Hello all,
Thanks to each of you for your hard work this week. I am pleased with the progress some of you have shown on Schicchi and Village Singer, but urge everyone to invest themselves in this music immediately. I know this is a very busy semester of recitals and other opera productions, but there is no time to make up later for work that needs to be done now (or should have been done before now, to be more precise). I am trying to work out a projected schedule for the production with Mr. Freeman, but in the meantime let me give an overview of what will be happening:
Week of Feb. 22: Coachings/music
Week of March 1: Coachings/music
Week of March 8: Spring Break (Pirates production week)
March 15 and 16: Music work-throughs of Gianni Schicchi and Village Singer with K. Class (this includes everyone who was also involved with Pirates!).
March 17: Staging begins
Week of March 22: Staging (March 22: OFF BOOK)
Week of March 30: Staging (April 2: Good Friday – no class)
Week of April 5: Staging (April 10 and/or 11 - music only work-through of both scores with K. Class)
Week of April 12: Staging
Week of April 19: Production week
I am also sending out a SLIGHTLY revised Call for this week’s coachings. I was mistaken when I thought that the M/W/F Pirates rehearsals were taking place at School. Those rehearsals are at the Depot. Instead, Melony will be available to do coachings for us as well. So, please check the NEW schedule to see if you are called to coach with her on Wednesday or Friday.
Thank you to Mr. Freeman for sending the novella of The Village Singer. If you have not already done so, please read this and consider how any knowledge of these characters, in the original version, may assist you in building the character you will portray on stage. Likewise for those in Schicchi, do not wait for staging to begin to have Mr. Freeman TELL you what your character is like. One of the most important things you, as an artist, can do is to think about your character, do research into your character, etc., so that you have a strongly formed concept BEFORE you walk into any rehearsal or meeting with a stage director. Mr. Freeman may decide to take your character in another direction, but the more information and imagination you have to work with, the more alive you are going to be able to make that character. Now why, as a Music Director, do I feel the need to say this? Because everything your character thinks and feels directly impacts your music – 100% of the time. Your tempos, rubato, diction, articulation, dynamics – everything is directly connected to who your character is and what your character is experiencing in the dramatic moment. So, I will insist that you NEVER consider that music, character and staging are separate in opera. In fact they are all fully integrated – so think through your characters even before going into coachings. You may still be hunting for notes, but everything beyond pitches is directly tied to character.
An example from this week:
The character of Spinelloccio may be open to interpretation of age (or even gender as in our production!) and various qualities, but there are some elements that cannot be tampered with too much. The energy level and physical agility are clearly restrained since this character’s music is all hesitating (notice the separation between syllables in the first words “L’e permesso”). The slow chords in the accompaniment again suggest the doctor does not move very quickly and, in fact, any quick movements would completely destroy the suspension of time that Puccini creates through this very sparse writing. Still most conclusive is that the most excited the doctor gets is in exclaiming that the advances of science today are amazing. A young doctor would not likely make an exclamation that references the past in such a way. Furthermore, the comedy here is in the dynamics and the descending line which indicates (from Puccini) that this exclamation (about which the doctor is very excited) takes too much wind out of her.
Aside from the rhythmic and tempo clues about this character, the score is specific in demanding an affected pronunciation with a Bolognese accent. Even if he’s not being played specifically Bolognese, obviously the speech must be affected and much is written in. Other exaggerations of the Italian are necessary to avoid trying to ‘sing’ this in a beautiful way. The particularly nasal quality can be put forward by basic closing of nearly all vowels and really indulging double consonants in particular. The characteristic stretch of final beats in a measure allows Spinelloccia to play with the consonants of “Anche alla voce…”, the glide of “e migliorato” and overemphasize the negative in “a me non e mai morto”. The overly articulated legato of “Non ho delle pretese” could be reiterated by détaché bowing (which, by the way, does NOT mean ‘detached’ but rather somewhat just the opposite) in the strings giving Spinelloccio a great opportunity to indulge the articulations of the double consonants in “il merito l’e tutto della scuola Bolognese!”
The point here is, the color of the diction, which has some influence on rhythm, tempo, etc., comes from a thorough study of the character. If you can imagine how your character walks and talks and interacts with others, this will provide valuable information to forming musical ideas of interpretation just as much as it will impact your staging. It’s a complete package and no single element should be left until later to consider.
Happy studying!
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