Carmen synopsis
I’m on my way to carmen!
I originally started blogging synopses of shows I was in as a sort of study guide for people who were planning on coming to my shows. But lately I’ve been putting it off more & more, so im not sure how useful it would be for those people. Also, I am not sure how many people who read this blog come to any of my shows. But if they do, blogging a synopsis while i’m on the train to my only performance is prob not wicked helpful.
Nonetheless, I think there are other uses for such reductions, such as for people who are teaching themselves opera by following my trials and tribulations, and just people who want to understand what I’m up to better. Also, for peeps who maybe check out my website just ’cause I’m a hottie, and maybe will get sucked into some curiosity about opera because of the whack stories. And hott sopranos. 
So my carmen in a jiff:
The scene is sexy Seville! Good girl micaela is looking for her soldier boi don jose to give him a letter from his mom. The other dudes tell he’ll be here a little later, so she leaves ‘cuz they are kind of hitting on her.
The girls from the cigarette factory come out for their break and sing a chorus about smoking (yes really). Then carmen arrives on the scene and all the men throw themselves at her feet! (except in our production it’s the women singing that part. I don’t argue.)
That’s when Carmen sings a song that goes a little something like this:
Then she picks out the one guy in the group who’s not paying attention to her, and throws him her flower and runs away.
Jose is intrigued but then micaela shows up and they sing a happy little diet. Jose plans to follow his mothers plans and marry micaela!
But then there is commotion from the cigarette factory! Carmen kicked another bitch’s ass! She is arrested and jose has to guard her, but she seduces him into letting her escape.
Two months later, everyone is singing and dancing at the bar. The toreador shows up and sings about his victories. He likes carmen but she’s not game.
The gypsies clear the room and plan their smuggling mission. Carmen refuses to go because don jose has just been released and she’s expecting a visit. He comes and confesses his love, but when his boss, who also likes carmen, catches the two of them fooling around, the two men get into a testosterone-laden fight. The gypsies disarm them and go for a little walk with the boss, and jose admits that he has no choice but to desert the army and join the gypsies.
He makes a lousy smuggler though, and carmen gets sick of him and his jealousy. The girls read their fortunes and she predicts her death. Don jose refuses to leave her until micaela shows up and tells him his mother is dying. Jose leaves but warns carmen they will meet again.
Carmen goes out with the toreador and they are madly in love. Jose shows up at his show and demands her love, but she says she doesn’t love her anymore so he kills her. The end!
Sorry so rushed, almost time for the show!!!!
Voila la carmencita!
Ok, this is my first time blogging on wordpress, and I’m doing it from my phone, so we’ll see.
Sorry for the neglect- I’ve been exhausted all week, just utterly wiped. I keep feeling like I’m coming down with something and it just never comes down. I’m still not sure.
Monday we had our second and final carmen rehearsal. We were supposed to run it in order, of course, but in practice we did nothing of the sort. Mostly because the micaela and I were caught in traffic and got to rehearsal late, and some other people were late I think, so we ran things in this order: parts of act 4, acts 2 & 3 (quintet twice!), then act 1. Never got all the way through act 4… Anyways some people in the production did it a couple times earlier in the year, so in theory they don’t need a lot of rehearsal.
Yeah so it was interesting. My absolute favorite part was- when zuniga swaggars in, catches don jose with carmen and tells him, “allons, decampe!” which would be military French for “get the frick outta here”… In rehearsal, he accidentally said it to carmen. I was tickled pink! Not quite as good as canio trying to kill beppe, though.
In other news, my daughter of the regiment has been downgraded. Apparently they couldn’t find a sulpice, so now instead of a fully staged opera with chamber orchestra, we’re doing a concert highlights program with piano. Such a bummer!!! I really hope they change their mind and manage to find someone. I mean I’m still happy to do it but it’s not going to be nearly as awesome.
I also am not doing john Thomas’s show on nov 1st now, because he got a new baritone and pianist and they only gave him two potential rehearsal dates, neither of which I could make. (I’ve done these shows over and over, and every time there’s a new baritone so we have to start rehearsals from scratch!) so I told him it was ok with me if he used a different sorano. I didn’t think he would, since he booked me for this show 6 months in advance and has reminded me about it three dozen times since then, but I guess he had a new upstart waiting in the wings. I am relieved because at this point I am already overbooked. The gig was rewarding in that the audiences love it, but it didn’t pay much and the music is not my thing. I might do it again in the future but not sure when- we had another show scheduled but it got postponed til ?.
So now I’m at the bolt bus to Philly. I’m sleeping at carmen’s house tonight, and tomorrow afternoon is the show. I know I owe you a synopsis- I’ll try to post one in a separate entry soon!
Love,
Amanda
I really like La Paz
My luggage came today!!! Ive never felt so clean.
La Paz is really great. It..s different than I expected. On one hand, I thought it would be prettier. It..s got the nice mountains all around, but the view is pretty obstructed. The city is also much more congested and polluted than I thought. Well, there are a million people here after all.
On the other hand, its way nicer than I thought. It is not at all ghetto like I expected. Everywhere I..ve been has had a fully working toilet and toilet paper, unlike many other countries. I have not once been at a lack for vegetarian meals. Multiple internet spots on every block, with computers that work way better than in my past experiences.
Here..s the most interesting thing though: it..s like the whole city is one big marketplace. The streets are packed with vendors and stalls selling everything- not just the usual, scarves and sodas and batteries, but literally everything. I saw a stall selling those sports injury things you wear over you knees, ankles, whatever- that..s all he sold, for every body part. Another couple of stalls sold receipts and other paperwork for business owners. I have not been inside a store since I got here, and I can..t imagine why anyone would ever need to.
But the surprise is that, for all the vendors, there..s no hustle. No hustle! Nobody tries to get you to buy anything. The aymara ladies just sit their at their stalls knitting, ignoring you as you examine their wares, only looking up when you..re ready to pay. Even on the main tourist road, the stallkeepers just hang out and let you do your thing. Even the travel agencies don..t try to lure in obvious gringos. It is so nice. I..ve actually bought so much stuff I wouldnt have otherwise if I was afraid to glance at a display to avoid being pressured into buying something. Im actually enjoying walking through the bustling marketplaces and shopping openly.
On a related but different note- and this is the nicest surprise of all- the men dont hit on you. I havent had a single whistle or cat call since i got here. it fabulous! And such a surprise, since at least where i live its always the spanish guys making life miserable for pretty women. I guess Bolivian men are more respectful- or intimidated, since they are so small!!
Actually, I really am wondering about the role of women in Bolivian and Aymara society. Youd expect in an old, traditional, indigenous culture, where women still wear traditional dress, that theyd be oppressed or not have rights or something. But the women are doing everything- almost all the workers Ive seen have been women, from the aymara vendors to the travel agents to an armed guard outside the bank. (The banks have armed guards!) Where are the men? I guess in office jobs. But women are usually walking around by themselves, manning the shops by themselves, etc, so they obviously have a lot of independence.
Another misconception- I thought it would be so dangerous here and there would be people trying to pickpocket and rob you at every turn, but so far that has not been my experience at all. Lets not let our guard down, but I feel totally at ease everywhere. Even more so than at home, when I am on guard because of all the men hitting on me. It..s relaxing!
I spent all day today on a wild goose chase trying to locate a score I ended up needing last minute for something when I get home. It was not how I wanted to pass the day, but it took me on an interesting journey, from the musical instrument museum on the charming calle jaen all the way to the library of the national conservatory.
I better get a move on. Yes I am taking pictures, no I have not uploaded any yet. Now that I have my suitcase with my camera cord I hope I can! Don..t forget to follow me on Twitter in the meantime!
Love always,
Amanda
Valle de la luna
Last night after I left you, I went to little wine bar. There were only two customers when I walked in, and they were singing Va Pensiero (a famous opera chorus by Verdi). I did a double take, shrugged, and joined in. Turns out the guy is a tango singer from Argentina, and the girl used to sing in the Bolivian Choral Society. So random. She told me I might be able to get the score I need from the choral society. The guy sang me a tango song. Pretty cool.
Today I twisted the arms of some of my hostel mates into making the trip to Valle de la Luna with me. It..s half an hour outside of town, and its like, this whole area of these pillary rock formations that you can walk around. We figured out we could hire a cab there really cheap- $6 an hour, divided by three people. It was really something, stunning and unusual. So glad we went. Yes there are pics, but unfortunately I left the cable for my camera at home so I can..t upload them til I get back!!
Gotta run catch my bus to Uyuni. ttyl!
Amanda
Salar de Uyuni
Civilization at last!
I am back from Uyuni and our three-day Land Rover tour across the salt flats and nature reserve.
Yeah it was pretty awesome. First of all, the idiot travel agent I talked to here was very unhelpful. I rode a ghetto bus down there and my feet were so cold by the time I got there that I couldnt feel them for 45 minutes. Then I didnt have a tour booked because she told me it was better to book one when I got there, except it was 6am on a freezing Sunday morning and nothing was open. I finally sat down in the main square to layer on a few more pairs of socks under my hiking boot when a travel agent lady came up to me and offered to open her agency for me, and since I was cold and wanted to go inside, I went with her. So I booked my tour with her even though her agency was obviously pretty bottom rung, because she had a space heater and let me sleep on the couch while she went back out to hustle.
Our car was like an hour and a half late, but it was like an hour and a half late for everything the whole time. We..re on Bolivian time here.
I had two French guys, a Spanish couple, and a Chilean guide. One of the French spoke fluent Spanish, the other only basic, both spoke some English. The Spanish woman spoke no English but some French. Her husband didnt speak either comfortably but he preferred attempting English to French. The Chilean and the tour guide only spoke Spanish. So we ended up speaking French most of the time, and a little Spanish. (Which I dont speak.)
It would be too much for me to recount the whole trip here. We went to the salt flats, which were pretty crazy as you can imagine. It was just white and flat. With neat piles of salt here and there. But it was really salt. Yes, I tried picking it up and licking it. It was salt.
There was also an island of cactuses in the middle of the salt flat. If my guide spoke English, I could probably tell you why.
They can also make really solid things out of the salt, like buildings. We stayed in a hostel made entirely of salt- even the beds! (Some things were made of cactus though.)
The next day we saw flamingo-inhabited lakes. I..d never seen flamingos in the wild so that was neat. We also went to a red lake, which was incredible. Like, it was really red. Not like just kind of pink or purple, like it was red. Pics to follow!
We also saw giant stone things and an active volcano in the distance.
That night we stayed in a real shitter of a youth hostel. Forget hot water, they didn..t even have showers! My whole group of 6 was squished into one small room. The hostel had a little shop that sold lots of wine, so we acquired a lot of it. There was only one heat stove in the building so we all gathered around it and drank and hung out for hours. I kept getting everyone to sing.
OK so here..s the thing about me- i have a really high alcohol tolerance (for a cute little girl), I dont puke from drinking, and I NEVER get hangovers. Once in my life I threw up the day after drinking too much, and once in my life I woke up with a mild headache after drinking too much. And if you know me you know its not for lack of imbibing, that..s just the way Im built. (I actually theorize that its because I drink so much water, and hangovers are largely caused by dehydration.) Anyways, I got SICK. I threw up, went to sleep, woke up with a violent headache, and proceded to be sick on and off all morning- couldn..t even hold down water. Im thinking this has something to do with altitude sickness- some people get really, really ill from it- head, stomach, the works. Im not one of those people, but maybe the combination of the drinking and the altitude? (I drank plenty the night before with no problem though.) Or the eggs. The vegetarian substitute meals they gave me were all eggs, and i cant stand eggs, but I was choking them down anyways. But a lot can go wrong with eggs, and Ive heard Bolivia has an alarmingly high salmonella rate. Whatever. We went to some hot springs, and they were the nicest-feeling hot springs Ive ever been in- consistant temperature, and just hot enough. I felt much much better after that. In fact, shortly after I felt fantastic- I couldnt stop singing. I guess I was making up for how crappy I felt that morning, when we were in the car and at the geysers. Everyone else was jumping through the geyser, but I couldnt bring myself even close to it because I felt so sick and the smell of sulpher was not helping.
We kept having car troubles, and at one point the driver dropped us off at the trashy hostel to have lunch and disappeared with the car for about an hour or more, leaving us just hanging out. It was really boring, but then a herd of vicunas walked right up to us and hung out for awhile. They were so used to people- one of them came right up to me and just looked at me. Not close enough to touch, but considering that when we were in the car they were always running away from us, I didnt know they could be so friendly. Then they just wandered around the grounds for awhile, between the buildings, looking for something to do.
When I finally got back to Uyuni, I found that almost all the buses back to La Paz were sold out. Freaking travel agent, she told me I could just buy the ticket there! It was at the very last minute that I found a crappy little bus company Id never heard of that had a few seats left. It was even more ghetto than the first one- Im talking a bad day on the Chinatown bus- but it got me to La Paz in one piece. I was afraid Id be sick again on the bumpy ride (the vast majority of roads in Bolivia are not paved), and there are no bathrooms on the ghetto bus, so I just forced myself to fall asleep, which worked out.
Today I am back in La Paz but I am too tired and lazy to really do anything- just recouperating. Tomorrow I go to Titicaca.
See ya!
Love always,
Amanda
The rest of my trip
Hey! Sorry dudes I haven’t gotten a chance to get caught up with ya!
After being in La Paz for a night, I went to Lake Titicaca and stayed on Isla del Sol. It was really gorgeous! You had to climb up this huge huge huge hill to get to where the hotels were. With the altitude and the heavy packs and everything, it was an extreme physical exertion, even for me.
I didn’t know where to go and I hate hustlers, so I went to the HI hostel. The travel agent in the town on the lake who had booked my boat recommended it (without booking me) and some girls on the ferry said they were going there, so it was the best I had to go on. The HI hostel kind of sucked, and the Aymara ladies who ran it didn’t speak or understand a word of English, but it was cheap and close.
The views all over the island village were fabulous. There were restaurant patios overlooking the lake every few feet. I joined the Irish girls at my hostel for a coffee at a patio across from the hostel. The beverages were sub-par but the sun and sea were worth the whole trip.
The only thing to do on the island is to walk across it, which theoretically takes 4 hours one way. The only way to get back is to take a boat, and I didn’t know what time they ran but I was sure they were done for the day. It was 4:30 by the time I left the girls, and I knew I only had a couple hours before the sun went down (it is winter down there), but there was nothing else to do and I was feeling energized after recovering from the climb.
I reached the halfway point of the island right at sunset, and turned back around to try to get home before it got too dark. This was pretty faulty thinking, as it gets dark pretty much when the sun goes down, and I had, being generous about my speed, an hour and a half walk ahead of me. It wasn’t long before I was stumbling in the dark. Then I remembered I had a mag light! I pulled it out and twisted it on. The keychain-sized light, which was so impressive when shone upon my reading materials in the bus, barely made a scratch in the darkness of the island. Disappointment! Anyways I speed-walked the path back towards the village lights, thinking I’d be safe once I got to the end of the island.
Wrong! Counterintuitively, the darkness was even more of a hazard once the trans-island path splintered into winding, stepped stone streets, and I had to figure out which rocks were part of the sidewalk and which were part of the scenery. The problem was that there was hardly any light in the village- only a few scattered street lights, and even the hotels and restaurants were kept very dark, with most of the lights extinguished. I was practically crawling on my hands and knees at points, trying not to fall over a cliff.
I asked directions from some locals and eventually stumbled upon my hostel. Then I had to head out for food. I went to the nearest restaurant, where I found the girls, who had had exactly the same problem as me, except with a slightly better flashlight. Very slightly.
The next day I headed back to the town and from there to La Paz, where I would spend the end of my trip. I had wanted to go hiking, but I would have needed to get a couple people together, which is hard when you’re traveling alone. It was a moot point anyways because I ended up getting sick again. Seems like whatever had gotten into my system in Uyuni on Tuesday hadn’t quite gotten out of it (I had been battling scattered bouts of nausea ever since) and I was sick again Saturday evening- worse than the first time. One of my friends at the hostel (some people I had met my first night, who were back there again the same days as me) works in a hospital and knows about medicine and stuff, so she helped me get the right antibiotics (everything is over the counter in Bolivia). They also came down and checked on me in the night, which is wicked sweet- you know, when you’re sick in a really weird country, alone, in a hostel- somebody has to take care of you!
I was feeling better by Sunday night, when I went to Cholitas wrestling! The woman sitting next to me in the gringo section was telling me that she’d been in Bolivia a year ago and met someone who was writing an article on Cholitas wrestling for National Geographic, and it coincidentally had just come out.
So cholitas wrestling is theoretically WWF starring Aymara women in traditional clothes. In practice, only two of the, what, 5 acts? were pairs of females, the rest were men. The plot was the same each act: the bad guys are friends with the ref, the good guys would have won in a fair fight, but the evil ref and the cheating of the bad guys interfered. Most of the time they won anyways. The female acts both had the same plot too: a good, virtuous Aymara girl fights against a bad-ass rebellious girl in Western clothing. None of the chicks looked all muscular, but pulled all the moves!!
Some of the guys in our group got beat over the head by one of the girls, which was pretty awesome. One of them, a particularly outspoken American, became a devotee of a middle-aged wrestler with sideburns and star-spangled tights, whom he referred to as Neil Diamond until we found out his name was Mister Atlas. He bought the most delightfully HORRID poster of Mister Atlas you can imagine, and kept waving it in the bad guys’ faces. At the end of the finale, Mister Atlas ran over to our corner and signed it. All the little urchin children gathered around to see.
It wasn’t a tourist attraction for gringos- our presence was superfluous. The rest of the audience away from the ringside youth hostel seats were all Aymara, old and young alike, and very into the show. They show was pretty crazy, in that “would never happen in America” kind of way. The acting and moves were relatively lame, but we were nearly run down by wrestlers stumbling out into the audience many times, having to jump up from our seats and dodge out of the way. Some people in our group were beaten with props, and we were all sprayed with water and Pepsi. (One of the bad guys stole the bottle of Pepsi right out from under my neighbor’s chair. That’s why she’s a bad guy I guess!) It was uncontrolled enough to make it authentic even among the fakeness.
I spent Monday in Lima, as I had a 13-hour layover between flights. I hung out in Miraflores for several hours, then met up with a family I met last time I was in Lima two years ago. I barely made it to the airport- I got into a really really cheap cab, with a little paper sign on the windshield that read “taxi,” and it kept breaking down on the highway. Lima is a dangerous city and I wasn’t sure if it was safer inside or outside of the car, so I just sat tight as the driver worked on the engine. At one point I saw him just spit in it and slam the lid. Well, it started running, so I guess he knows what he’s doing. (Didn’t Jesus cure somebody’s vision with his spit?)
I only had a few hours to relax after I got home- we had our first Pirates of Penzance rehearsal last night! Much younger chorus members than in the last show. I do love Pirates. Glad to be actually doing Mabel this time, instead of covering and never getting a chance to sing.
Also! I am doing Bastien et Bastienne (an opera Mozart wrote when he was 12) in Harrisburg next weekend. I know, last minute! I am an SOS soprano. More on it later.
Love you guys!
Amanda
Bastien und Bastienne
Hello my loves!
I am in Harrisburg again, this time participating in a Mozart concert and singing the role of Bastienne in Mozart’s very early opera, Bastien und Bastienne. He wrote it when he was twelve, and believe it or not it was commissioned by Dr. Franz Mesmer. Weird. Opera fans will be aware that Dr. Mesmer is parodied by Despina in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, which was written towards the end of Mozart’s life.
Rehearsals started Sunday afternoon, but I had my first day of my new church on Sunday and fortunately the directors were able to work around my absence. I arrived yesterday and went straight to rehearsal, where we ran the Mozart concert portion of the concert. The only things I was slated to sing were Der Hoelle Rache (Queen of the Night) and Fiordiligi’s line in Soave sia il vento (from Cosi fan tutte). But the girl who’s supposed to sing some Susanna stuff wasn’t at the rehearsal yesterday or today, so I filled in for her on Deh vieni and sull’aria. She’s still supposed to be at the concert, but we should know for sure tomorrow. Also, Eric Jorgenson is here- he’s the one who conducted Pagliacci- and he’s singing some tenor stuff, and he recommended that we do the Fiordiligi-Ferrando duet. Which I don’t know, because I’ve always been more of a Despina than a Fiordiligi (though who knows what the future will bring), but we’re allowed to use music, and I sight-read it fine in rehearsal. We’ll decide tomorrow whether or not we’re doing it for sure.
Today was the Bastien und Bastienne rehearsal. So, when Capitol Opera Harrisburg asked me to do Bastienne, I was in Bolivia and had to frantically search for a score. Then I remembered that pretty much all of Mozart’s music is available free online. However, I couldn’t manage to print it, so I got my assistant in India to put it in a pdf file for me, but he has trouble understanding which score to print- the point being that it took a long time for me to finally get the score. Then, the day after I get it, the director just happens to mention that, oh, by the way, we’re doing it in English. Oh, thanks for letting me know. So now I have less than a week before I have to be here. I just sucked it up and got the score at Juilliard the day after I got back- btw not a single store in NYC had a recording, not even Academy Records. When is the freaking Met store opening back up??? I had to iTunes it.
Soooo anyways. I didn’t get to rehearse formally, as I had just copied down the blocking from the girl I’m double cast with 5 minutes ago. So she did it, and I ran through my blocking in the corner, and tried on costumes, etc. Then the pianist stayed late with me so I could run it through by my lonesome, after everyone else had left. Yep, I did the show by myself, including the dialogue, duets and the trio. After all, as seems to be a pattern for me, I’d never done any of this music with piano before at all- just by myself, a capella and a little singing a long to the recording (mostly just in my head while jogging and on the train), so I wanted a chance to run it- as it is it looks like I only have one rehearsal, the one tomorrow.
So, that’s what’s up with me. I’ll write more about Bastien und Bastienne later. Synopsis and whatnot. So I’ll talk to you guys later!
Love always,
Amanda
Bastien dress rehearsal
Hey guys!
Still in Harrisburg. Just sent out my mass email and updated my website calendar. Forgot to add my Daughter of the Regiment dates. Oh well. My assistant was sick for a few days so I had to do everything myself. The horror.
Tonight I had my only rehearsal for Bastien und Bastienne. Still no Colas (the smallish bass role). He’s supposed to be there tomorrow. Otherwise the director will have to jump into the role- and she’s a soprano. Anyways as far as I was concerned it went well. We had to stage the end of the opera, the rest of the blocking I got yesterday from my double.
The Mozart concert looks really good. My Queen of the Night is rocking, which is good because I was feeling rusty on it when I first got here (having pretty much just returned from 2 weeks vacation). I should probably sing Der Hoelle Rache more often- I tend to rely on O Zittre Nicht to show off my Queen, but that’s just not the one people want to hear!
Mostly I’ve just been walking since I’ve been here. Sleeping and walking. It’s a 5 mile walk into town from my hotel, and I have no access to a car. My feet hurt.
I’m tired, I’m going to bed. Sorry I’m so boring today- please enjoy this article.
Stuff White People Like: Appearing to enjoy Classical Music
“If a white person starts talking to you about classical music, it’s essential that you tread very lightly. This is because white people are all petrified that they will be exposed as someone who has only a moderate understanding of classical music. When a white person encounters another white person who actually enjoys classical music (exceptionally rare), it is often considered to be one of the most traumatic experiences they can go through.”
Wow that hit home- in terms of my conversations talking to non-musicians, I mean.
Love you guys!
Mandy
Bastien und Bastienne synopsis
Lucky me, I got another rehearsal tonight, for a grand total of two. We didn’t run it in order- we did the second half first, then the first half- but I was glad to get a chance to work through it with the Colas.
So here’s the long-awaited synopsis! (Based on the English version- not sure how different the German version is, as I didn’t get too deep into translating the recits when I was cramming it in Bolivia.)
Bastienne (aka Bastienna in the Schirmer version) is so sad! Her lover, Bastien, is untrue. She wants to die- but not really, because she takes solace in her sheep.
Colas the magician appears and she requests his help. He tells her Bastien still loves her- he is just being a bit of a matieralist, as the woman who’s caught his attention is a sugar mamma.
She remembers how he used to steal her flowers teasingly, and is so sad that he would go to another for gifts, when she would give him all her land and sheep if he asked.
She toys with the idea of playing the courtesan like Bastien, but decides that she never could, her love for him is too pure.
Colas explains that she has to pretend to like someone else to get him to come back. She decides to give it a try.
Bastien shows up and thanks Colas for bringing him to his senses about his love life- but Colas tells him it’s too late, Bastienne has another admirer. Colas casts a magic spell to make it better.
Bastienne arrives on the scene after Colas has left and tells Bastien it’s over between them. They both threaten to go into town and find wealthy lovers and marry them and be happy forever.
Bastien threatens suicide, but Bastienne still plays it cool. She sends him away, and the two lament the loss of their love.
But then, kind of out of the blue, they’re like, “Well, never mind, we do still love each other- let’s start anew!” and they promise no more fighting- they are going to be true lovers to each other forever and ever and they are getting married!
Colas comes back on and sends them off hand in hand to live happily ever after. They cheer for Colas, a wonderful man. Hooray!
The end. 
It’s supposed to be a parody on pastoral operas, which I guess is why they get back together so suddenly. It’s hard to judge, having never seen a specimen of the parodied genre.
Well that’s all for now, hope to see some of you Saturday afternoon!
Love always,
Amanda
Frasquita-Mercedes part switching
Hey!
So tomorrow afternoon is my performance of Bastienne. Today we had off, so I went to Opera Lancaster to see some friends in Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. I was impressed with the quality- I thought it might suck, but actually the shows were very professional. (I use the term figuratively, as it’s an all-volunteer company.) The sets and costumes were fabulous. Very few outstanding voices but the overall preparation was great. Puts what we’ve got at Capitol Opera Harrisburg to shame, I have to admit- but we have better singers.
I’m banging my head against the wall about Carmen. See, all the scenes from Carmen I’ve performed have been as written in the Schirmer score. However, I knew that often Frasquita and Mercedes switch certain lines so that Frasquita always has the top line. So when Ralph at Amici was giving me the cuts, I asked him which way we were doing it. He said the version where Frasquita was always on top. (The way it’s published in Schirmer, Frasquita and Mercedes switch back and forth who is on top and who is mezzo, even though Mercedes is usually cast as a mezzo.) Although I’m certain he’s working from the Schirmer score. Now that’s good, because some places I know the top line (like in Notre Metier, where Mercedes has the soprano line in Schirmer), and the scenes I’ve done before I pretty much know it both ways.
So I’m sitting here with my score trying to figure out what goes where and I just can’t. It’s not as obvious as you would think. Sure, if F&M are singing in harmony, it’s easy to just take the top part, but what about when they’re singing in turn? And I thought I remembered hearing that sometimes they switch verse parts on the card trio, but that seemed like too extreme an alteration for our case.
I finally decided I needed to get professional help. I thought I’ll just call my coach and have him give it to me measure-for-measure over the phone, and just send him a check.
He returned my call and told me that there’s another version of the score, the “Opera Comique” version (which I would assume means it’s the original, with dialogue and not recit, since it was originally composed for the Opera Comique), where Frasquita is always on top, but there are a lot of other changes, too. Now I’m sure we’re using Schirmer, not this other score that I’ve never seen, but are we supposed to make all the part switches? I don’t know. So I’ll call Ralph tomorrow to ask. Will he say vaguely, “Just always sing what’s on top”? Or, worse, will he say, “Oh, no, actually, just do it as written in Schirmer” and I’ll have to learn all these mezzo parts I don’t know just two days before our first of only two rehearsals? Guess I should have worked this out sooner instead of “guessing” up until now. I probably would have guessed my way all the way through it, except it turns out my Mercedes is the girl I’m double-cast with in Bastien. She hadn’t known to ask about the part switching, so she learned it as written. Which is what I really don’t want to do. Either way, ONE of us is going to have to learn some mezzo parts FAST.
My guess is the answer will be unclear either way, and I’ll cut a deal with Mercedes/Bastienne that we can do as written except on Notre Metier, where I really know the soprano part and don’t know the mezzo at all. The rest I’m flexible on.
And no, I am not waiting until 2 days before to learn my music. I know 99% of it (gotta straighten out a few lyrics.) Just apparently not all the right parts, one way or another… I’d've done this sooner, except this Bastienne thing came up…
On a happier, note, I finally got to check out the Fledermaus pictures and they are FABULOUS!!! The pics are from the dress rehearsal- if you followed my whole drama you know my costume was slightly different for the performance, but not by much. It’s going to take me forever to go through all the pics, pick out my faves, and post them to my website. But here they are if you want to go through them yourself. I’m in the blue & white maid costume at the beginning, and the hot pink gown in the second and third acts.
