La Cenerentola!

I'm being a bad blogger - no updates for weeks! But nothing much is happening - opera opens tomorrow (and closes Sunday - operas don't last long up in the hinterlands!) Dress rehearsal went great (mostly) and we cut off over an hour from the night before. LOTS of start/stop Tuesday, always amazing how much longer that all takes.

Apparently this version (the Rossini) has only Cinderella and the 2 stepsisters - all other parts are men. They are really hamming it up and using a 50s theme - of course the king is Elvis! Everyone but C and the prince have huge funny hair and over the top costumes, but even with all the corny stuff some of the singing is just fabulous. And the orchestra is sounding pretty good if I do say so - we only have 1 flute and one oboe - so I'm playing some 2nd flute stuff (and even picc parts where there is two ; on oboe of course!) and a couple places the flute or clarinet is covering 2nd oboe. Fun times.

Tonight is our first rehearsal for orchestra! Strings had a sectional last week, but due to budget cuts we have lost 2 rehearsals for most concerts. Eek. Hopefully people will step up and be prepared. We are doing New World (!!!) and I'm playing the EH part since our 2nd oboe doesn't have one and there is no money to hire another person. So we will just switch for mvt 2 - I'm pretty excited. Of course the 1st oboe part has some great stuff too; and I would have been happy just playing that.

Also doing Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony - also an EH part but I'll just cover as best I can - really unfortunate they programed all this stuff for a larger orchestra. Hopefully they will THINK about these things more in the future! And we're doing Rhapsody in Blue (total snooze for me) which audiences always like - and I'm looking forward to our conductor playing the solo - he really is a fab pianist. Of course M is really excited about the clarinet part with the big scoop.

Guess that is about all I have to report. All my students are back at it, looks like I'll have 3 this year. Which is just fine, since I don't want the hassle of more. Trying to get D in for piano but I'm not having much luck with the teachers around here, and of course many of them just annoy me with their complete lack of skill and knowledge. Such a diva I am!