Happy new year, blog friends!
The period between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a funny time here at the opera. For many of us (particularly those of us who aren't involved with our Broadway series), it's the only "dead" time of year we have. It's the longest period during the season when there isn't a show going on. We put Giovanni to bed (pun intended) and then: almost two full months before rehearsals begin again. And every stinking year I get lulled into a false sense of "I have plenty of time to get this done," when in fact, those almost-two-months are chock full of preparations for this latter part of the season, where, frankly, we hit the ground sprinting and do not stop until we close in May.
To that end: TOSCA!
Knock knock!
Who's there?
Tosca!
Tosca who?
Toscaloosa!
This week, we begin rehearsals for our February production of Puccini's Tosca. The artistic folks -- cast, conductor, director, designers -- are in transit, the set is loaded in to our rehearsal space, and we are (more or less) ready to go.
Tosca is particularly special to me, and marks a watershed moment in my career, because it was the first opera I ever worked on with this company, back in 2005. In fact, it was more or less my first opera; although I had seen Carmen with my french class in 9th or 10th grade, I had no recollection of it at all save that I missed the bus we'd hired to transport our class there and had to frantically get my mom to drive me down to the theater in Baltimore in time to make the show. So: not much.
