Wolf Trap Opera

The summer was an exhausting, amazing, and beautiful thing.  But 15 weeks of long days and little time to breathe have left us a little worse for wear.  The to-do list is long, as application review and auditions, the premiere of The Inspector, and preparations for the 40th anniversary WTOC season are added to essential clean-up from the frenzy of the last few months.

I am at war with my inclination to tie things up with a bow before taking a break.  In spite of the messiness of my desk and my mind (and perhaps because of it…) I shall walk away from many half-finished and barely-begun projects to take a week away from the office and off the digital grid.  Nothing exciting – ferrying the son back to college, sitting on the porch, and visiting the in-laws for a day.

I’ll be back by mid-September.

Kim

PS – See the sidebar and this news post for dates, deadlines, and links for the quickly-approaching audition tour!

This morning, enthusiastic children and their families were treated to our first Family Day event – a special collaboration between Wolf Trap Opera & Wolf Trap Education!

Participants had a chance to…

… have a photo taken on the Midsummer Night’s Dream set ….

… make their own fairy masks (here, a young participant working under the guidance of Daniel Billings, WTOC Filene Young Artist)…

… watch a member of the fairy chorus (Maura O’Reilly, a member of the Arlington Children’s Chorus) getting her stage makeup done (by WTOC hair and makeup artist Dori BeauSeigneur) …

… try out the Fairy Periscope backstage right…

… make some music on the orchestra celesta…

… and run the supertitle translations from the balcony booth!

Many many thanks to the artists and staff who showed up at 9am on the day after a show and were so gracious with these families.  And a special shout-out to Ryan Taylor for making the whole event run so seamlessly

Go Team Family Day! (and Happy Birthday to Arts & Crafts Goddess Catherine, sporting her fun and stylish fairy mask)

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Music by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Libretto adapted from William Shakespeare by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears

The Barns at Wolf Trap 2010
August 13 at 8pm, August 15 at 3pm, August 17 at 8pm

Oberon, King of the Fairies – Ryan Belongie
Titania, Queen of the Fairies – Ashlyn Rust
Puck – Alexander Strain*

Lysander, in love with Hermia – Paul Appleby
Hermia, in love with Lysander – Catherine Martin
Demetrius, also in love with Hermia – Chad Sloan
Helena, in love with Demetrius – Rena Harms

Quince, a carpenter – Kenneth Kellogg
Snug, a joiner – Michael Anthony McGee
Starveling, tailor – Daniel Billings
Flute, a bellows-mender – David Portillo
Snout, a tinker – Nathaniel Peake
Bottom, a weaver – Nicholas Masters

Theseus, Duke of Athens – Michael Sumuel
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons – Eve Gigliotti

Cobweb, a fairy – Claudia Rosenthal
Peaseblossom, a fairy – Amy Owens
Mustardseed, a fairy – Hilary Ginther
Moth, a fairy – Rachel Milligan
Fairy Chorus – Arlington Children’s Chorus

Conductor – Steven Osgood
Director – Patrick Diamond
Scenic Design – Erhard Rom
Costume Design – Camille Assaf
Lighting Design – Robert H. Grimes
Wigs & Makeup – Elsen Associates

Music Staff – Jeremy Frank, Michael Baitzer, Stephanie Rhodes
Stage Management Staff – Sean Corcoran (PSM), Rich Ching (ASM), Kat Manion (PA)

Timothy McCormick, Technical Director
Lesley Milner, Props Master
Beth White, Master Electrician
Cheryl Cordingley, Carpenter
Lindsay Cramond, Carpenter
Madeline Woods, Carpenter
Michael Jones, Charge Artist
Betsy Muller, Scenic Artist

Susan Chiang, Costume Shop Manager
Heather Lockard, Design Assistant
Franklin Labovitz, Head Draper
Laura Spears, Draper
Rachel Schuldenfrei, Draper
Leslie Cook, First Hand/Wardrobe
Heather Lockard, First Hand/Wardrobe
Jessica Mooney, First Hand/Wardrobe
Denise Umland, First Hand/Wardrobe
Sabrina Chiang, Stitcher
Mary Gonziewski, Stitcher
Lindsay Lam, Stitcher
Marie Schneggenberger, Costume Crafts
Deb Sivigny, Costume Crafts

Hair & Makeup – Jeffrey Frank, Sasha Vasiljev, Sabrina Chiang, Haley Raines

Amanda Barker, Stage Management Intern
Joshua Borths, Directing Intern
Amelia Northrup, Administrative Intern
Haley Raines, Costume Intern
Stephanie Busing, Paint Intern
Soren Ersbak, Technical Intern
Joncie Sarratt, Technical Intern
Allison Smith, Technical Intern

This past week, members of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio took their fabulous Instant Opera! improvised opera to hundreds of children in the magical part of Wolf Trap National Park called the Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods.  Five years ago, I was onstage with the singers, developing this incredible project with Jim Doyle (of Comedy Sportz, and now of Disney).  This year I was alternately on the road, then managing orchestra readings, so I missed all of the fun.  Still can’t believe it.

You can read more about how Instant Opera! works here.  And for your enjoyment, here are a few Mad Libs-style opera plots that the children created during Instant Opera! 2010:

Star Wars Lizard
Once upon a time in a backyard, Darth Vader and Yoda were doing yoga.
Along came Zeus and a cheetah, and they danced!

The Secret Castle
Once upon a time in a castle, a princess and a dragon were dancing.
Along came a King and a salesperson, and they cooked dinner.

Wolf Trap Superstars
Once upon a time in a forest, Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana were cutting down trees.  Along came Harry Potter and Hermione G, and they did some magic!

SpongeBob in a Castle
Once upon a time in a castle, a prince and a pig were eating lunch.
Along came a princess and SpongeBob, and they danced!

Thanks and congratulations to Claudia, Hillary, Paul, Hunter, Christopher, Patrick, Scott, Judy, Amelia, and of course, your friend and mine Jim Doyle.

(Wish I had photos, but I didn’t get to attend a single show, and someone let Melear move to Europe with his camera…)

My raw envy of the Tanglewood Theatre’s fly space and ample orchestra pit is mitigated by thankfulness for our air conditioning at The Barns at Wolf Trap.

Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor sharing the stage while neither playing up nor down to each other’s genres is a simple and beautiful thing.

The words “fully endowed in perpetuity” are unbelievably common in Lenox, Massachusetts, and I covet them.

Getting out of your own little world doesn’t solve problems, but it sure does re-order their nature and magnitude.

I am a sucker for the first 25 minutes of the opera proper in Ariadne auf Naxos.

It might be very good and healthy for me to be out of 3G network service sometime soon. Will renew my commitment to step off the grid temporarily;  but just not before our season is over.

Copland + Glimmerglass YAAP = Opera without Irony.  This is a good thing.

Colleagues can be incredibly gracious, and some people can be thoughtlessly rude.

I am incapable of speaking enthusiastically and articulately with rabid opera fans at the bed-and-breakfast.

My husband is a god for driving 19  hours while I worked on my laptop.  He was rewarded with 54 holes of golf while I went to meetings and auditions.

Can’t wait to be home tomorrow to usher Midsummer into the theatre.  Bring on the magic.

10:18 am with Titania & Bottom in rehearsal
“Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.”

12:34 pm: Artist Transpo
A quiet moment waiting at the Hilton,
catching up on email on the now-indispensable iPhone

1:43pm with Hannah Montana and Bob the Builder in Instant Opera preview
Hannah & Tiffany shopped for shoes in Pisa, and Bob & Pongo played ice hockey until Harry Potter’s spell mistakenly melted the rink.

3:04pm: Places, Ladies & Gentlemen!
Peering around the corner while backstage left with Amanda,
a most excellent place to be

3:08pm with CameraMan in the balcony booth,
protecting the music from the click of our shutters

3:10-5:20 Invitation to the Dance
In a future life, I want to be able to sing, play, and dance like these folks.
A terrific concert, topped off by an encore dedicated to yours truly on the occasion of my 25th summer with Wolf Trap Opera.
(Have I really not had a summer vacation since 1984?)

5:38 pm in the English Barn with this wonderful cast.
(Minus Danny, ever the working drummer, packing up his kit.)

6:25pm.  The house and lobby are clear.
(Except for RT & JB, loitering at the box office)
Time to send the cast and company off to Chef Geoff’s for a party, then head home to visit my brother, who is visiting from Colorado for just one day!

No opera for me tonight; I’m focused on the ampersand part of my job, backstage right with the National Symphony Orchestra, listening to Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy.

Is this genre a new part of the symphonic pops “long tail”?  It’s not Mahler, but it certainly can hold its own next to the decades-old Broadway/cabaret pops model.  It feels more complex and varied than most film music.  And it certainly has an audience.  (The male/female ratio is the largest I’ve seen all summer.  Yes, ladies, I know you’re out there.  But even you know you’re outnumbered.)

The whole atmosphere is a curious combination of the emotional landscape of movie music, the buzz of a rock event, the power and pomp of an orchestra concert, the audience spontaneity of jazz, and the cult of opera.

I’ll turn tomorrow’s NSO concert (Holst Planets with a new HD film!) over to colleage Rahree while I oversee Steve Blier’s dress rehearsal in preparation for Sunday’s Invitation to the Dance!  See you there.

On Sunday afternoon, we turned the theatre over to our studio singers, fellows and interns.  75 minutes of scenes from 7 operas in 4 languages were sung, played, supertitled, and stage-managed by folks whose average age couldn’t have topped 23.  The rest of us cheered, enjoyed, and did the best we could at house management.  Even a 3:10pm severe thunderstorm that wreaked havoc with the light board and supertitle projectors didn’t faze these folks.

It’s the first time we held this event (which itself is a mere 3 years old) at The Barns, our small-but-mighty mainstage.   It was an experiment that paid great dividends, and we will be seeking to replicate it and improve on it in future seasons.  I came away with lots of food for thought, some of which I didn’t bargain on.

I’ve been puzzling out the dramatically different vibe that was present in the house that afternoon. On one hand, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.  The audience comprised mostly friends/family of the performers and a wide range of Wolf Trap donors.  They were predisposed to wish us well.  Admission was free, which also doesn’t hurt the frame of mind.  I knew all of this, but the overwhelmingly relaxed, open, dare-I-say-happy groove that pervaded the afternoon was somehow shocking.

There are folks who do enjoy their time at the opera, no doubt, but at a typical show in a typical house, we don’t usually hear from them.  We are more aware of their discontent fellow patrons, with an inner monologue of…. this-better-be-worth-the-money… I-went-through-rush-hour-hell-to-get-here… I-don’t-like-my-seats… I-hate-this-director/conductor/singer.  You get the idea, and I’m sure you can fill in some of your own.

So why, for a program of scenes with no orchestra, no sets and no costumes, were people seemingly more willing to relax and try to have a good time?  Is it all about the free ticket? Is it about low expectations being exceeded?  Is it bundled up with a personal connection to the artists and/or the organization?  Is it that the ticketed performance is a business transaction with a complicated return-on-investment mindset?

I’ll never know, but it is my mission to bottle some of it and figure out how to embed it in every show we do.

The Wolf Trap Opera Studio takes the stage of The Barns tomorrow for scenes from The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Barber of Seville, Turando, Love for Three Oranges, The Daughter of the Regiment, Iphigenie en Tauride, and West Side Story!

(Photos from Friday’s dress rehearsal)

FUSION (noun):  a merging of diverse, distinct, or separate elements into a unified whole
Etymology: from fusus, pp. of fundere “pour, melt”

Thursday was all about melding music and visual art.  Melting the colors in the art until they became harmonies, words, and melodies.  Pouring the music back into the paintings until they became wholly new.

A midday concert at Wolf Trap was followed by an evening of music and art at The Phillips Collection in downtown D.C.  Four singers and two pianists presented a concert of songs inspired by paintings in the collection, and the audience was able to view a projection of each painting during the performance of its paired song.

I have a seriously underdeveloped visual sense, and it is my ongoing challenge in the opera business (the most multi-media of all genres) to amp up my ability to see.  For that reason, these Vocal Colors recitals have a strong, peculiar attraction for me.   Sadly, I missed both of Thursday’s events, as my job description for the day kept me at the Filene Center for Joshua Bell’s performance with the NSO.  But I was there in spirit, and I’m looking forward to the chance to see the video recording of the evening concert.  Bravi to Eve, Kenneth, Ashlyn, Ryan, Michael & Jeremy, and to the other Ryan for making it all happen, with appreciation to The Phillips Collection for this wonderful partnership.

Photos by Eric Melear
Of course