La Boheme

 

Well hello there! Long time no… read?  Admittedly, I've been quite absent from the blogosphere (that's a thing, right?) lately and will do my best to rectify the situation over the course of the Summer.  To be honest, though, I imagine only about five of you have really noticed, so no harm no foul in the grand scheme of things.  Chronologically, posts are going to move a bit circuitously until I catch up with the backlog from these past couple of months so hang in there with me if you haven't completely let go already.

Many of you may remember I spent the Summer of 2010 and 2011 touring with the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony Orchestra and Choir singing solos in Mendelssohn's Elijah and Brahms's Requiem, respectively.  This year they are embarking on their European tour performing Verdi's Requiem and, while I was very grateful for the invitation to be a soloist, it is not a role that I am exactly capable of singing.  Fear not, Blue Lake lovers, because it happily worked out that I am back at BLFAC singing in their production of Puccini's La Boheme!  As opposed to going on a tour, we will put on two shows each session, amassing to eight performances over two months for a total of 5,000+ attendees over the duration of the Summer.

During the second year of my master's degree at the University of Michigan (this would be pre-blog, for those of you who are wondering why I've never posted about it before) I was lucky enough to perform the role of Schaunard in the same opera.  It remains one of my favorite times on stage because there really was a synchronicity in the production: from our fabulous director, Kay Walker Castaldo; the undeniable genius of Martin Katz leading from the pit (as well as Clinton Smith assisting and even conducting one of our performances); hair and make-up by Erin Kennedy-Lunsford; and a roster of singers who seemed to be nothing but appropriately cast in their respective roles.  I think out of the whole of the operatic canon, Schaunard is the closest to my actual personality—I know him, I love him, and I could play him for the rest of my life… but what would be the fun in that?! (In fact, I'm not playing him in the production this Summer, which threw me for a bit of a loop when first learning it again).

But enough silly words… you came here for pictures, right?  Following are a sampling of photos from our production. Enjoy!

Obvs we did an updated version… don't think they had electric guitars back in the day!

 

 

Roomies: Andrew Harris (Colline), Steven Tompkins (Rodolfo), Wes Mason (Marcello)

 

 

Rhea Olivacce (Mimi) / Amanda Ramos (Musetta)

 

We were all fortunate enough to be joined on stage by the ridiculously talented George Shirley (in the role of Alcindoro and Benoit), a professor of voice at U of M who can count among his litany of accolades as being a Grammy award winner, the first African-American tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, and all around bad-ass performer.  To have shared the stage with him is an honor I will carry with me through the rest of my career.

 

Professor Shirley, giving his absolute BEST Karl Lagerfeld!

 

Additionally, I was thrilled to have a whole cadre of Texans in the audience for the show! My parents, brother and sister-in-law, uncle Sid and cousin Hannah, and close close friend from Baylor made the trek up to Michigan to see the performances.  I'm still so grateful for each and every one of them!

Steven, Dad, Matt, Joanie, Me, Mom, Drew!

 

Stay tuned… more to come!!

Artist: Charles Aznavour / Album: Greatest Hits

An Identity Crisis (Or Two)

 

Last weekend I enjoyed a bit of a Mozart extravaganzafest in our fair city of Houston: Saturday night I went to the Alley Theater’s production of Amadeus with Paul, and Sunday afternoon I saw Houston Grand Opera’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Jennifer and Patty.  Let’s investigate, shall we?!

Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, a fictionalized historical play about the rivalry between famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his contemporary, Antonio Salieri, premiered in London in 1979 and quickly transferred to a multi-Tony award winning production on Broadway the following year.  Four years later it was turned into a film of the same name and went on to garner a gazillion (approx.) Oscars.  I had never been to a production at the Alley before and figured this was as good a time as any!

 

I remember watching the movie a loooong time ago and so I was pretty much going into it with a fresh perspective on the piece.  Even at about three hours and just one intermission I was com.plete.ly entranced by the entire production—Jeffrey Bean and Stanley Bahorek’s portrayals of Salieri and Mozart, respectively, are still with me.  An added bonus of seeing the show is that a studio mate of mine from Michigan, Amanda Kingston, played the singing-only role of the soprano Katherina Cavalieri.  Not only does the girl know her way around some coloratura, but she can rock the hell out of a period costume as well!

 

The following afternoon I continued my HGO series with Jennifer and Patty to see Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, which now provides me the perfect venue to do a little retroactive blogging from the University of Michigan’s 2009 production of the same opera (and in which I played the role of Count Almaviva).

 

It would take a bit too long to explain the whole plot of Figaro, what with all the mistaken identities, geniological revelations, trickery and musicological implications of the work… for all that and the connection with Beaumarchais’ triology you can check out wikipedia’s article here.  Suffice it to say, the Count spends the whole show trying to sleep with his wife’s maid, Susanna, who is to be married to Figaro, the count’s attendant.  They, in turn, spend the whole opera trying to keep this from happening. Plus their’s bumbling gardeners, women-crazy soldiers, conniving cougars and much more!

Kyle Knapp, Basilio; Mary Martin, Susanna; Kate Wakefield, Cherbuino (video courtesy of Kyle’s iPhone) AND since I’m always up for a little inter-website promoting: check out Kyle’s website here and look for an ub-sessed shout-out in the “Links” section!

 

Now, some of you may have noticed an 8 foot tall portrait resembling a certain yours truly…

Dear art department: Thanks for superimposing my head onto this painting.  Next time, could you take a couple of inches off the middle, please!

 

 

Seducing who I think is Susanna but is, in actuality, my wife in disguise.       Hai gia vinta la causa-ing it

 

Best. Picture. EVAR!! Just look at the kuh-crazy we are all giving.  Anticdotally, it was during the end of this 20 minute long Act II finale that at one point I started seeing stars everywhere.  I thought to myself: “Now wait a minute, did someone change the stage direction and start throwing glitter from the rafters?!?”  No… in fact someone did not… I was just singing balls-to-the-walls and may or may not have almost passed out! (L to R: Ben Sieverding, Kristin Eder, Kyle Knapp, Joseph Roberts, Mary Martin)

 

I also really love this backstage shot Kyle took. (L to R: Rhea Olivacce, Kyle, Me, Ben, Kate)

 

Because I had such a substantial role in the opera, I had a substantial Texas delegation to come up and see it!!  This was actually Matt and Mallory’s first time away from their baby Paige and I’m so happy I had such strong support.

Lunch at Zingerman’s Deli!!!  Everyone minus Matt and Joanie, who had eaten there before when they came to see La boheme and did a little off campus sight seeing that day.

 

Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber/ Album: By Jeeves