Try to remember…
…the kind of September…
…and October…
When I think about the beginning of the 2020-2021 season, two words come to mind: flexibility and gratitude.
I was supposed to be in San Francisco working on my 6th opera with the company, Fidelio (sorry Ludwig!). I also had plans to teach and perform at Colorado State University at the end of September.
But COVID-19 had other plans.
As the majority of my friends announced cancellation after cancellation, I could only feel immense gratitude for my work in Europe. Of course, many adjustments had to be made as we discovered more about COVID-19. Yes, it would be nice to know what we are actually rehearsing, preparing and performing with our “normal” advance notice, but we are dealing with something over which we have no control. With the ever-evolving rules and regulations, we can only try to be flexible as we figure out how to live with this ‘new’ life. More events are now online and our opera productions were adjusted so that we can safely rehearse and perform within these new parameters of creating (and enjoying) art in the time of COVID-19.
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ONLINE COACHINGS: I started online coachings via Zoom. It is definitely an adjustment coaching opera singers online. I spent quite a bit of time researching different online platforms, how to work with (online) sound, different microphones and set-up. I have learned (and actually am still learning) how to adjust my coaching style with this “new” medium. In addition to private coachings, I am a guest coach this fall with the vocal department at the University of Louisville. I am also a consultant for Top 10 Role Study, a group of artists offering specific packages on role and audition preparation for opera singers.
SPEAKING OF ZOOM: I was invited by my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, to speak in a panel discussion titled, “The Performer’s Experience.” UNCG was such a special place to me and I’m grateful for everything I learned and experienced in my 7 years there. I was happy to share my journey with the current students — even at 8 pm EST which was 2 am for me in Germany.
I think I was awake at the end…
OPERA: My tentative assignments for the 2020-2021 season at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein had included Salome, Hänsel und Gretel, Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Tote Stadt, Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung. And now? None of those operas. At the beginning of the season, I worked on my first Viktor Ullmann opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, a one-act opera composed at the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt around 1943. From my research about this piece, I discovered a spiritualist by the name of Rosemary Brown. Apparently, she was well-known for “mediumship with dead composers and for transcribing musical works they dictated.” She was in contact with Ullmann and dictated his wishes and corrections for a revised edition of this work. According to her Wikipedia page, she also had connections to many composers, including: Debussy, Grieg, Liszt, Schubert, Chopin, Stravinsky, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart and Rachmaninoff. Interesting…
Meanwhile, you can watch productions of this opera (less than an hour long!) this month online:
Deutsche Oper am Rhein on OperaVision
Rice University’s Virtual Performance page
and LIVE in The Big Tent Series at Atlanta Opera until mid-November.
Photo: Sascha Kreklau
Toward the end of September, I joined the chorus in rehearsals for a special program of choral works by Brahms, Stravinsky, Elgar and Bernstein. As our operas in the fall season feature very little chorus, they have planned their own performances with a group of 24 singers on stage with plenty of distance. I have a small part in Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. Originally composed for chorus and orchestra, Shostakovich was such a big fan of the piece that he decided to arrange a version for two pianos and chorus. He was so pleased with his work that he personally presented his manuscript to Stravinsky himself in 1962. Stravinsky’s reception of the score was unenthusiastic.
Our first of 4 chorus concerts took place on October 9. Now as the Stravinsky takes a little nap, I’ve started orchestra rehearsals for my first Mieczysław Weinberg opera, Wir gratulieren or Mazeltov! When I first received the music, I was told that I would also be playing the tambourine AND the cymbals as it was arranged for the pianist to play all 3. I was a little bit relieved when a percussionist showed up to the first rehearsal to play the tambourine and cymbals. Although I am sad not to be making my professional cymbals debut, I am grateful that it is one less thing I have to think about.