Thursday, January 31, 2013

Act III: It's Showtime



It's almost time for Friday's Opening Night for the Tales of Hoffmann. Each day I see exponential growth in the details of this production coming together: lighting, props, set changes, costumes, wigs, make-up, etc. We said goodbye to the rehearsal hall and greeted the Jubilee Auditorium stage.


Walking through the side slits of the circus tent and onto the stage was like being transported onto a personalized playground. The floor of the stage has a cork crackle, the walls of the tent are weathered and gritty, and lighting gives the stage an extremely moody atmosphere. Suddenly, we were provided context for all of the staging we had been working through in the past few weeks. It was a sensory overload moment for me. Looking at sketches and pictures of the stage in no way prepared me for what it would feel like to walk on the stage. We had an opportunity to explore, take note of possible hazards like the ropes that anchor into the floor from the tent edges, and orient ourselves on the different ways to enter the stage.


Stage Walk-Through

Then we had the started the cue-to-cue which entailed running through entrances, exits, set transitions, costume quick-changes etc. The cue-to-cue is where I saw the stage managers take control to execute Director, Joel Ivany's, vision with technical precision. Watching the inner mechanics of executing a professional production is just fascinating. Stage manager assistants use a stopwatch to time the duration of these events, our props are all individually labelled on shelves in the wing with glowing tape, there are lists with our names with the order in which we line up and even where we stand or sit on the stage. The stage managers consult their thick black binders, lit by a stand lamp, and they don't miss any details. They're like stage hawks.

My plan for survival as a chorus newbie was to just to try and follow the traffic flow, listen closely on the backstage intercom as we're paged for our entrances, try to acquaint myself to all this theatre lingo that is foreign to me, and read the notes from the Director taped on our door, which include thoughts on what to do at our next run-through. I also received my first note of specific feedback. In Act I, the chorus mirrors the movements of automaton Olympia, Hoffmann's first love, because she is coolest figure in the freak show tent. It turns out I have an awesome robot dance. My admiration of Star Wars's C-3P0 has paid off.

 







Act I: Olympia

Every day I add a new physical layer to my opera persona. At the first piano run-through I was just wearing my shoes, my costume the next day, then my make-up, and finally my hair to complete the ensemble. However, after a few days of just running through the show in a very detailed manner, everything felt settled by the dress rehearsal. Even though there is stress for some of the quick set changes, it is all a controlled frenzy. There's also a wonderful sense of camaraderie as chorus members help each other with tricky costume changes and participate in these transitions with a smile. I have to say, I've never seen people being stripped out of their costumes while, at the same time, singing off-stage with the Maestro on a video monitor.

Wig Prep
Costume Shoes

This new Edmonton Opera production explores so many interesting themes such as love, art, and women, while all seamlessly fitting within the world of this Dustbowl Circus. Experiencing Opera from the vantage point of the chorus gives me a deeper appreciation of the professional production scale of the Edmonton Opera and allows me to immerse myself in the world of this opulent art form for the first but, hopefully, not last time. The best part now is to share our characters, music, and theatrical perspective with our upcoming circus audiences.


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For more information on performance times and tickets:


Fri 2/1/13 8:00PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Sun 2/3/13 2:00PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Tue 2/5/13 7:30PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Thu 2/7/13 7:30PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Act II: The Women of Hoffmann

Photo Credit: Teiya Kasahara

 When I initially contemplated the ending in the Tales of Hoffmann, I found myself a bit heartbroken. He spends the Acts of the opera detailing the three great loves throughout his life, yet, he is alone at the end.

His tales begin with Olympia, the automaton, which everybody sees is a robot except for Hoffmann because he's wearing trippy glasses. This is followed by, Antonia, the singer who has a mysterious illness and dies when she sings. Lastly, Giulietta, the courtesan who steals Hoffman's shadow. There is also Stella, the resident diva and current love interest of Hoffmann. There is something comedic but unsettling in Edmonton Opera's new production of Tales of Hoffmann due to the dark fairytale atmosphere created by director, Joel Ivany, and set designer, Camellia Koo,

The source of my feeling of unrest lies with Offenbach's portrayal of Hoffmann's women: they are all controlled by men. Olympia's inventor, Spalanzani, constructs her to entertain and make money with her Doll's song; however, she is disassembled when her purpose has been served. Antonia, is convinced by Dr. Miracle to sing an aria even though she knows it will be the death of her. The courtesean, Giulietta, carries out the orders of Captain Dapertutto to steal Hoffmann's shadow for jewlery. All these women are disposed of or used in some way or another.

Ivany's staging in this new Hoffmann production further explores the female presence within the Opera. In the second half of Act I, Olympia spectators return to the circus tent after having some supper and Spalanzani's assistant, Cochenille, waltzes with a young girl re-entering the stage. While it appears whimsical and innocent, the atmosphere in which it occurs could suggest alternative meanings. It presents an image of the societal expectations that the young girl will eventually have to fulfill as a man leads her through the appropriate steps. In Act III, when we enter into the circus tent where Giulietta works, a male figure supervises a "carousel of women." Scantily clad chorus girls orbit around a communal axis, while a crowd of male patrons stare on with lust and emotional disconnect. The women of Hoffmann are agents controlled by male intent.

Photo Credit: Teiya Kasahara

It is also important to remember that the stories of these three women are told from drunken Hoffmann's memories. It is entirely plausible that these women don't even exist. Perhaps they are just women Hoffmann has seen in passing or they are all different aspects of the same woman. When Stella goes to greet Hoffmann at the end of the Opera, he does not recognize her because he is drunk on the dream of imaginary women.

A person can so easily fall in love with a self-constructed ideal of perfection. The truth lies in choosing to see the flaws and assessing whether love still remains after the illumination of that fact. In order to start creating relationships based on transparency and equality, I think we can benefit from taking off the lenses that distort our reality and begin viewing the world around us with truth.

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For more information on performance times and tickets:


Fri 2/1/13 8:00PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Sun 2/3/13 2:00PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Tue 2/5/13 7:30PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Thu 2/7/13 7:30PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Act I: Opera Staging


This last week of Opera activity has encompassed the staging process for the Prologue and Act I. Suddenly, the rehearsal hall was filled with many new faces containing the Principals and supernumeraries (a.k.a Supers which are extras on stage that don't sing but create the environmental population of the stage). Supers also get the most freaktastic costumes.

The start of the staging process began with a verbal walk-through of the Opera with director, Joel Ivany, explaining his vision to set the opera in a Dustbowl circus. Meanwhile, set designer, Camellia Koo manipulated a miniature diorama of the stage and changed the props to match each act so we could watch the physical transformation of the stage. Many interesting topics arose from the description, such as how the Circus symbolized this group of traveling Otherness that would arrive in a town. There would be a parade of clowns, dancers, contortionists, elephants and circus freaks etc., and for a limited time, they would be the entertainment for the town. Not unlike what the Opera offers in terms of audience entertainment. Ivany emphasized that the world of Opera, in its own right, is like a freak show: vocal athletes singing soaring arias in a world constructed to be a spectacle.

While the staging process does feel like we're herding people sometimes, there is a sense of order to the madness. We are split up into large sections, then smaller orientations, and then we're handed props we are responsible for. Meanwhile, there are stage crew members madly jotting down our names from our name-tags in addition to the prop(s) we're bringing onto stage. As well, before we put anything back, they write our name on red tape, and stick it on the bottom of the prop, so there is an ongoing inventory of personalized items. Any larger prop shift on stage will cause us to change the tape markers on the floor, which will later be transposed onto the Jubilee Stage. Furthermore, whenever certain groups of people are split to exit or enter, the stage crew will be writing down a list of names to chart these movements as well. No detail is missed.

However, most of the individual movements, such as the Prologue, where the circus crew are drinking behind-the-scenes, is given to us to individually dictate. It is a great opportunity to develop a back story and to think about how your character would act given the role, the costume provided to you, and the surrounding stage environment. I have had some experience with staging before but I've never done it on a professional scale before. It is nice to be allowed the freedom of artist expression and the process is extremely organic as Ivany experiments with and suggests different movement details depending on what he sees with each run-through.

I'm constantly experimenting to try and find what is comfortable for me while creating my circus persona. In my first run-through, I wasn't sure what to do with my hands, my props, where I was allowed to move, if I was allowed to touch people... and then I just stopped panicking and started paying attention to what was happening around me. So far it's been going pretty smoothly. For a large part of the opera, I play a "Circus Wife" and my costume gives off a nomadic gypsy vibe. Even though I'm married to one of the roustabouts, I feel like my character would have accepted the open relationship possibilities within a traveling company of artists. I try to keep this in mind as I interact with others on stage.

There are more rehearsals this week so stay tuned for more updates. The Edmonton Opera has been doing a great job on social media with posting pictures and updates about the performance. You can also read more about the inspiration behind Ivany's vision for Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

For more information on performance times and tickets:


Fri 2/1/13 8:00PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Sun 2/3/13 2:00PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Tue 2/5/13 7:30PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Thu 2/7/13 7:30PM:  Jubilee Auditorium
Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Prologue: Choir Turned Opera Girl


Greetings readers,

It's almost a month into the rehearsals for the Edmonton Opera Chorus's production of "Tales of Hoffman." It's been a gradual evolution from choir girl to opera girl but I feel like I'm slowly entering into a world of vocal opulence. In rehearsals, I'm enveloped by rich, vibrato-filled voices singing the sweeping lines of Offenbach and the effervescent energy of French opera. I definitely miss the subtley of vocal colours that I'm used to in Pro Coro, but there are many new experiences I am eager to embrace in this Opera Chorus process. One thing is just witnessing the hierarchy of preparation for a large Opera production.

Never before have I had costumes tailored to fit me or have somebody style my hair with synthetic additions. I think it'll be the closest I will ever come to feeling like a model. Upon entering the Edmonton Opera production facility, I saw rows of long work tables tables laden with fabric, accessories, and sewing materials. The first thing I was offered was a range of footwear in my size to try on. They even had a small square sample of the stage floor so I could check to see if there was adequate friction on the stage to feel comfortable wearing heels. After finding two suitable shoe options, I proceeded to the change room to see both of my costumes laid out for me with accompanying accessories. I tried each one on in turn, impressed, but slightly wary at the same time. They chose, tailored, or made the clothing to closely match my initial measurements taken at the start of the season. Since this was the case, it made me realize that I could not gain any weight over the holidays. I walked out the change room and a team of women adjusted accessories, discussed rolling or unrolling my sleeves, and tugged and tweaked my costume until it met their aesthetic level. Afterwards, the hairstylists pincurled my hair in order to get accurate head measurements for future wig reference; however, for this production, they just decided on a small hair attachment to form my low chignon.



Our first rehearsals were spent working with chorus master, Michael Spassov, who ensured notes, dynamics, text and other overt details of the piece were solidified for the Maestro. This week the Maestro, Christoph Campestrini, arrives to contribute his own artistic voice in the music. We meet with Director, Joel Ivany, later in the week to begin the staging process and occupy the physical realm in which we present the music.

I've been able to witness the transformation of the Jubilee Rehearsal Hall from an audition room into an opera rehearsal space. Initially, it was a bare room with only Spassov and the Edmonton Opera CEO, Sandra Gajic, listening to my audition.


Figure 1. Audition Set-Up

Now it has been transformed into the heart of the Edmonton Opera rehearsal space. There is a office workspace area set up at the front, a rehearsal area with chairs for the chorus and piano, behind this is the floor-taped outline of the Jubilee stage with larger props pieces scattered along the back edges of the room, artist stage illustrations and photo inspiration for this dustbowl circus production form a collage on a portion of the wall. There is even a water cooler. If that doesn't symbolize a work space, I don't know what does.

Figure 2. Rehearsal Set-Up

The music rehearsal process is the most familiar to choral realm to me. I am attempting to maintain my tuning fork use from Pro Coro while in the Opera Chorus to maintain a level of a cappella independence. Spassov makes the evening rehearsals engaging with his ability to create lush metaphors, always providing context for where we are in the piece, and accurate vocal models of what he expects from the chorus. Spassov is challenging us in terms of tempo and dynamics in order to make sure we're pliable and able to accommodate the preferences of the Maestro. He also somehow manages to comedically paraphrase portions of the opera, such at the moment when Hoffman falls in love with the mechanical doll, Olympia. The chorus laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Spassov looked pensive at this moment, he glanced up at the ceiling to compose his thoughts, and empathized how there are moments like this in real life. At first, a person can look so ordinarily human... until you realize you can do little to change their pre-programmed routine or warm their emotionless demeanor. It is at this point where you realize: "Holy $*^! I'm in love with a robot!"

Thus far, the Opera Chorus rehearsal process has been in familiar territory for me. However, I'm sure once staging gets started this upcoming week, I'm going to be shaken out of my comfortable choir girl boundaries as I will be given the opportunity to embrace a more dramatic side of my performance persona. I look forward to it.

For more information on the production:

Les Contes d'Hoffmann

 

Date Time Buy Tickets
Friday, February 1, 2013 8:00 pm Purchase online
Sunday, February 3, 2013 2:00 pm Purchase online
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 7:30 pm Purchase online
Thursday, February 7, 2013 7:30 pm Purchase online