Friday, February 26, 2010

Rehearsals Schedule - Notes

University of Tennessee Opera Theatre
Carroll Freeman, Dir.  
Kevin Class, Music Dir.
Week of March 1, 2010


Notes:

1)  If you are going to be absent for a Musical Rehearsal/Coaching, you are to inform the Music Director (that would be Kevin Class: kclass@utk.edu) AND the assigned Coach (ie. Mr. Harvey or Ms. Maness) ahead of time.  Securing approval from Mr. Freeman does NOT ensure that the musical staff working on your behalf is aware of your anticipated absence.  Of course Stefan Barner should also be made aware of any schedule conflicts you may have.  Missed rehearsals/coachings are not going to be made up so you are still entirely accountable for your own preparations.

2)  Spring semester is an extremely busy time for everyone.  Of course we recognize that your recitals are a top priority, and the opera department supports you fully in this.  However, your aspirations to be professionals require YOU (not US) to be well organized about your preparations and to pace yourselves, in your learning of music, accordingly.  Having an upcoming recital is not a legitimate excuse for not having looked at opera roles to which you were assigned several months ago.  For those of you who have many irons in the fire, we have done what we could to assist you by strongly (emphatically!) urging you to learn your Pirates music back in December so that you could turn at least some of your attention to learning the demanding music of V.S. and G.S. at the beginning of this semester.  Consistent reminders have also been made that there is no possibility of waiting for the completion of one project before beginning another.  We can only continue to remind you of the need to invest of your own time into preparing these roles NOW as there simply is very little time left.  We have pushed back the production calendar as far as is possible at this point.  Please read down to note the slight adjustment that staging will begin March 22nd.  This allows us the week after spring break to put both Village Singer and Gianni Schicchi together musically.  That is NOT a week to learn your parts; that is the week to rehearse and put everything together so that it is ready for the intensive staging work which will follow.  This is all that can be said on the topic now.  Please do whatever you need to do as individuals and young professionals to ensure you are prepared when you need to be.  The music staff will not have time or availability later to teach you your music, but we are always willing to advise you on how to prepare so do ask if you need help or suggestions!

 

Monday, March 1, 2010

VILLAGE SINGER: (Maness – Opera Room)

3:30-4:00            Minnie
4:00-4:30            Jenny
4:30-5:00            Nancy
5:00-5:30            Brent

VILLAGE SINGER: (Class – AMB 118)
 
4:00-5:00            William

GIANNI SCHICCHI: (Harvey – Harvey’s studio)

3:30-4:00            Simone
4:00-4:30            La Ciesca
4:30-5:00            Marco
5:00-5:30            Nella

PIRATES:  Check KO Schedule – at the Depot

 
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

VILLAGE SINGER: (Class – AMB 118)

3:30-4:30            Candace  (C. Stevens
4:30-5:30            Candace (R.A. Moore)
 
VILLAGE SINGER: (Maness – Opera Room)
 
3:30-5:30            ALL Choir Music (Alma, Minnie, Jenny, Nancy, Pollard, Wilkins, Emmons, Brent)

GIANNI SCHICCHI: (Harvey)

3:30-4:00            Schicchi
4:00-4:30            Rinuccio
4:30-5:00            Lauretta
5:00-5:30            Gherardo

PIRATES:            Check KO Schedule

 
 
 
 
Friday, March 5, 2010

TBA


Week of March 8

SPRING BREAK:   No Village Singer or Gianni Schicchi


Week of March 15

Musical Rehearsals (including Tuesday and Thursday evenings) of Village Singer/Gianni Schicchi:  A specific schedule will follow.

Week of March 22

March 22:  OFF BOOK – Staging begins Monday, March 22nd.


             

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Rehearsal Schedule: Week of February 22nd

University of Tennessee Opera Theatre

Week of February 22, 2010

 

Monday, February 22, 2010

 

VILLAGE SINGER:  (Class – AMB 118)

 

3:30-4:30            Alma (any/all music)

4:30-5:30            Minnie, Jenny, Todd, Brent, Nancy

                                    Scene 1; Scene 2 up to pg. 45

 

 

GIANNI SCHICCHI:  (Harvey – Harvey’s studio)

 

3:30-4:30            Schicchi

4:30-5:00            Rinuccio

5:00-5:30            Simone

 

PIRATES:  Check KO Schedule – at the Depot


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

 

VILLAGE SINGER:  (Class – AMB 118)

 

3:30-4:30            Candace

4:30-5:30            Minnie, Jenny, Nancy, Wilson, Pollard, Todd, Brent

                                    All of Scene 2 material

 

VILLAGE SINGER:  (Maness – Opera Room)

 

3:30-4:30            William Emmons (any/all music)

4:30-5:30            Wilson  (any/all music)

 

GIANNI SCHICCHI:  (Harvey)

 

3:30-4:00            Marco

4:00-4:30            Nella

4:30-4:45            Gherardino

4:45-5:30            La Ciesca

 

PIRATES:            Check KO rehearsal schedule – at the Depot

 

Friday, February 26, 2010

 

VILLAGE SINGER:  (Maness – Room 41)

 

3:30-4:30            Pollard

4:30-5:00            Wilson/Alma (Scene 2)

5:00-5:30            All “Choir” music  (Tutti all involved)

 

GIANNI SCHICCHI:  (Class/Harvey – Opera Room)

 

3:30-4:30            Work-through beginning to #28

4:30-5:00            ADD Spinelloccia/Schicchi: #46-49

5:00-5:30            Schicchi:  #49-52

 

Production Plan - Village Singer/Gianni Schicchi

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!

 

 

 

UTOT Spring 2010

Welcome back to the opera blog!  In order to facilitate our work on our spring production, rehearsal and study notes will be placed here once again.  Since we were directly involved in the process from start to finish during the fall's "Crucible" production, we did not utilize this as a source for information.  The spring semester, however, is always a bit more complicated due to the number of recitals, productions and personnel involved.  For that reason, rehearsal notes, etc., will again be placed here along with any other random notes or media that seems appropriate.  As always, official announcements and schedules will be distributed through the UTOT email list and supersede anything found here.