above shows me as Katisha, menacing Katrina Thurman as Yum-Yum and Matt Morgan as Nanki-Poo. I also got to reunite with bass Kurt Link as the Mikado --- the last time I'd seen Kurt was waaaay back in my apprentice days at Central City, when I harassed his Mefistofeles as Martha Schwerlein in Faust.

Poor Kurt. Still getting harassed by yours truly. BTW, aren't Howard Tsvi Kaplan's costumes great? I loved my kimono adorned with spider webs, roses, and big pink tarantulas. Perfect for Katisha! More on Howard's designs anon ...

Syracuse was great. I'd never spent time in that part of the country before, and it was a beautiful fall. (The pic above are some golden leaves on a still lake). People were friendly. My colleagues were fantastic. And Syracuse has some really AMAZING architecture downtown. Plus, the company does a very cool publicity gig in one of the downtown bars ... they take over and have a sort of open mic night. Regular bar patrons are at first bemused and then enchanted as everyone from principals to young artists to choristers took turns singing opera arias and Broadway hits!  It was a hoot.

At the end of the run, I had a career first (it was quickly to become rather standard): I literally had to race offstage after the final performance, wipe off the makeup, and jump into a waiting car to be rushed to the airport so I could make my flight to Chicago and be there in time for my next gig. Hi-ho the glamourous life!

I was SO excited to be back in Chicago after many years --- the last thing I'd done there was to cover a role in Susannah, and I even got to go on and share the stage with Renee Fleming and Sam Ramey ---  but that had been some time ago. This time, I was here to cover again. Covers are not normally something you get excited about, but in this case, I was covering one of my idols, none other than Stephanie Blythe!  I had worked with one singer in the Ballo cast -- the baritone Mark Delavan. In fact, we'd done a couple of shows together in Austin. I have played both his mother-in-law (The Ballad of Baby Doe) and his wife (Otello; and I got to kill him at the end). But Mark has worked all over the world since then, so I was very flattered that he remembered me. The rest of the cast was also delightful: the radiant Sondra Radvanovsky, singing her first Amelia, and Frank Lopardo as a handsome and virile Gustavo. Stephanie was, of course, Ulrica, and splendid! Our director was none other than the sublime Renata Scotto.

Opening night, with Madame.

Madame Scotto is as beautiful and glamourous as she ever was, a petite little thing, always elegantly attired. I shall always treasure the memory of running into her in the ladies' during a break, as she complained about her (perfectly coiffed) hair. She was not happy with the color, she said, and didn't know where to go in this town. I had just been to a marvelous salon and gave her the card, for which she thanked me graciously --- I have no idea if she ever went, but there you have it. I GAVE SCOTTO HAIR COLOR ADVICE. I'm not saying she needed it, or she took it. But I talked hair with Madame Scotto in the ladies' room at Chicago Lyric Opera. I'll say it again: hi-ho the glamourous life.

One of the many great things about being in Chicago was getting to work with a fabulous cover cast, including Todd Thomas as Renato and Arnold Rawls as Gustavo. We got to do what's called a "room run" -- basically, you run the opera with all the principals, no chorus, and piano, on the set, with props, etc. It is attended by numerous people and if you do well (or not), word does get out. Apparently we did well.

I did not have occasion to go on this time --- Miss Blythe is a force of nature and it is my belief that she would have to be run over by a train or two before you could keep her off the stage, and I mean that in the best possible sense --- but I was also covering her in The Mikado, and got to step in for her at rehearsals once or twice when her Ballo schedule conflicted. I did get to sing a little under the baton of Sir Andrew, and with James Morris as The Mikado! The cast was delightful, largely British, and the show, while not conventional G&S, was hugely successful.

My Halloween getup --- Snake Lady.

I was in Chicago from October - January, with a short break for Christmas, and made several harrowing but profitable 24-hour-turnaround audition trips to NY and other places during that time. When I got home, it was nice to have a little break --- but it didn't last long!

Next stop was Boise, Idaho for a Fille du Regiment, my first. I got this gig one month before I had to show up for rehearsals! But it was a blast. Opera Idaho is a small company and they perform in an old vaudeville theater called the Egyptian. It's a tiny stage, there are no dressing rooms, and every inch of the theater is absolutely caked in gilt, heiroglyphics, statuary, and every Egyptianesque tchotchke you can think of. IT IS FANTASTIC. My favorite decorations are the two larger-than-life matching statues, on either side of the stage, seated cross-legged, with boobs sagging to their knees. There are some great pictures of this beautiful, historic, and very active theater here.

Boise is a happenin' town. The downtown area is busy all the time, filled with shops, hotels, bars, and restaurants. Karaoke is a big deal. There is a fantastic farmer's market. And of course, it's surrounded by stark but beautiful country. My husband came out and we managed a couple of really amazing hikes.

Our favorite was Five Mile Gulch --- we started out on the canyon floor and several hours later made it to the tree line (passing a mountain biker who warned us about the wolves he'd seen earlier, some deep snowbanks, and a deer carcass surrounded by mountain lion tracks which had been moved by the time we headed back down about thirty minutes later).

The show was fun and exciting ... my costumes did not arrive until the actual day of the show!  But everything went off without a hitch, and the audience was very enthusiastic.

Unfortunately there were no production shots, so these were taken on my cell phone... Act I and Act II costumes respectively.

I had to get back home to give final exams and juries the very day after we closed, which involved traveling all night. Sure, it makes me feel important to be so busy, but I'd feel a lot MORE important (and rested) if I were traveling first class ... nevertheless, due to my singing schedule, it was my last semester teaching at the university. Very soon I was off to the Princeton Festival to revisit one of my favorite roles of all time ... Baba the Turk in The Rake's Progress.

Princeton is gorgeous. My hosts let me borrow their bike and I spent a lot of time riding along the canals.

There are these great bike trails all over Princeton, and once I discovered them I rode everywhere! I loved taking the backroads to Cranbury. Not only is a beautiful little town and home to one of the heros of 911, but it boasts what quickly became my favorite cafe, The Blue Rooster. The BEST scones ever.

The Princeton Festival is an amazing little summer festival featuring musical theater, opera, chamber music, a piano competition, jazz, and more. We rehearsed in a church just off the Princeton campus (which is also amazingly gorgeous) and performed in the Shakespearean theater on campus. Rake was a fantastic experience --- beautifully realized show with amazing colleagues --- and I couldn't believe the reviews we got. I got my first New York Times review! Even my boobs got reviewed. (I can't blame the guy --- the costume was pretty boobalicious. My husband wanted me to steal the coin bra).

I'm looking forward to returning to Princeton this summer as Zita in Gianni Schicchi --- another role I've done a number of times, but it's also a favorite and I never get tired of it. As it happened, post-Princeton I had another one of those glamourous rush trips home, because Spotlight on Opera, the opera training workshop which I founded and direct, was due to start up the very next day.

Normally I direct at least one of the productions, but my singing schedule simply didn't allow it last year. Spotlight is a very intensive program --- in five weeks, we produced an aria concert, two completely separate scenes programs, two staged art song programs, and two fully staged operas, Falstaff and Carmen. That's in addition to daily classes on audition repertoire, business of singing, boot camp, makeup, diction, stagecraft, and anything else we can think of. So it was pretty intensive. And the morning after strike, I was on an early plane to Chicago, then in a car for about four hours, on my way to the Sugar Creek Festival in Watseka, IL, and another Daughter of the Regiment.

I love this costume. It's got a huge hoop skirt. I looked like a toilet paper doll.

Sugar Creek is a VERY cool festival in a tiny Illinois farming community. It was started and run by soprano Helen Todd, who is from Watseka.  They have a Young Artists Program and a community arts festival; all the artists stay with local families, shop at the farmer's market (BEST sweet corn ever) and spend all their free time at the local Christian bookstore/coffee shop, which featured not only great coffee but a GIANT painting of Jesus on the wall, watching you add your cream and sugar. Watseka is the kind of place where the locals stop talking and look at you when you walk into the diner --- they aren't unfriendly, just curious --- and you have to drive for miles and miles through the cornfields to get anywhere.

Once again, I was blessed to have talented, fun, dear colleagues. We enjoyed cooking for each other and hanging out, and we certainly enjoyed being on stage together! I hope to go back to Sugar Creek at some point.

I had a few weeks off after Sugar Creek, but only a few. Next stop was closer to home, though --- a return to San Antonio Opera, this time for the role of Gertrude the nurse in Romeo & Juliette. Now, the nurse in the Shakespeare play has quite a lot to say and do, and she is rather critical to the plot a couple of times; but in the Gounod opera, Gertrude's role has been shaved down to a sliver of the original. However, this did not faze our director, Cynthia Stokes, in the slightest. I was probably onstage more than any Gertrude in history and even had a romance going on with Gregorio. There was a certain amount of ass-grabbing and face-slapping going on. It was fun, and of course the music is divine. I also had a cool hotel room overlooking the Alamo!

With Maria Alejandres as Juliet.

Sadly, even though the show got great reviews, it was San Antonio's last for the time being. They postponed their spring production of Don Giovanni, closed their offices, and are officially taking a hiatus to regroup financially. These are tough economic times for opera companies, and I hope they're able to hold on. But I will get to revisit Romeo & Juliette very soon, this time at Florida Grand Opera --- and with the same soprano!

Next up was a road trip. My husband and I drove to Louisville, KY in October. What a gorgeous drive and what a gorgeous town. I loved it. People are very hospitable, there are lots of great restaurants and bars, the Ohio River is right there, and it's one of the most familial opera companies I've ever worked for. I was there to do Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, and this cast was one of the most fun bunch of people I've ever worked with. It was the kind of cast where you make friends and keep in touch.

Now, you have to love a patron party where you walk in the door and seconds later you have a very generous drink in your hand, which is never allowed to run dry. Not the best thing for singing, but let me tell you, everybody has a great time. The cast sang in a beautiful home overlooking the Ohio River, to one of the most appreciative audiences I've ever sung for. The above pic shows us doing the Act II finale. Right to left are  Anya Matanovic (Susanna), Carlos Monzon (Figaro), lil' ol me (Marcellina), and Paul Corona (Bartolo). I love these folks.

Remember I said we'd talk more about Howard Tsvi Kaplan's costumes? Well, he designed the gorgeous costumes for this show --- and I also get to wear his designs in my next show, Vanessa at Sarasota Opera. He took measurements while we were in Louisville (which, by the way, is pronounced "Lou-uh-vuhl". One of my new hobbies is learning to pronounce the name of the town like the locals. Boise, FYI, is not Boyzee; it's Boycee). I' m playing a grandmother in Vanessa but I will be beautifully dressed!

Here's the costume in color (I also loved my red Miss Kitty wig!) with the mini-Marcellina that my colleague Anya knitted. She made knitted finger puppets of every character in the opera for everybody! I can't tell you how I treasure my Mini-Marci. Anya also taught all the girls how to make tissue paper flowers and Dream Pie. She is a woman of many talents, that Anya.

Kentucky is a great place to spend time, but it was also a little stressful because of the orchestra difficulties. The Louisville Orchestra, which KY Opera hires to play its productions, has been struggling with its management since last June and has been unable to come to an agreement. At some point they got angry with the opera company and refused to play unless KY  Opera increased their salaries by what amounted to an additional $30,000 per show; when the opera refused, the orchestra union placed them on the unfair list. What this amounted to for us was that we did not have an orchestra for the show; a very unusual situation. Instead we had four hands piano with the maestro on harpsichord (just as Mozart would have done in his day). The orchestra picketed us. At the time of writing, the orchestra has been ruled to be on strike, and the musicians have to pay back all the unemployment they've been collecting since last June. I hope for everyone's sake they are able to come to an agreement soon. Regardless, I LOVED Kentucky (and not least of all for all the good food and the excellent BOURBON) and hope to go back.

So, we're up to date, and I hope to do better in the future. In less than a week I am off on my longest away-from-home run yet: over three months in Florida. First stop is Sarasota, to do the Old Baroness in Vanessa with Sarasota Opera. I have exactly 24 hours off between the last show and the time I must report to Miami for my second Gertrude of the season, in Romeo & Juliette with Florida Grand. I should have about a week at home before I get back to Princeton for Gianni Schicchi. And I'm not complaining about any of this. Hi-ho!

That whooshing sound you hear is a long sigh of relief escaping my well-worked lungs. It's been a long and exciting season, and now it's time once again to play catch-up! Also, my darling husband/webmaster has fixed up my blog so that I can now make entries myself (previously, we had a cumbersome system in which he had to do it for me). I hope to be able to keep up much better now!

My last entry brought us up to September 2008, when I was performing the role of Hecate in Austin Shakespeare's production of MacBeth. I hadn't done the Scottish play since high school, and this was especially fun. Hecate and the witches all sang, and the "aria" was written especially for me, in the style of Britten. The show was a great success and I really enjoyed being a part of "straight theater" (that's what opera singers call plays without music).It was a very different performing dynamic than what I'm used to.  For one thing, all the actors were called at the very beginning of the show and did a physical and vocal warmup together; we never do this in opera!  There were a lot of battle scenes, which required the guys to rehearse them before every show. This was especially fun when I let slip during warm-ups that it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and they ran around rehearsing their battle sequences yelling, "Yaaaaarrrr!"

In opera, you usually have your own dressing room, but here the stars were lumped in with us peons. The actors were all so wonderful, and they were really receptive and generous about having a "foreigner" in the cast. They were really respectful and kind about my art form, and I was in awe of their work! I hope to have the chance to work with Austin Shakespeare again, and they don't even have to let me sing. ;)

Between September and November, I made lots of audition trips to New York. Fall is the big audition season, so those of us who don't live in the Big Apple tend to make lots of runs back and forth.

NOVEMBER 2008

With my "son" Andrea Bocelli --- keep in mind that I am wearing 3 inch heels and still only come up to his shoulder!

In November, there was a very special event. I got to revisit a role I really enjoy, Mama Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana. And this was a special version: a semi-staged concert with San Antonio Opera, starring the beautiful Chilean soprano Veronica Villareol as Santuzza, and Andrea Bocelli as Turiddu. The rest of the cast was also stellar: Dana Beth Miller in a piece of real luxury casting as Lola, and Marcello Guzzo as her cuckolded husband Alfio.

With Veronica Villareol and Dana Beth Miller

We were all treated like stars! I stayed in the gorgeous old Fairmount Hotel, steps from the Riverwalk, and was driven around in a limo by a lovely fellow named Rocky, who quickly became a pal. Rocky has done some security and it showed ... of course, no one knew who I was, but it was fun seeing people think I was "somebody" because I was being squired about in a limo with a gentleman who clearly looked like a bodyguard!

The cast was great. Since it was a concert, the rehearsal period was fairly short, and Andrea didn't come in for the first couple of days since he was in Washington doing another concert there.  He was very low-key and kind to everyone. When we were introduced, the first thing he said to me was, "You're too young to be my mother!" Shucks, Andrea, I bet you say that to all the girls. ;)

Needless to say, I was the envy of his hordes and hordes of female fans because, in my role as his mom, I got to hug and kiss on him. This must have been a spectacle, because Andrea is quite tall and I am not at all! He really had to bend over for "un altro bacio, Mamma!". And I'm afraid I left some bright red lipstick on his stubbly little cheek.

We had two performances, both of which were sold out and very well-received. You can see a video of the curtain call, posted by a fan.

It's quite blurry, but I'm on the end, next to Andrea. At this performance, there was a male fan running along the foot of the stage, lobbing handfuls of red rose petals. They were very pretty, but throwing stuff at a blind guy maybe isn't the best way to pay tribute. He kept hitting Andrea with fistfuls of them, and they also made the stage very slippery. Eventually security managed to curb his enthusiasm.

After the concert, as usual, I was too wound up to go right to bed, so my husband and I went down to the bar in the Fairmount. Sadly, the kitchen was closed, but we were able to get drinks. There was a large party behind us, and after we'd been there a short time, a woman and her teenaged daughter approached me and said, "Pardon me for interrupting your evening, but are you by any chance 'Mama'?" She and her daughter had been at the show, and were thrilled to meet one of the singers in person, right there in their very same hotel. They asked me to sign their program. Then I got mobbed, because the table behind us was filled with happy, tipsy concertgoers (many of whom were fellow Longhorns --- Hook'em!), and once they learned I was in the concert, nothing would do but I autograph their programs as well and sing a little bit for them. I tossed off a little of some Italian ditty, which earned me wild applause, comped drinks from the bartender, and a promise from the manager to hold the kitchen open for me the following night! You see, all of a sudden I had become "somebody". And I'm not too proud to admit that Mama got huge kicks out of this. ;)

After the second night, however, we had to pack up and rush home. Thanksgiving was the very next day, and we had lots of cooking to do. No rest for the wicked, as you shall soon see ... because next I had to get ready to become a Pigeon and a Snail.

But more on that in my next update.

Let's play catch-up. Well, long time no see! I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, nor the blogosphere … most of my blogging has been taking place over at www.thenext100pounds.com. Take a look, if you want to see what I’ve been up to since New Orleans.

A reader in London (hi Tracey!) sent me a nice note asking when I was going to start blogging here again, so here I am.

So, let’s hit a few highlights of the past year:

JANUARY I started the aforementioned blog, which chronicles my (currently up to 118 pound!) weight loss, or as I like to call it, my “fat relocation project” (I’m relocating it OFF my behind!). As you might imagine, it’s been a major focus of the year for me. It’s too soon to know how it may or may not affect my career, but I’m really enjoying the change.

FEBRUARY

I sang a fun concert of opera highlights for a concert series, in which I appear annually with some friends. It’s a chance to get dolled up and sing all types of naughty repertoire (by which I mean stuff I don’t normally get to sing much) for a very appreciative audience.

MARCH

I sang Il trittico in El Paso on the same set we used in New Orleans. Two Tritticos in a row! I loved El Paso and we had a lot of fun, especially visiting Old Mesilla, NM and a ranch out in the desert where they do a lot of filming.



A beautiful door in Old Mesilla



A house in Mesilla



Gianni Schicchi: Ladro! Ladro! As Zita (center) in Gianni Schicchi. I loved this costume with the crazy hat and the Carol Burnett wig!



With the Trittico principals outside the restaurant at Cattleman’s Ranch. Left to right: baritone Bojan Knezevic , me, soprano Oksana Krovytska, and tenor Stephen Mark Brown.

APRIL

I traveled to Sarasota, Florida, where I took part in a memorial concert for my dear friend, the tenor Gary Rideout, who passed away in September 2007. This was a very meaningful event for me, because it was in honor of my beloved friend, and helped to raise money for the Gary Rideout Memorial Scholarship which will help young singers. And, as befitted everything that ever happened involving Gary, it was a great adventure.

It was, quite literally, a dark and stormy night. The lights went out in the middle of the concert and we had to continue by candlelight! Luckily, our talented singers and marvelous, lovely pianist were up to the task. Highlights included the marvelous mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman (http://www.newcentury.nu/guzman.html) singing the most beautiful and moving “Over the Rainbow”; soprano Kristin Clayton(http://www.newcentury.nu/clayton.html) performing a very funny Sondheim piece; and tenor Hugh Smith (http://www.newcentury.nu/smith.html) belting out one of Gary’s signature pieces, a gorgeous “Recondita armonia”, unintimidated by the loud thunder and lightning. My own selections were very personal. I love Mahler, and as soon as Gary’s agent, Scott George of New Century Artists, asked me to participate, I knew I wanted to sing “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”. In the candlelight, I spoke the English translation for the audience, and then sang; it was a piece I felt suited Gary’s philosophy very well, and that I love to sing; but it was a miracle I could get through it. (Actually, each time I sang, I immediately went off in a corner and cried). For the final number, I sang an old but very beautiful and, I think, appropriate chestnut: “When I Have Sung My Songs For You”. It’s a simple piece, but sung simply and without excess sentimentality it is quite beautiful and moving. I pictured my Gary and sang it to him.

The best part of the evening was meeting Gary’s family --- he had told us about each other for years, but we had never met; yet I would have known them anywhere. The resemblance was strong! Thank goodness Scott warned me that Gary’s brother could have been his twin, or I might have thought I was seeing a ghost. I feel enormously privileged to have been able to know and love this wonderful, talented, amazing man, and to have been able to offer my voice in comfort to his friends and especially his family.

In March, I also started working out with a personal trainer!



In my hosts’ beautiful home in Sarasota, after the concert.

MAY

Time for a trip to Youngstown, OH, where I sang my first Beethoven 9th with the Symphony, at the gorgeous De Yors Performing Arts Center. The other soloists and I got the royal treatment; among other things, we were handsomely squired around town in a variety of increasingly tricked out limos and party vans. We felt like rock stars.



With tenor Kip Wilborn and baritone Kris Irmiter in our stylin’ limo.



After the concert, with Kip, me, soprano Kishna Davis, and Kris. Not only did we ride in style, we were wined and dined magnificently post-concert at Overture, the on-site restaurant with a menu rivaling any chic New York establishment’s. Everything about this experience was simply flawless.

May’s other significant event occurred as I was riding my new bike to my fitness class in the park. I came around a corner, hit a patch of gravel, and went down hard on the sidewalk, badly fracturing my wrist. Long, painful story short --- I had to have surgery and now sport a titanium plate and a bunch of screws in my wrist, as well as a scar that frankly looks like I tried to off myself. My little brother now refers to me as “Bionica”. My husband calls me “Puff Puff”, because it was badly swollen for some time and I complained about that quite a lot. It’s fine, now. Mobility is slightly impaired but I’m doing physical therapy and it should mostly come back.

JUNE

June was a big month, largely dedicated to recovering from my accident and subsequent surgery. I celebrated both my birthday and my 100 pound weight loss. A film crew from the New York Times came out to do a little feature on me, which you can see here:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/an-opera-singers-fat-relocation-project

This was a lot of fun. Not only was the photojournalist, David Frank, a great guy, but I felt like I had my own reality TV show for a while there! Friends and family really rallied around, and I was grateful for their support. Originally, I had planned to commemorate both the birthday and the 100 pounds at a state park with an eight-mile hike we like to refer to as “The Death March”. Sadly, the broken wrist prevented such debauchery, but we did take a brisk turn on the tamer Hike and Bike Trail and eat a lot of good barbecue. The Death March has been rescheduled for October!

JULY

When I’m not singing, I work with young singers. I traveled to Princeton, NJ to give one of my Business of Singing workshops to young singers at the CoOPERAtive program. For the second year, I also administered and stage directed a three-week training program of my own, Spotlight on Opera. I love directing, partly because I’m just a bossy chick who enjoys telling other people what to do, partly for the po-WAH, and partly because … well, I just think I have something to say. I also enjoy working with young singers.



With the Spotlight on Opera faculty and cast.

The other big event in July was an interview with the health/fitness reporter for my local paper, the Austin American Statesman. I really enjoyed meeting the reporter, Pamela LeBlanc, who, as it turned out, is an opera fan and had heard me perform at Austin Lyric Opera. You can check out the article here.

Article in Statesman

AUGUST

In August, I finally made it back to New York for some voice lessons and coachings! This is a very good thing because I have a big spring coming up … lots of new music to learn. And I was finally cleared by my doctor to start working out with my trainer again.

SEPTEMBER

That brings us up to today, September 2008. I am currently appearing in a production of the play (as opposed to the opera) MacBeth. I play Hecate, the queen of the witches, and original music in the style of Britten has been composed for my speech. It’s a very cool production and I am excited to be part of such a unique project!



As Hecate in Austin Shakespeare’s MacBeth. Photo by Jennifer Mead.

Looking ahead, I will be appearing with Andrea Bocelli in San Antonio Opera’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana in November. I am currently preparing the roles of Madame de Croissy and Mere Jeanne for Austin Lyric Opera’s production of Dialogues of the Carmelites in April; I’ll be covering the wonderful Sheila Nadler who is coming in at rather the last minute due to some European engagements, and singing the smaller role in the same production. Also in the works are a New Year’s Eve concert of opera love/hate duets with tenor Scott Blackshire, and my debut with Indianapolis Opera as Erda in Das Rheingold in May. And, I just got a phone call this week asking me to play the roles of the Pigeon and the Snail in Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio at Minnesota Opera in March! This is a particularly exciting project.

I hope to have lots of wonderful stories to share, so stay tuned!