All Go!

Another week has flown by, and what a week. On Monday I went to the dress rehearsal of Macbeth. What an evening! Some fantastic singing and the Opera North chorus at their best. The production is very powerful and dramatic.

On Tuesday we spent the day out at West Park with the orchestra for the ‘Dream’ sitzprobe. It was a great day. Stuart Stratford is on fine form and got some great music making from the orchestra and singers. Britten’s score is full of atmosphere but also full of whit. I can’t wait for Tuesday this week when we have our first of four ‘stage and orchestras’ when all the elements of the production come together.

We spent Thursday and Friday on stage for the first time. My word this opera is going to be hard work and very warm. Wearing four layers of costume and an ass’ head doesn’t help! The design is fabulous the lighting is beautiful and the kids as fairies look very creepy.

Stage and pianos allow us to solve the problems of transferring the production from the studio to the stage. Getting used to the: costumes, makeup, wigs, the set, props, lighting plus, of course, singing and acting and trying to avoid corpsing- not too much to think about! However, when one of us appeared on stage in their act three costume for the first time, the entire cast started laughing and couldn’t stop. The production team and others watching were also helpless - so a tea break was called.

We worked through the entire opera over two days and we’re now ready for the ‘piano dress’ tomorrow and then we start over again with the added dimension of the orchestra.

Roméo et Juliette is going really well too. The scheduling has been a nightmare for all concerned as many singers are involved in two, if not all three operas. So lots of running from one rehearsal to another!

On Saturday morning we ran Roméo et Juliette without the chorus. I think it is going to be a very dramatic evening that will tug at the heart strings. So bring your tissues!

I spent my first Sunday in Leeds, you’d normally see me on the M1 racing home to the wife and kids but, with so many rehearsals I thought it best to stay and rest. A few of us were staying, so we got together for Sunday lunch and a few glasses of wine and we’re about to settle down in front of the telly then and early night.

Bring on the Orchestra

Well Friday was our last day in the rehearsal room for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We ran the entire opera and all seemed to go very well. It was a chance to sit and enjoy the other scenes and I must say it was great fun.

Everyone is very excited about moving on to stage and getting into costume and onto the set. I crept into the theatre the other day where Martin (Duncan) and his team were lighting the set for the first time, it looks beautiful and gives us a huge space to work on.

On Tuesday we will meet the orchestra for the first time. We will work through the opera just singing and playing and with such a talented group of players as the Opera North Orchestra it should be quite a day.

Last week was also my first week of rehearsals for Roméo et Juliette. Quite a contrast to the jolly summer of love that is 'Dream'. Roméo et Juliette is a tragic tale, but full of beautiful tunes. Having spent Friday morning running around an enchanted forest and cavorting with fairies; that afternoon I found myself in Verona, at the wedding of the doomed couple.

I drove home Friday evening and had a relaxing weekend at home, the last for a while I think as rehearsals are getting pretty hectic.

Tomorrow we have the ‘sitzprobe’ for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I love these rehearsals we can concentrate on the music all day and reconcile any problems we may have when performing on stage. It is a day for Stuart Stratford to guide us through the score. He is a talented young conductor with some exciting new ideas. Can’t wait!

After the rehearsal we are going out to celebrate another important birthday. Annette Saunders our répétiteur is celebrating a landmark! I am a gentleman so can’t reveal how old!! Annette is one of the unsung heroes of Opera; she spends weeks sat at the piano playing the score over and over as we get it wrong again and again. She is a great support and I would like to wish her a very Happy Birthday.

Macbeth has its dress rehearsal tonight. I will try and pop in for the first half, as I have to be in Verona by 7:30.

Dream Team

Nearly 20 years ago I sang Bottom in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. It was directed by the then Head of Vocal Studies Joseph Ward, who was the original Starveling at the world premier in 1960. He told me that it would be a very useful opera to know and indeed it has been. I have sung ‘Quince’ in five different productions all over Europe but I am so pleased that I am back in the north of England for my professional debut in the roll of ‘Bottom’.

The last four weeks have been full of laughter and a lot of hard work with a “Dream Team” that are all a pleasure to work with. Martin Duncan has been a joy and full of ideas and fun. One of the dreads of anyone playing one of the ‘mechanicals’ is the bergamask dance performed in Duke Theseus’ court at the end of the play. We are very lucky to be working with Ben Wright a well established choreographer and a wonderful dancer himself, without giving too much away, yes it does hurt, yes it is hard to keep a straight face and yes my daughters will be proud that their dad can dance like that considering he is so old!!!!!

Yes last week, much to my daughters delight, I hit the big 40 but with the fun that we are having in rehearsals it feels like the new 18!

This is our last week in the Linacre Studio so we are starting to run acts and have a full run at the end of the week. At the beginning of next week we work with the Orchestra for the first time and then we move on stage!

Opera North, as I am sure you are aware, are having a mini-Shakespeare season and as Macbeth moves on stage this week, Roméo et Juliette moves into the studio. Many of the singers this season are singing in more than one opera, Peter Wedd is in all three! I am singing Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette too so the next few weeks is going to be pretty busy.

I’m sharing a flat with my old friend Colin Judson (singing Flute) our flat is down by the Canal where half of the casts seem to be staying, so a jolly time is had by all. Yvonne Howard is a great baker, Colin is a great cook and I mix a mean Gin and Tonic, so our wives will be happy to know that we won’t starve.