Sarasota Day 4 -ITALIANA

I actually started the day working on a project that I am writing for CBC radio. I have a little office her at the opera company and it has a baby grand piano, so after I picked up a large coffee at the local coffee shop, I settled down fora morning's work. It went very well. SO well in fact that after lunch I abandoned the piano and biked to the beach which is only around 15 minutes away. Hey - I am in Florida...

The big work of the day was an acting session with the people involved in the "Gollum" scene. My Gollum scene is a bit different as it is done as a puppet theatre with 6 elf maidens operating strings attached to a person playing a Gollum puppet. SOunds complicated, I know, but when it works, it is great. This is a challenging scene, however, and there isn't much music so the girls really need to rely on their acting skills. It's definately moving in the right direction, but they really have to let it all go and not worry about making their faces look hideously ugly. (HEAR THAT any students reading this....theatre...YOU HAVE TO LET GO, BE BIG and BECOME the character you are playing...)

After that we had the Italiana, which you can see in the picture above. A full reading of the opera with all the singers and the whole orchestra. It fely MASSIVE and was thrilling. This is really the largest forces I've ever had fo an opera of mine and it really feels like we are doing a big mainstage opera.

Anyway, it's Tuesday morning now and I'm here in the office to do some more writing. Tonight is the first Orchestral Dress rehearsal, so basically the full show with acting costumes. lights and sets on stage. I'll try to take some pictures of the props back stage. The swords other weapons and armour are all VERY cool!