Ravings of a Madwoman

I have performed in seven concerts since November and am currently in rehearsals for Aida as well as a concert version of John Adams's opera, The Death of Klinghoffer. I'm a crazy woman!

Remember how I mentioned Zul was being an ass in New York? I had totally forgotten about it until last week when he called me to apologize for being an ass. Really weird. Anyway, then he starts telling me that I should audition for this guy or that guy, etc., because he's involved in those groups, and he thinks it would be really good for me. Why does he think he knows what's good for me? And he called me a couple of times the next day to talk about this gig that we were doing together, which I actually ended up backing out of because it wasn't enough money. One of my friends thinks he's stalking me. I don't think he's stalking, exactly, but it kind of sounds like he's really lonely and has nobody to talk to.

Meanwhile, Aida rehearsals have been going on. Aida opens on Friday, and both the soprano and tenor leads are sick with the flu. We had a final dress today with last-minute covers that they came in literally this morning. The woman covering Aida had done the role before, so she went on stage with the blocking and everything. The guy playing Radames (the love interest), who was flown in from Ohio, wasn't comfortable with doing the blocking, so he stayed on the side singing with a music stand, and everybody acted around an invisible Radames on stage. It reminded me of that Once On This Island performance when our Ti Moune lost her voice and I had to sing from the pit while she mouthed from the stage.

Every day is another pain-in-the-ass rehearsal where there are too many people backstage and everybody gets yelled at. We'll get a call on the intercom that says, "Chorus women to stage left" so we can sing our offstage "Possente Ptha" doo-da, and we all get there, and the stage hands aren't done changing the set. So the ASM yells at us and tells us to go in the green room until they're ready for us. Then we go into the green room, and people yell at us for being too loud (because the green room opens up onto stage left, and you can hear everything on stage if the door is open). Then they finally tell us to get into place stage left, but they yell at us because we're not going fast enough. And then Elbows can't see the monitor very well, so she can't tell when Maestro Rovaris is starting, and inevitably, she comes in late and doesn't cue the soloist, who's like, "Where are we?" Then the ASMs come over and say, "The director wants to know what happened," and instead of saying, "Sorry, my bad," she blames it on the poor harpist.

Argh.



And we get to wear body makeup, so it looks like I've been to the Bahamas for a month. Today's Ash Wednesday, and we have an afternoon final dress today, so I have to book it from the theater to church. I'm going to have to take a shower at the theater, because I won't have time to go home, and I don't want to go to church looking like a mulatto from the arms up. My makeup is called "Dark Egyptian," but it really doesn't make me look black.



I had my Bach audition on Sunday. It went okay, but I totally got nervous right as I walked in the room, and I just tightened up. I sang all the notes and the words right, but I couldn't really resonate very well because the solos sit right on my break, and even though I just spent three weeks working with my teacher to get me to break all my bad habits for this audition, my bad habits crept right back up and it just wasn't good. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't my best. So we'll see.