Sitzprobe is a term used in opera and musical theater to describe a seated rehearsal where the singers sing with the orchestra, focusing attention on integrating the two groups. Like many other compound German words, it is a term that sounds a little funny to the American ear.

We had our Sitzprobe for The Flying Dutchman last night.  I’d like to take a moment to express how impressed I am with the members of the LPO.  After weeks and weeks of rehearsals we in the chorus are almost ready to put this show up on stage and sing it for an audience.  The orchestra, on the other hand, had one read-through before last night (meaning last night was the second time they’d ever played the opera as a group)… and they sounded amazing.  Sure, there were a few glitches and wrong notes (in the words of Maestro, “There are a lot of accidentals in this opera…”), but overall it sounded truly amazing.  A round of applause for a group of incredibly talented musicians.

As for the music itself…  hearing all of the musical textures of the different instruments brings another dimension to the show that a piano (however expertly played) cannot hope to imitate.  The arias and duets sound even better… and we in the chorus get to hear exactly how loud or soft the accompaniment will be when we’re singing.

We’re getting close now!  The show opens in five days!  Coming down the home stretch…

One of my favorite times during the rehearsal process for an opera is my costume fitting appointment.  Since we don’t end up getting to see the set, the backdrops or the lighting until the week of the performances, costumes are the first tangible, visible hint we get regarding how the show is going to look.  This may sound a little silly or artsy, but seeing our costumes also help us get into character for the show!  Seeing what you’re wearing lets you know whether you’re rich or poor, flashy or tame, older or younger…  and the variety of different styles let each chorister develop a little idea of who we are within the context of whatever drama is unfolding onstage.

Since it’s set in a simple fishing village, The Flying Dutchman has much simpler costumes than many operas we’ve done recently (during Carmen many female choristers had at least three outfits and one two-minute quick change!), but we still need to be fitted for petticoats, dresses, bonnets, skirts, shawls, hats, etc…   the men have to have period-appropriate shirts, pants, boots, hats, and so forth… and there are about fifty of us to deal with, not including the principal singers!

Lots of work to do... Male chorus costumes all ready to try on!

Our costumers are amazing, and pay very close attention to details that most people would never even consider!  I remember one time, during Il Tabarro when I ended up wearing a dress owned by the New Orleans Opera since the costume company rental hadn’t sent one to fit me, and Charlotte (our beloved costume mistress!) actually took the time to take the puffs on the sleeves up two inches because they were set at an angle that wouldn’t be stylistically appropriate for about forty years after the opera took place.  The puffs on the sleeves on a dress for a chorus girl… and I only wore that dress for about ten minutes.  I was seriously impressed with the level of precision and dedication that showed.

The amazing Charlotte with chorus members Miki Byrne and Vickie Thomas, preparing to pin and hem and make us all look good!

The costume fittings are at the New Orleans Opera’s  scenic studio, a giant warehouse filled with set pieces, furniture, clothes, scenery, and props.  The first time I went over there I thought it was a little bit creepy… seeing random walls, columns, trellises, a half dozen giant chandeliers shrouded in rags…

…and knowing that at any moment you might turn a corner and run into a larger-than-life, very expressive, incrediby graphic depiction of Jesus Christ in wood and plaster…

Miki and David, back in street clothes, pose with Jesus (just so you can see how large-scale he is!)

… but after a few shows, you get used to it!  It’s a lot like being inside a huge, elaborate toy-box, actually.

Now that we’re into staging, and we know what we’ll be wearing, energy and momentum are picking up as we get ready to put on a show!

On the opera chorus front…

Yesterday was the rehearsal that we call “Music with the Maestro.”  It’s one of my favorite parts of the rehearsal process; after a month of learning notes and words (oh, so many German words… so many…) this is the first time we get to sing through the music we’ve learned with Maestro Lyall.  It’s the rehearsal where I feel we get out of first gear and start to really move towards putting the show together!

Normally this is a fun time because Maestro Lyall is so energetic and enthusiastic about every show we put on.  He sets out his musical directions and we start to solidify things like tempos, dynamics, and moods.  This time around there was even more to consider because Maestro Lyall is also going to be our stage director!  He already knows and is already telling us what we’re doing physically, how we’re interacting with each other, and so forth.  That adds yet another dimension to the music, and we would normally have had to wait for staging rehearsals to begin to consider these things.

Later this week we begin staging… we’ll come to rehearsal and see a skeleton set made out of tape marks on the floor and sketch out blocking (if you don’t speak “theater” that’s where to go, when to move, where to stand, etc.) and start to sing the music in the context of the scenes.  Even though we’re not in too many scenes during the show, and even though there are a lot of us, each singer in the chorus has their own acting to do, their own little character to personify.  We all try to imagine our own moods, opinions, reactions and thoughts so that we can help bring the show to life.

This point when we have to have our music memorized (yikes!!) and start to move around with each other is the hardest part of the rehearsal process, but it is by far the most fun!  When my friends ask me why I participate in something as time- and energy-consuming as the opera chorus, I respond by saying, “Well… I get paid to sing fun music and play dress up and make-believe!  It seems like a no-brainer to me!”

Next up…  Costumes and sets!  Yay!  This is just so much fun…

“No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”                      —W. H. Auden

Okay, okay… I know.   What an absurd headline.  But bear with me for a minute… hear me out.  Sitting in rehearsal last night I was suddenly struck by the realization that there are some striking similarities between Wagner’s Flying Dutchman and the hit teen drama Twilight.

No, I’m not kidding.  Look:

Senta is a young, healthy (if perhaps somewhat touched) young woman who spends all of her free time neglecting her work to pine over a man who should, in any reasonable world, be a character from a fictional horror story.  Bella Swan, on the other hand, is a young, healthy (if perhaps somewhat touched) young woman who spends all of her free time neglecting her schoolwork to pine over a man who should, in any reasonable world, be… um… well…  a character from a fictional horror story.   DO YOU SEE MY POINT?

The similarities don’t end there.  Both Senta and Bella have doting-yet-completely-ineffectual single fathers who work too much.  Both Senta and Bella have a group of friends who kind of think she’s a weirdo, and aren’t particularly nice to her.  Both Senta and Bella reject perfectly reasonable, healthy relationships with perfectly normal, living, breathing men (Erik/Mike Newton) in favor of the emotional rollercoaster of loving the undead, tortured, angsty, tall-pale-and-handsome anti-hero of their dreams.  Perhaps most stirringly, in a fit of desperation and despair at the thought that they have been abandoned by their lifeless lovers, both Bella AND Senta fling themselves off of the nearest cliff.

Coincidence?  Probably, yes.  I’ll give you that.  But it’s still amusing.

The key differences between The Flying Dutchman and Twilight?  Well… there are a FEW, I suppose.  For starters, the Dutchman gets beautiful music, amazing orchestration, stirring leitmotifs, and an eerie chorus of ghostly sailors to back him up.  Edward Cullen…  well… he sparkles.   The Dutchman is condemned to sail the oceans eternally without rest or peace until he finds a love who will be true to him…   Edward is condemned to be in high school FOREVER… which sounds even more hellish.

Come check out the Flying Dutchman this March!  If you think Hollywood can do “dark and broody romance,” we promise you haven’t seen ANYTHING ’til you’ve seen Wagner.  Seriously.

If you’ve never been to an Opera on Tap (or even if you have), come have a drink with us this March and see what it’s all about!

Opera on Tap will be at the Inn on Bourbon (541 Bourbon Street | New Orleans, LA 70130) this Wednesday, March 3rd, and at The Rusty Nail (1100 Constance Street | New Orleans. LA 70130) on Wednesday, March 10th.

This is New Orleans’ third season of Opera on Tap, a series of incredibly laid-back concerts of arias, scenes, and Broadway numbers performed by young, local artists for your amusement in the casual ambience of a New Orleans bar!

You can read more about how we got started here: http://www.neworleansopera.org/opera-on-tap.html

I know, I know…  Opera in a bar?  How absurd!  Who would bother with that?  Quite a few people, actually!  I’ve both sung on stage and watched from the audience with beer in hand, and I’ve never seen an empty house.  I’ve seen barely-of-age university students sharing tables with some of our 50+ year season-ticket-holders and discussing their favorite arias.  It’s such a good time!  The bars ban smoking for the duration of the program (thank goodness!) but the bartenders stay busy making drinks… this is New Orleans, after all.

So who are you coming to see?  A lot of the singers are local university students or members of the New Orleans Opera Chorus who love the chance to get up and show off our solo skills for our friends and family.  We also often manage to sweet-talk our principal singers for upcoming shows to hang out and sing a few tunes.  Our wonderful chorus master Carol mans the piano and we put on an hour-and-a-half concert just for fun!  Oh, yeah… Did I mention it’s FREE???

Come check us out at the Inn on Bourbon or the Rusty Nail this month!  We’re sure you won’t regret it.  :-)

“She sang, of course, ‘M’ama!’ and not ‘he loves me,’ since an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.”
–Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

Lise Lindstrom will be playing the role of Senta in "The Flying Dutchman" this March

Of course in “Dutchman,” the rules have changed.  OUR English-speaking audiences will be treated to our American soprano ecstatically declaiming her devotion in German to her Russian baritone who is playing a character from a Dutch legend with projected super-titles to help the process of understanding…  And I have to tell you, she’s going to do an amazing job.

Here’s a video of Lise Lindstrom, our lovely Senta, singing the heck out of In questa reggia in the Met’s production of Turandot in 2009:

Youtube- Turandot excerpt with Lise Lindstrom

I could start listing her other accomplishments and discussing her critical acclaim, but you can see all that for yourself here on her website:  http://www.liselindstrom.com

I cannot wait to get to staging rehearsals and hear what she’s going to do with Traft ihr das Schiff…

We always like to keep track of our New Orleans natives who are making their careers out in the world.  Take a look at this incredibly flattering article about Bryan Hymel, New Orleans born-and-raised who graduated from Jesuit High School and then Loyola University a few years back:

http://commandopera.com/2010/02/16/mr-bryan-hymel-les-troyens/

Bryan was last seen with New Orleans Opera in our gala concert at the Convention Center on December 31st, 2007, “electrifying” OUR audience with a stellar performance of the beloved tenor aria Nessun dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Before that he starred in our 2007 production of Il Trittico as Luigi in Il Tabarro and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi.

Bryan and co-star Mardi Byers in Il Tabarro in 2007

We’re happy to hear he’s doing so well!

Check out this costume from Mardi Gras day!  This fellow decided to celebrate his carnival season dressed as the old French Opera house in the Quarter…

This guy's costume is HOT!

For anyone who doesn’t know, the French Opera House was designed by James Gallier, Jr. and was built in 1859.  It was a huge social hub in New Orleans for sixty years, home to not only operas but debuts, Mardi Gras balls, benefits, and concerts.  Since it was considered the most fashionable establishment in New Orleans in the years between the Civil War and World War I, attendance at the opera was a social event of importance with ritual and tradition, and goodness knows we love our tradition in New Orleans.

On December 4, 1919 the building went up in flames and burned to the ground, obviously the tragedy that is depicted here in this gentleman’s costume.

Today the site is occupied by the Inn on Bourbon, at the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse.  You can still come to that location for some classical music and socializing, though!  The New Orleans Opera Association has added the Inn on Bourbon to our venue list once again, after 90 years of absence! Come check us out at Opera on Tap on March 3rd!

Evgeny Nikitin, our Dutchman, has had a busy and successful singing carreer!

According to his website, he was born in Murmansk in 1973 and studied at the the Saint Petersburg conservatory starting in 1992. At age 23 he was engaged as a soloist with the Mariinsky Theatre. He has sung all over Europe, the United States and Japan. 2002 marked his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House as Dolokhov (War and Peace). In New York since then, he’s also sung Colline (La Bohème), Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), and Oreste (Elektra).

This season Evgeny Nikitin is keeping busy, appearing with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington in Verdi’s Requiem, in Der Fliegende Hollander in Toronto as well as here New Orleans, and as Pogner (Die Meistersinger) in Cincinatti,  before he returns to the Met for a new production of Boris Godunov and sings in a new production of Attila at the ‘White Nights Festival’ in Saint Petersburg.

His list of accomplishments and performances goes on for a mile… the New Orleans Opera is definitely in for a treat this March when we get to hear him perform!  But a stellar, international singing career is not all this bass-baritone has to offer!  Check out this video and see how multi-faceted (and multi-colored– Check out the tattoos!) opera singers can be:

YouTube: Evgeny Nikitin – Opera & Metal

January 22nd and 23rd was our production of Verdi’s Requiem!  It went really well, as far as those of us onstage were concerned.  It was a pleasure for the New Orleans Opera Chorus to sing with the Loyola University Chorus and New Orleans Vocal Arts Chorale, despite how crowded it was onstage with three choirs, a Verdi-sized orchestra, four soloists, and the Maestro!!

Here are a few photos taken backstage at the event!

Looking Right Back At Ya: the view from where we sit

The first time I sat on risers staring out at our audience like this was the Gala concert when the Mahalia Jackson theater had just reopened after the Katrina damage was repaired.  I still can’t be there without getting a little choked up…

David (Baritone) and Brynn (Super-Awesome Stage Manager) Backstage Before the Show

Brynn is one of the many organized, patient, knowledgeable people behind-the-scenes at the opera making light, weather, and landscapes of the imaginary world you see when we perform…  Without our wonderful tech people, the opera as you know it would not happen!

Carol (Chorusmaster) and Alan (Baritone) Before the Show

As if teaching almost 200 people  almost 200 pages of Latin in 4, 6, and 8 part harmony wasn’t impressive enough…  Carol also manages to wrangle contracts, schedules, and paychecks for all of us!  What on earth would we do without her?

A chorus that plays together stays together...

If all work and no play makes you a dull boy, the New Orleans Opera’s choristers are far from dull!  Here we are sharing a cocktail (or two) after Saturday’s performance, celebrating a job well done (and the Saints-Viking game which took place the next day!).