Vivandiere Du Regiment!!

I think this is a drawing of Jenny Lind as Marie, "La Fille Du Regiment" form 1856. Our "Marie" is not Jenny Lind, she is Chen Reiss from Israel (though she does sound like a songbird).

We had our final rehearsal in the rehearsal hall today and will move to the theater tomorrow. This rehearsal schedule has left me unable to think about anything else while I'm in the middle of work (except, of course, getting engaged, but that's another post...). We have very little time to get the chorus comfortable with all of the action they are doing due to union restrictions of chorus time and an unbelievably huge amount of chorus stage work in this production. My whole life revolves around who moves the bench in the first act and who hides behind the harpsichord in the second. Who takes down the clothes line, who hands off the gun, who makes sure that the crate is moved in time, who picks up the sheet music, who, who, who. . .

It got much more urgent yesterday as well.

Our director had a traveling snafu as she tried to come back after Christmas, and was stuck in New Jersey for an extra day. She called me at 7 in the morning and I was instantly up and learning everything I could about the chorus scenes that had not yet been staged. I've never watched a video so many times in succession. As Assistant Director, if the Director is unable to be at a rehearsal, I take over (sort of like the Vice President of the production). Last night was showtime for me. A pretty scary thing when you aren't expecting it to happen.

I watched the video, took copious notes, ran the sequences over and over in my head, and when the time came I felt pretty confident about what was happening. I don't really remember the rehearsal. When you stand up and direct fifty people at one time, the adrenalin rush is such that your body goes into overdrive (and you sleep really well once you get home).

Today was a little more back to normal (whatever that is) with the director back and the principals getting a full run in the afternoon and us spending the whole evening drilling the ROTC work into the chorus men and discussing the emotional content of the opera with the chorus women. We have a great principal cast, which helps. John Osborn, as Tonio, hits those nine or so high notes with such aplomb that everyone on the sidelines is giddy. Tim Nolen rattles around the stage as a gravelly little Sulpice, hitting every comic moment with a sledgehammer. And Joyce Castle, our amazing Marquise, blows me away every day as her performance and timing just gets richer and richer. Dottie (the director) and I were talking tonight about how hard comedy is to put together. People have this misconception that, because a work is light, that it's easy to throw on stage. On the contrary, and these singers have helped immensely in the huge undertaking of making a comic opera work on stage.

Tomorrow is the theater, and I will continue to drill the chorus as much as possible to ensure correct timing. We haven't had nearly enough time with anything to give them confidence in their performance.

Timing is everything, and the fact that the rehearsal period for this opera falls during the holidays is very bad timing indeed.