And how you've improved!
I woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat, as I had the previous morning. On Saturday, I'd felt awful in the morning and marked in rehearsals. Then I cleared up over the course of the day and felt fine, if not in quite top form, by evening. Sunday morning I felt just as bad as I had Saturday morning, and our rehearsal began at 9:30, and our orchestra call (where Andrew needed us to not-mark so he could hear balance) was at 10:30, and our show was at 2:30. I was worried.
The dress, from my point of view, did not go well. My sinuses were heavily congested, and I wasn't getting any of the upper-face resonance sensations I'm used to when I sing. I also didn't have my top range, where "top" is construed liberally to extend down to about a C. I felt very tired and had a sort of fuzzy sensation when I walked around, and I had difficulty concentrating. I had a difficult time staying with Andrew's baton for the Major-General song, and I had an extremely difficult time staying with it for "Sighing softly." I was also having difficulty supporting my voice, which resulted in lots and lots of going flat. (I was only aware of the cause, not the symptom, until Emily explained it to me over lunch.)
I left the dress rehearsal very discouraged. Barring a very dramatic change in health, there was no way I was going to put on anything close to my top performance. I had lunch with Emily in low spirits, and was sorry that my Savoynet friends would see me perform in this state. Occasionally I would make those silly little noises that singers make sometimes to see how my voice was feeling. Halfway through lunch, on perhaps my sixth silly little noise, something amazing happened. Very suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, my head was much clearer, and when I made a little falsetto whoop sound, I felt it resonate through my nasal cavity, and I even got that awesome forehead sensation. I became cautiously optimistic, and when I went back to the dressing rooms to get ready for the show, I warmed up in full voice to a G-sharp and felt just fine. My nose still needed to blown fairly often, but as long as I kept it clear, I felt close to as good as new! I don't know if my body decided ok, there's just no choice now, you MUST be healthy, or if something I ate really did the trick, or if I was just phenomenally lucky, or what, but wow, was that a close call.
The actual show was worlds better than the dress rehearsal. I felt like I actually was able to give a performance. I sang and I acted. I was actually pretty far from perfect, but I didn't do anything I'm really ashamed about. I have a hard time keeping myself breathing properly during the Major-General song; really there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do each half-verse in one breath, but I only manage a good enough breath something like half the time. I did about as well as average for me in performance on that score -- I did have to drop a minor word in one verse for a breath. I think, but I'm not sure, that it was the "I" in "I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus". If I'm going to drop a syllable, I think that's an ok syllable to drop.
I got myself onto the wrong side of the stage near the end of "Sighing softly", which was unfortunate because it does affect the chorus, but they followed me around effectively, and I don't think anything would've been apparently wrong to the audience. The song itself, the hardest thing I had to sing that day, went ok. When I reviewed the video, I saw that I was trying to rush just a little bit at the beginning of it for the first couple of lines, but I settled in pretty well after that.
It's probably obvious from my blog that I take accuracy of spoken dialogue rather seriously. The Major-General doesn't have many spoken lines, but he does have a couple that I do have a hard time keeping straight. It's this scene, with the tough parts emphasized:
I'm happy to say that I did manage to put the dishonour and disgrace in the right place, but in my relief at saying "disgrace" properly, I forgot to worry about the second consideration, and I did put a tiny 'n' into "escuntcheon". It was not an emphasized word in the sentence, though, and I got it right the first time, so I think it's quite believable that no one who wasn't looking for me to make that particular mistake would've noticed. I can only barely hear it on the DVD.
Other general observations about my performance: I'm generally pretty happy with my facial expressions. I only judge my stage presence as ok, though. There's a bit more extraneous movement than would be ideal. It's worlds better than the sort of flailing about I always did a year or two ago, but there's still room for improvement, which for me comes chiefly from confidence and comfort with what exactly I'm doing on stage. I'm amazed how much my voice improved between the morning and the afternoon. I didn't sound perfect and amazing, but it's not a vocal performance I'm at all embarrassed by.
The show as a whole came together quite nicely, I think. Energy came up quite a lot when we were put in front of an audience. (Bigger than we'd been lead to believe, and pretty responsive. Not full, but not depressingly small.) I think that Justin did amazingly in being fit into this production in just three days. He seemed very comfortable with the role. Sharae was just great, as expected. It's always a joy and honor to work on stage with John, who was a very strong -- and very funny -- Pirate King. The audience loved our "chorus" of police, comprising two strong singers, a baritone and a bass, and one small child, Andrew and Christine's son. Some really cute stuff going on there.
On the whole, I think we can be proud of ourselves. The schedule we work with is so short that these things must necessarily come together rather last-minute-ly, and come together our Pirates did. David Turner gave comments on each of the principals, and on the chorus, but not on the production on the whole. He was very kind to all of us. Maybe I'll type up what he said about me later.
For now, I have to shut down my computer, because my battery is almost dead and I'm flying over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where there are no power outlets.
The dress, from my point of view, did not go well. My sinuses were heavily congested, and I wasn't getting any of the upper-face resonance sensations I'm used to when I sing. I also didn't have my top range, where "top" is construed liberally to extend down to about a C. I felt very tired and had a sort of fuzzy sensation when I walked around, and I had difficulty concentrating. I had a difficult time staying with Andrew's baton for the Major-General song, and I had an extremely difficult time staying with it for "Sighing softly." I was also having difficulty supporting my voice, which resulted in lots and lots of going flat. (I was only aware of the cause, not the symptom, until Emily explained it to me over lunch.)
I left the dress rehearsal very discouraged. Barring a very dramatic change in health, there was no way I was going to put on anything close to my top performance. I had lunch with Emily in low spirits, and was sorry that my Savoynet friends would see me perform in this state. Occasionally I would make those silly little noises that singers make sometimes to see how my voice was feeling. Halfway through lunch, on perhaps my sixth silly little noise, something amazing happened. Very suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, my head was much clearer, and when I made a little falsetto whoop sound, I felt it resonate through my nasal cavity, and I even got that awesome forehead sensation. I became cautiously optimistic, and when I went back to the dressing rooms to get ready for the show, I warmed up in full voice to a G-sharp and felt just fine. My nose still needed to blown fairly often, but as long as I kept it clear, I felt close to as good as new! I don't know if my body decided ok, there's just no choice now, you MUST be healthy, or if something I ate really did the trick, or if I was just phenomenally lucky, or what, but wow, was that a close call.
The actual show was worlds better than the dress rehearsal. I felt like I actually was able to give a performance. I sang and I acted. I was actually pretty far from perfect, but I didn't do anything I'm really ashamed about. I have a hard time keeping myself breathing properly during the Major-General song; really there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do each half-verse in one breath, but I only manage a good enough breath something like half the time. I did about as well as average for me in performance on that score -- I did have to drop a minor word in one verse for a breath. I think, but I'm not sure, that it was the "I" in "I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus". If I'm going to drop a syllable, I think that's an ok syllable to drop.
I got myself onto the wrong side of the stage near the end of "Sighing softly", which was unfortunate because it does affect the chorus, but they followed me around effectively, and I don't think anything would've been apparently wrong to the audience. The song itself, the hardest thing I had to sing that day, went ok. When I reviewed the video, I saw that I was trying to rush just a little bit at the beginning of it for the first couple of lines, but I settled in pretty well after that.
It's probably obvious from my blog that I take accuracy of spoken dialogue rather seriously. The Major-General doesn't have many spoken lines, but he does have a couple that I do have a hard time keeping straight. It's this scene, with the tough parts emphasized:
GENERAL: Why do I sit here? To escape from the pirates' clutches, I described myself as an orphan; and, heaven help me, I am no orphan! I come here to humble myself before the tombs of my ancestors, and to implore their pardon for having brought dishonour on the family escutcheon.Much of the challenge is keeping the dishonour and disgrace straight. My mnemonic was that saying "humble" in the first line is my cue to say "dishonour" shortly thereafter; they're both 'h' words. And then I have to keep in mind that I've already said "dishonour", and that therefore "disgrace" is next. A secondary problem is that when I learned this dialogue on my own before I came here, I added an imaginary 'n' to the word "escutcheon" without realizing it. So I came in talking about "escuntcheons". So in addition to working to keep dishonour and disgrace straight, I had to remember that there's no 'n' in that part of that word. This on top of acting, of course.
FREDERIC: But you forget, sir, you only bought the property a year ago, and the stucco on your baronial castle is scarcely dry.
GENERAL: Frederic, in this chapel are ancestors: you cannot deny that. With the estate, I bought the chapel and its contents. I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are, and I shudder to think that their descendant by purchase (if I may so describe myself) should have brought disgrace upon what, I have no doubt, was an unstained escutcheon.
I'm happy to say that I did manage to put the dishonour and disgrace in the right place, but in my relief at saying "disgrace" properly, I forgot to worry about the second consideration, and I did put a tiny 'n' into "escuntcheon". It was not an emphasized word in the sentence, though, and I got it right the first time, so I think it's quite believable that no one who wasn't looking for me to make that particular mistake would've noticed. I can only barely hear it on the DVD.
Other general observations about my performance: I'm generally pretty happy with my facial expressions. I only judge my stage presence as ok, though. There's a bit more extraneous movement than would be ideal. It's worlds better than the sort of flailing about I always did a year or two ago, but there's still room for improvement, which for me comes chiefly from confidence and comfort with what exactly I'm doing on stage. I'm amazed how much my voice improved between the morning and the afternoon. I didn't sound perfect and amazing, but it's not a vocal performance I'm at all embarrassed by.
The show as a whole came together quite nicely, I think. Energy came up quite a lot when we were put in front of an audience. (Bigger than we'd been lead to believe, and pretty responsive. Not full, but not depressingly small.) I think that Justin did amazingly in being fit into this production in just three days. He seemed very comfortable with the role. Sharae was just great, as expected. It's always a joy and honor to work on stage with John, who was a very strong -- and very funny -- Pirate King. The audience loved our "chorus" of police, comprising two strong singers, a baritone and a bass, and one small child, Andrew and Christine's son. Some really cute stuff going on there.
On the whole, I think we can be proud of ourselves. The schedule we work with is so short that these things must necessarily come together rather last-minute-ly, and come together our Pirates did. David Turner gave comments on each of the principals, and on the chorus, but not on the production on the whole. He was very kind to all of us. Maybe I'll type up what he said about me later.
For now, I have to shut down my computer, because my battery is almost dead and I'm flying over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where there are no power outlets.
posted by Jonathan Ichikawa | 9:56 PM
23 Comments:
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"and the stucco on your baronial castle is scarcely dry"
That SHOULD be: "and the stucco in your baronial hall is scarcely dry".
Your're slipping, JI! Heaven forfend you should actually make a mistake....
That SHOULD be: "and the stucco in your baronial hall is scarcely dry"
Oh, interesting. I have it in my head the same way you quote it here, with a hall instead of a castle. And Justin did say "hall". The reason I posted the "castle" version is that I copied and pasted it from the online libretto available at the G&S archive, and that's the version that was there. This is also the version that appears in my Schirmer score.
I'm certain that I've heard the line as "baronial hall", though. I guess there are two versions of the line in the various libretti.
I've moved the comment about my review of the professional Ruddigore to this post, which is my review of the professional Ruddigore.
Thanks for the review of Ruddigore I enjoyed reading it very much. I as a non performer didn't notice ANY mistakes and thought it was even better than last years show, and yes even though I also adore Simon I thought it was better than The Sorcerer which I'd never seen before and found at least the first half to be very slow.
I hope they don't do Yeomen next year I'll need a box of tissues. I want to see Simon do the Mikado.
Jo
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Tony, sorry, I forgot to leave a note and pointer, which I usually do in this situation. I moved your comment, so that it would be associated with the review of Mikado. It's here. I didn't just delete it, I was just trying to make things more organized.
Simon has just started rehearsing with the Carl Rosa to do The Mikado later in the year. Details of venues are available at their site. www.carlrosaopera.co.uk. He did The Mikado with them a few years ago and was wonderful as always. Very timid in a John Reed way. And again the thing that I find interesting is that when he does Ko-Ko with Opera Della Luna his interpretation is very different.
Andy B
Many THANKS Andy I'v marked that off for my bithday present this year.
Jo
Jonathan--I must respectfully disagree with anything negative you have said about yourself during the course of your Buxton blogs. You have the right to be extremely proud of your performances in Buxton. You are a true pro and a joy to work with. The fact that you might have had a couple of under-par rehearsals because of illness or fatigue is unimportant; what counts is that (1) you gave your rehearsals your best effort always; and (2) when the chips were down and you were performing, you rose above any problems and were marvelous.
The term "professional" is too frequently misused. In the theatre, a "professional" is not someone being paid to perform, but rather someone who gives his or her all to the show, who works without complaint or rancor, who joins with fellow performers as a uniter, not a rampant egotist or an obnoxious dissenter. Using these criteria, you are a true professional. It has been a delight working with you for two summers, and I am sorry if the reports I have heard [school will prevent your return to Buxton in 06] are true.
Paul Boymel
p.s., in your report, you seriously underplay the Adjudicator's comments. He was absolutely delighted by the show, by all the performers, yourself included, of course, and the audience totally agreed with his judgment. As you and I discussed during rehearsals, any good performer can do the MMG patter song; only a superior singer can do the ballad well, and you were brilliant!
Honestly. Get up off the floor and stop kissing the ground he walks on.
And you should stop trying to ruin every single post, have you really nothing better to do?
Could I not say the same about you.
Are you so pathetic that you've got nothing better to do either, than reading through this blog to find things to comment on. You've made very few comments about G&S.
I do have better things to do but I happen to read this blog because I was at the festival and its nice to read other poinions other than my own. Also I will not stand by and let silly immature people insult those who are just writitng their opinions. You are perfectly entitled to disagree but not to be so damn rude and childish.
Just to say 'HEAR HEAR' to Sarah V's comment. I love reading this blog, especially as I was at the festival myself, I don't agree with everything, but then I don't expect to, Jonathan's views are his *opinion*. You of course, anonymous are entitled to your opinion as well but it is neither big nor clever to leave such inuliting comments on a blog, particularly when you do not even have the courage to put your name at the end! Grow up!
feel free to voice your opinion Anon but theres no need to be rude to people!
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I disagree with Paul Boymel. A professional is someone who gets paid. I always hate it when someone says, "you should have a professional attitude." From my experience, a professional attitude is that they are paying me, and so I have to show up at a certain time and can leave at a certain time (no matter what we are doing when the whistle blows), and you must give me my breaks at a certain time.
An amateur is someone who performs for the love of performing. The root of the word Amateur is latin for "love". Jonathan, for example, is a wonderful amateur who performs for the love of G&S, performing and learning about performing and theater in general. He also happens to be an excellent performer, as well as a person who has an excellent "amateur" attitude, in that he is enthusiastic and upbeat and thinking about how the show he is doing fits in with his love of the genre. One should not equate the word amateur with the word "dilettante" or "dabbler".
I have seen lots of lousy professionals. What I like about the Festival is that it is a forum where we can learn to be better amateurs -- a laudible objective.
Sam
In my line of work i have to see alot of really good shows being put on by second rate amateurs, so anything that will increase their skills has to be a good thing
Are we not simply playing into this writers hands by constantly reacting to his/her posts. If we start to ignore them then his/her fun will be over. The more we react the more fun he's/she's having at our expense.
Andy B
OK, Sam, I yield at once with humbled mien.
Paul
Thanks for that, Paul. I am generally pleased with my performance as the Major-General; I do think it's one to be proud of. That's consistent, of course, with identifying things that would have made it better.
There is more to "professionalism" than being paid. While the dividing line between amateurs and professionals is technically the paycheck, it's a semantic quibble to deny that "amateurish" and "professional" have both taken on connotations that having nothing to do with whether money changes hands. Many amateurs have a highly professional attitude and approach to their work, embodying a great deal else than "love"; the best performances do not come from the emotional flush of excitement alone but include a great deal of discipline and preparation; conversely, many paid performers are amateurish in conduct, approach, and attitude--and that is not a compliment.
I enjoy Jonathan's comments because he has an incisive and analytical mind; I enjoy his performances because to natural talents he adds a great deal of workmanlike preparation and thought, as well as enthusiasm and obvious affection for the material. His observations about his own work as well as that of others tends to be more negatively critical than others' tends to be, but that tendency has never bothered me, in two years of reading his blogs. The criticisms are astute and impartial; when he addresses the ones he directs at himself, the result is steady growth in his own levels of performance. Frankly, in most cases, others would do well to note the observations he has made of their work; there is cogent thought behind them, and again, that impartiality of judgment. One of my favorite blog-authors as well as one of my favorite performers, needless to say, and I'm very glad he's chosen to be part of the international G&S community!
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