Sitz what? Whosit Probe??

It's a pretty scary word, Sitzprobe. It sounds like an extremly invasive uncomfortable medical proceedure. The german word translates as "Seated test." In our case, it's a seated rehearsal.

Actually its a very special moment in the opera world. It is the moment when all the pieces come together for the first time. Singers and chorus will sing through the entire opera on stage for the first time with the Louisville Orchestra in the pit of the Brown Theatre. The singers will generally sit down or just stand rather than go through the stage blocking.

This special moment is happening for Kentucky Opera tonight. Up until now, the main stage singers have been rehearsing during the day in the 2nd floor rehearsal room, the chorus rehearses in the evening in the same space, and the orchestra has rehearsed on stage rather than in the orchestra pit.

Tonight we will hear how the voices blend with the orchestra. Most of the guest artists have only SEEN the stage. Tonight they will hear how their voices resonate in the hall. The conductor, Joe Mechavich, will be in the pit with the musicians. The director, our very own David Roth, will sit in the middle of the house with a note taker. Stage management will be back stage, making sure artists are ready, preparing cues and ready to halt the action if something needs tweeking.

Customarily, the rehearsal following the Sitz, is the wandleprobe. I bet you can guess what that means. It means singers may not sing full voice or "mark" but they will add the blocking and maybe there will be more props and they might try costume changes. Lighting cues will be refined. All of this requires the strict coordination of the stage management team. More on them next time.

Elixir Final Dress Rehearsal Video

Clips from the dress rehearsal of Kentucky Opera's performance of The Elixir of Love.
It's going to be a fun production, tickets are still availalbe!
Call 5020.584.7777 or click here.




Selena Frye from Louisville.com was at the rehearsal and seemed to really enjoy herself.
Read her rehearsal review here.

Hansel & Gretel Rehearsal Video

Last night was Kentucky Opera's final dress rehearsal for Hansel & Gretel. We had a great crowd of appreciative students and the reactions of the audience really increased the energy of the show.

My guy Matt from Videobred was quite efficient with his videography. Here is the footage we captured and sent to the TV staions.



Anya Matanovic as Gretel
Leah Wool as Hansel
Victoria Livengood as the Witch
Andrea Graves as the Familiar
Kentucky Opera children's chorus

Tickets for Hansel & Gretel are still available by calling 502.584.7777 or by visiting KYopera.org. We are still doing the buy one adult ticket get one child ticket free!

Tonight's the Night!

Tonight, Friday, September 25, 2009 the Brown Theatre will be transformed into a grand opera house when Kentucky Opera opens the 2009 Brown-Forman Fall Season with La Traviata.

We have extremely limited seating for this evening as the Grand Gala has everyone all excited (and rightly so) but there are great seats still available for Sunday, September 27 at 2pm. Call for tickets 502.584.7777 before they're gone!

Here are some pictures from the Final Dress Rehearsal by O'Neil Arnold.

*SPOILER ALERT!!!

Some photos may reveal specific plot elements of the story.

Kentucky Opera Chorus looks and sounds amazing on the stage of the Brown Theatre. This is the party that opens act I and these are the people that helped make it look so good:

Stage Director: James Marvel
Set Design : Edwardo Sicango
Costume Design: John Lehmeyer
Lighting Design: Jeff Bruckerhoff
Wig & Make-Up Design: Sue Stitko Shaefer
Choreographer: Diana Dinicola

Metropolitan Opera star, Elizabeth Futral stars at Violetta, and Sébastien Guèze makes his U.S. Debut as Alfredo.Sempre libera degg'io at the end of Act I


Donny Ray Albert as Garmond in Act II.



Sébastien Guèze Act II scene 2


Flamenco Louisville dances in the end of Act II

*Unfortunately, she dies at the end...


There are more pictures on our Facebook Fan page.

Iolanta

Today Kentucky Opera had the Lunch and Listen for Iolanta. For those who may not know about this significant program, it's a one-hour preview of whatever opera is coming up. It takes place on Wednesday usually two weeks prior to the production at Louisville Public Media's performance studio hosted by one of the wonderful WUOL hosts such as Scott Dowd, Alan Brandt or Carol Larson. (I would be remiss not to mention Daniel Gilliam who has done many wonderful interviews with Kentucky Opera staff and artists, but has not hosted a Lunch and Listen). The programs are aired live on Classical 90.5 WUOL at lunch time and the small but appreciative live audience can bring their lunch or order a City Cafe box lunch through the opera or the station. The shows are re-broadcast on Classical 90.5 on the following weekend; they are on WUOL’s audio archives and usually broadcast on Metro TV many times. (Unfortunately this particular program was not taped by Metro TV).

David Roth goes over the story and highlights of the operas and introduces the cast, the conductor and director. The main stage artists will perform arias and ensembles to illustrate the plot. It is a unique opportunity for the public to hear the music of the opera and get an in depth description of the libretto. (Look here for a short synopsis and history of Iolanta)

This particular Lunch and Listen was unique in two ways. First, because Iolanta will be performed in concert rather than the full production, the main stage artists are not in town yet. Although the chorus is in rehearsal (David Roth is in the chorus!!) and getting Russian coaching, Anna Shafajinskia and her counter parts will not be in Louisville until a week before the production. Kentucky Opera’s Studio Artists, Heather Phillips and Benjamin Robinson sang for the Lunch and Listen and did a great job.

Another distinctive difference in this Lunch & Listen, the Louisville Orchestra had an ensemble in the studio to perform an excerpt and Rob Birman, the LO’s C.O.O. was introduced as well. The addition of the orchestra was just astounding. This Iolanta concert is collaboration between the two organizations, and this entertaining and educational program exemplified this ideal fusion.

Iolanta will be in concert at Whitney Hall on Saturday, March 21 at 8pm and tickets are available by calling 502.584.7777 or by visiting KYOpera.org.

THIS IS NOT REAL!! IT'S JUST A REHEARSAL!!

A memoir from Kentucky Opera Studio Artist Juliana Moura and her experience on Sunday's performance of Otello.

I play the violin every Sunday on my church (Walnut Baptist) and on this Sunday I also sang the Lord’s Prayer. Just before the sermon began I left for my opera chorus call at the Kentucky Center. I needed to be there at 12:30 but I got in the parking lot earlier so I decided to relax a little before going in. While in the car I heard a cell phone vibrate. I knew my cell was with my husband that day and as I looked for the sound, the vibrating stopped. Some seconds later it started to vibrate again. Then I saw my husband’s jacket that he had forgotten in the car. When I checked the cell I saw 8 missed calls and a bunch of messages. At that moment I thought, “Somebody really wants to talk to me.” I checked the missed calls and saw Julie’s phone number, and David’s and Julie’s and… OH MY GOD, WHAT IS GOING ON?

When I opened the Kentucky Center Lobby’s door I saw Alise Oliver, Kentucky Opera’s artistic administrator, with this scary look on her face and saying, “Oh, Juliana is here, she is here…” suddenly Julie Maykowski (the education director), Alice, Julia (the assistant stage manager) and everybody was there just smiling and asking, “How are you today???” Then I asked, “What’s going on?” Nobody said anything; they just had those freaking smiles. Then I asked, “Where is Kelly?” They looked at each other THIS TIME with a nervous laughter they said, “David Levy is coming to talk to you!” I knowingly replied, “This is not happening, right?” Alice, the costume master, said with her smile, “Oh, yes it is…” I got that answer as a voice far, far away and from that moment on I started to set my mind aside: THIS IS NOT REAL AND I AM JUST HAVING A DREAM (NIGHTMARE).

David Levy came and with all his calm personality and voice said, “Hi Juliana how are you feeling today? Well, Kelly is sick and we need you to standby and sing from the pit in case anything goes wrong, how do you feel about that? You think you can do this?” And in the same calm voice he asked me, I said, “I think so!”

He showed me the place already prepared in the pit and took me to talk to our star, Kelly Kaduce. Julie took me to Todd Hall so I could run through some parts that I wanted to work on with the coach Naoko Suga . I asked to go through third act (God knows why!) and then we looked at the death scene in the fourth act because this was the only part we didn’t coach for this opera.

Before the opera began, Julie was in the dressing room forcing me to eat and I heard the announcement made by Lisa, the stage manager, on the speaker, “Attention please, Juliana Moura is not singing today with the chorus, she will be in stand-by for Mrs. Kaduce in the pit.” I just looked at Julie, covered my ears and said “I don’t want to here this, la, la, la, la, la…”. So I could still trick my mind and pretend that this was just a rehearsal.

During the performance, Kelly made it through acts one and two without incident. In the third act all the lights in the orchestra it went out, except for my light and Naoko’s. I stood up and just like the guys with the flashlights on the airport runway I held up the lights to help the orchestra see something in the middle of the blackout. I started screaming for Naoko to get somebody to do something about the lights and this went on for a while. Kelly Kaduce ended up singing one or two bars without music but then the lights came back. From that moment on I was sure that THIS WAS NOT REAL!!!

Well as soon as Kelly finished her duet in the third act I thought, “Thank God she will be able to do the whole show!” Suddenly Julie appeared at the pit and said “You are ON!!!”

I took my shoes off to try to relax and thought “This is just a rehearsal!!!”

And I sang!

After the third act they rushed me to stage right to do act four because the singers on stage couldn’t hear me. David Levy with all his calm showed me the place I was going to be and I took my shoes off again. As soon as the forth act started I realized I could not hear the orchestra. On that part of the stage I could tell that an orchestra was playing, but I could not hear the notes, so Naoko played my notes on the piano which was the greatest help I could have. I did not take my eyes off the score, except to look at the maestro and tried to be as straight as I could on my tempo as he advised me.

Thank goodness we worked on the fourth act. After my last word on stage, ADDIO! I felt just like that, I am dead, and good bye. It was amazing to see so many people back stage cheering for me and with big smiles saying so many good things. Honestly in my mind I have no clue how it sounded; I had NEVER sang with an orchestra before, or in a big theater like the Whitney and doing this gigantic role that my voice isn’t ready for yet.

I can still picture the moment when Kelly and I embraced in center stage. To hear all the applause was the most exciting moment of my life!!!

I am very happy to have been chosen to study this role with Kentucky Opera Studio Artists Program and to be prepared so I could face this once in a lifetime opportunity. I can say that I depended on God the entire time, and just kept saying in my head: THIS IS NOT HAPPENING… IT IS JUST A REHEARSAL!

posted by Juliana Moura

Chorus Rhearsals

Music preparation for the Otello chorus has begun! In the Brown rehearsal room at ARTSPACE, Dr. Phillip Brisson and Dr. Mozelle Clark Sherman teach the Kentucky Opera chorus their parts and diction for the upcoming production. The chorus only has 6 music rehearsals to learn the very challenging score prior to the arrival of Mo. Steven Crawford on Sept. 5 !!