Wednesday 14 August 2013

Who needs rehearsal?.......Um, me please.


Who would have thought I would have so much to say that we would make it to 10 diary entries! I must say this is this most fun I have had in years so I thank you for indulging me and giving me a reason to keep writing. It is so appreciated. I am aware that we still need to look at "The Guildhall Years" but there are so many other things to harp on about that I haven't quite got around to it yet. For now though let us talk about the Tête à Tête Opera Festival.


I first became aware of this festival a few years ago and have had the good fortune to be involved in projects at 2 of the festivals. The first time, I was in the cast of "The Screams of Kitty Genovese" by Will Todd and David Simpatico and it was one of THE best experiences of my career. It is the true story of Kitty Genovese and her murder at the hand of Winston Moseley in 1964 and how 38 people witnessed it but did not call the police. Quite a harrowing subject for an opera/musical but, as we established in the last entry, I like challenging material. The production was directed, very simply but effectively, by David G Edwards and every member of the cast was totally committed to telling this woman's story. It is worth looking into Kitty Genovese if you have not heard of her or, alternatively you can see our show from Riverside Studios online via the Tête à Tête website or via this handy link:




So, onto this year's festival and I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in 2 concert performances of Act 1 of Pete Wyer and Clarke Melville's new opera "La Belle de La Bête". Set in Barbados in the 1960s the opera will, eventually, tell the story of Barbadian Sonia and English Edward. I won't go into too many details as it was very much a work-in-progress and don't have too many details to give. We had very little time to put the whole thing together and, as the festival is predominantly a contemporary opera festival, the music was hard. So one run through with the piano was not really enough for a girl like me. I had had the music for about a week before the one and only rehearsal and even though I had very little to do I panicked...a lot...in the rehearsal. Instead I should have taken a leaf out of my very good friend Helen Wither's book. Helen was roped in the day before the one and only rehearsal, let me say that again: ONE AND ONLY REHEARSAL, to sing Sonia, the biggest rôle in the opera, and she was fantastic. Yes, Helen is a much better sight reader than me but her attitude and approach to the situation was inspirational and she ended up with a pretty near perfect performance of the music she had to deliver. By the second performance I was much calmer and I definitely did a better job on the Friday than I did on the Thursday. All that said I really hope to see where this new opera goes and hope to be involved in more of it's developement. Although it was a pretty terrifying experience it certainly revived my soul and my need to do more singing.


I, myself, played Lady Walker, mother of Edward. That's right folks I am finally moving into the middle aged, character parts category (I have been waiting for the day I can tell you). I have loved singing things like Norina in "Don Pasquale" and Violetta in "La Traviata" but I have never felt like these parts fitted with who I am. Comedy/character/evil parts are definitely my forte and I hope that parts like Betty in "Kitty Genovese" and Lady Walker in "La Belle de La Bête" are a sign of things to come.


I heartily recommend you get yourselves down to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith and check out the Tête à Tête festival sometime in the next three weeks. I would suggest a kind of Russian Roulette way of choosing what you see. Just turn up and go to the next thing that is on. You never know what you will be letting yourself in for. Everything tends to be quite short so even if you don't like something it won't last long and you can then move onto something else. This is absolutely what I intend to do one day before it ends for another year so perhaps I will see you there!


2 comments:

  1. i like so much this ....well said this is very good and so interesting topic...."" Who would have thought I would have so much to say that we would make it to 10 diary entries! I must say this is this most fun I have had in years so I thank you for indulging me and giving me a reason to keep writing. It is so appreciated. I am aware that we still need to look at "The Guildhall Years" but there are so many other things to harp on about that I haven't quite got around to it yet. For now though let us talk about the Tête à Tête Opera Festival.""

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your comment. Glad you enjoyed and thanks for reading.

    ReplyDelete