I am not going to patronise you
all with a potted history of German culture over the last 100 years, I am not qualified
to do so for one, aside from a very interesting course entitled ‘Music between
the World Wars’ I took whilst at University. I was particularly interested,
though, to read Peter Brathwaite’s article in the Guardian yesterday (Guardian Classical Music article),
about the suppression of culture under the Nazi’s, in the same week as our
production of Khovanshchina opened at Oper Stuttgart.
This production is directed by
Andrea Moses (in the English sense of Director, ie. Regie auf Deutsch), a child
of the GDR, or East Germany, and her show highlights the conflicts between East
and West, capitalism and communism, and, as Andrea has us observe, Coca –Cola and
Spirituality. Whether Khovanshchina is an ideal fit for Andrea’s political
message or not, the sense of her own conflict, as someone driven to create art
for arts sake yet who finds herself battling the economic forces of our current
situation, shines through. Her respect for the writings and practises of
Bertold Brecht is also quite evident here. It is also quite evident in her
production of La Boheme which I saw here earlier in the week, a production
which has a Christmas tree with the Mercedes badge as its star….
Andrea’s situation intrigues me.
Unaware that there was still a sense of divide some 25 years after the reunification
of Germany, I have instead been delighted by the openness and engagement with
culture that occurs here. There doesn’t seem to be that sense of reverse
snobbery that high art in the UK suffers from. Yet for Andrea, Stuttgart feels
conservative, unengaged, lacking the liberal edge of Berlin or Leipzig (the new
Berlin apparently).
I look forward to learning more
about the politics and culture of contemporary Germany in the next few months……
First night
As mentioned, this was the week Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina
premiered. A show we have been rehearsing for almost 7 weeks and Andrea Moses’s
last production in Stuttgart, having been here as full time Regie for three
seasons.
I always find first nights strange. The closer one gets to
the opening night the more people tend to be around. As I listed in a previous
blog, there are hundreds of people working on this show and it is only in ones
dressing room that a moment of quiet can be found. That is until opening night.
On opening night, particularly for a ‘new’ production, the dressing rooms are
like Piccadilly Circus (that’s very busy for the non-English who don’t get the
reference). Every two minutes another person knocks on the door to offer their
best wishes for the performance. Fortunately I don’t have a set routine
pre-show, not yet anyway, but if I did such disturbances would be a nuisance.
The show went well, I think. I enjoyed myself, partly due to
the fact that I knew we wouldn’t have to rehearse the piece any more, but
mostly because I am an Opera singer and I love performing on stage. All the
performers received positive curtain calls, I even got a few cheers which was
nice.
The production team, Regie (director), designer and two
other guys, I have no idea what they did, took a bow and received a mixed
response including a few boos which was exciting.
First night party
If I have learnt anything over the 12 weeks here, which I
hope I have, taking a gracious bow and kind words of audience members is something.
I no longer bow like a shy, embarrassed Englishman. I don’t yet bow like a
proper Tenor, hand to heart slowly leaning forward, the nod of the head, slowly
back up etc. That may come, one day.
Once the formalities had finished it was then lovely to have
a drink with colleagues from the cast, orchestra, chorus and those who had
attended the show. To be able to finally relax after what had not been the
easiest of rehearsal processes was great.
Take care
An aspect of my performance in Khovanshchina I need to
improve on is falling over. Not randomly falling over I might add. Without wanting to ruin the excitement for you all,
I get pushed or thrown to the ground three times in the show. Each time I am
pushed harder than the last time and the third fall is meant to be quite
dramatic, with my gun flying across the stage and there being quite a loud
bang.
I have been taught how to fall on stage, there is a
technique to it and for the first two falls I do that quite well.
Unfortunately, the third fall has become an issue. In the pre-dress rehearsal I
fell awkwardly on my left elbow, lightly bruised, it is now fine. As a result,
on the dress rehearsal I tried not to fall on my left elbow but instead fell
heavily (I am getting thinner but am not light-weight yet) on my right forearm
and elbow with an immediate sharp pain following. Of course for the opening
night this was a worry so I put a pad onto my right elbow and landed square on
it, making it worse again. Will I ever learn….
Four shows – easy week
Despite having four performances this week, two Ariadne’s,
two Khovanshchina’s, it has felt like an easy one. The KBB, or administrative
core of the Opera House, tend not to give you anything else to do on a show day
and often leave the day before a show free. This has meant time to myself for
the first time in a while.
I have been able to go on a few nice runs through the big
park, started to learn some music for future concerts and also caught up on
sleep.
As I mentioned last week, lack of sleep and dehydration are
the major voice killers for me. So, stupidly, I arranged to record some arias
last Friday night, at the end of a busy week when I was suffering from ‘Opera-lag’,
a term I will continue to use. Not
surprisingly the session didn’t go very well and I cancelled it 15 minutes.
Importantly, with the time and space this week ,I have been
able to get back to doing my daily vocal exercises. These vary day to day but
are based on the work I do with Gary Coward. For me they are just like the
training sessions professional sportspeople do every day, they are that
important. Shock horror, a few days in and I feel a hundred times better
vocally and in myself (there is always a correlation between the two).
Busy Stuttgart
The massive Weihnachtmarkt, or Christmas Market, finally
opened in the middle of Stuttgart this week. I was expecting it to be big but
not quite as big as it is. This means the centre of Stuttgart is heaving with
people, all walking very slowly. I haven’t yet spent any money in the market,
being in the opera studio I don’t actually have much money to spend (that topic
is for another week) but my parents
visit next week and I will no doubt share a Gluhwein with them at some
point.
With no production rehearsals until early January I now have
some space to learn German better, exercise well, learn music and continue to
build my voice. I really enjoy the process of working on my voice, most of the
time, and will enjoy getting fit and being able to speak German too, so it
should be a good month or so.
Wishing you all a great week.
Tom
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