and we come full circle?

well… not full circle, but at least back to a previous time.

i’ve always had trouble sleeping.  i have a sneaky suspicion it has to do with the fact that i don’t like being alone, because i sleep well when people are with me.  that sounds weird and mildly creepy.  but, its the truth.

so, here it is.  3:22am. 

i used to write in here all the time when i couldn’t sleep.  but somehow i got out of that habit.  i think i’m gonna start again.  not sure how long this will last… but who knows.

so i’ve come to a conclusion that… actually.  its not even important enough to say it out loud.

um… well, now that i’ve quashed my only topic i’m a little… er… done.

i guess i can talk about the opera i went and saw tonight.

i saw the silver cast of Tosca on the mainstage today.  it was breathtaking.  i already love the music in this opera, but the voices this evening were wonderful.  the gold cast last night was equally good, but tonight just seemed… less opera-ish.

there’s a horrible stigma (and with good reason) that opera is full of large goofy gestures that no on in their right mind (besides the singing) would do in everyday life.  well this one cast (i won’t mention which) had CRAZY big gestures.  like, ridiculously big gestures!  it actually drove me nuts.

which, i think is why i like the director for the Young Artist Program i’m in.  he (of course) loves opera… but he also loves good acting.  so he works his hardest to create situations in opera that mimic real life, rather than some grandiose scena (pronounced SHAY-nuh.  we love to use that in opera because it sounds so much more dramatic than "Scene") that is so pompous the audience cannot connect.

last year we did Falstaff (by Verdi, which is based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor) and we had an interesting spin.  we played it as if we were actors (basically ourselves) that came onstage and got into our "period" costumes to become the Shakespearian actors that would perform the opera for you.  so you saw us as people, then as actors, and then at the end as actors again.  Case in point: Falstaff (the character) is supposed to be fat… however Joshua Jeremiah (my Falstaff) is not.  so, in front of the audience, he would come out and put on his fat suit, then the costume that went over top of it.  it was amazing the response we got from it.  people loved that insight into how we work, and seeing a difference between the "actor" and the "person".

i have no idea if any of that made any sense.

anyway… i agree with him that opera has been to far removed from the everyday and now people think its supposed to be this gawdy grand scena instead of real.

thats really all i have for the moment because i have to use the potty (which i’m sure you all wanted to know…) and tranlate the last few pages of the opera.

have a great Friday you wonderful type peoples!

– noah