Harryadne auf Brisbane!

LGNOS Is the most intense, fun, challenging, rewarding, demanding, delightful summer school I have ever done. For this school was putting on Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (I’ll let you google the plot, it’s a little convoluted!). I performed the role of  Scarramucio, one of a quartet of performers that were part of Zerbinetta’s act. After arriving at about midnight the night before the start of the school, at 10.30 the next morning we started with welcomes and a full musical run of the opera. It is always exciting to meet your new family for whatever project you are working on, be it a weekend or five weeks, and this awesome crew were no exception! The run through went much better for me than I thought it would! Scaramuccio is musically very difficult as he is a middle harmony line in a quartet/quintet for all of his singing, so there can be funky passages that make no real sense until put with the other singers. We all made it through relatively unscathed!

For the duration of the school I was billeted with a three other singers at Nancy Underhill’s house. Nancy is one of those people who oozes kindness and generosity and she opened her house to four crazies for five weeks! The Fab Four, the name of our text chain, included myself, Laura Scandizzo, Amy Yarham and Daniel Macey. We became a gorgeous little family and it was so much fun spending time with these humans!

So, the school! The first week and a half consisted of music calls and individual coachings. Add next component, director! Heather Fairburn was our fearless leader and made the rehearsal process a real romp! What added to the fun, for the quartet at least, was Heather’s staging of the piece. Instead of being a circus act, Zerbinetta and her boys were a cabaret act. This meant that three of us would be in drag. Wigs, Makeup, bespoke sequin purple dresses, all of it! Our key word was ‘Dreamgirls’ and the choreo didn’t dissappoint! Hopefully the official photos will be out soon so I can post a few here because, and I hate to toot my own horn, we looked good!

Because we had such a busy schedule during the week, it was nice to be able to rest, relax and go on a few adventures in the weekend. The second weekend in included one of my favourite trips and joinery down to Wetn’Wild! We were like children, running around and throwing ourselves down rides and giggling the whole way. It was a day that was very much needed! Another real treat was Thanksgiving. Lovely Laura is from Texas, and so we hosted Thanskgiving one Sunday night! Laura was chef supreme and cooked the perfect Turkey which I have never had before, nor have I been part of a Thanksgiving party! I can confirm that both of these were fantastic!

So we’re down to a week and a half until show one, the show is looking great, the coaches are happy, Heather is happy and we add the next component, Simone Young!

I have to be honest here, I return to writing this after a break and realise that I have returned to my old ways of aggressively overusing exclamation marks. For the duration of this update I will try to refrain from using them. Please be aware that I am still excited about the whole process, I am just trying to write slightly more proper like!  (Last one I swear and yes, the incorrect grammar was part of the joke I promise)

It was a little nerve wracking to sing for Simone the first time, as it is when you sing for the conductor for the first time in any project. But we had been so well musically prepared that the whole run through was a delight. By this part of the process I’ll admit I had a little bit of Strauss fatigue, but that was stripped away working with Simone. Getting into the space was the next step and we would be performing in the Queensland Con’s Stunning Concert Hall. It is always a big change from the rehearsal space, and there are always little changes. This prop might be a metre further upstage than in the rehearsal room, or this action might need to be cheated out more, it can be a fun but tricky part of the process. The final piece of the puzzle was adding our Orchestra, Ensemble Q and It was so exciting to here them play. Don’t get me wrong, all of the coaches and repetiteurs who were playing during rehearsals were amazing, they just weren’t an orchestra. The two performances were both very successful and went incredibly well, if I do say so myself!

And then it’s over, just like that. Weeks and weeks of rehearsals go into two ninety minute shows and then you’re thinking about if you are going to need to buy extra baggage for your return flight home. What an experience the whole process was and I have made many wonderful friends and had the absolute honour of working with amazing coaches and teachers who all taught me so much. It has been a very bizarre month since the school finished. I was so greateful to have the opportunity to rest and recover, but heading back to the farm for Christmas was such a dichotomy to the busyness and intensity of my time in Brisbane. I hope the opportunity comes again to work in Australia, I really cannot wait to work with all of those wonderful people again!

As for the start of 2019, I am heading down to sing as a soloist in Nelson for the Teapot Valley Choral Festival in a few days and will be returning to Dunedin to sing at the Burns Supper, a celebration of Robbie Burns, the following weekend. Chorus work for New Zealand Opera is spread throughout the year, as well as working with Bach Musica for the first time premiering a NZ work which I cannot wait to start working on! Also I have a degree to finish too, I’m sure I’ll pop along to a class or two!

Until next time!