Skip to main content

Upcoming Concert - Tosca!

I used to have regular access to opera.  When I was a kid, we saw broadcasts on PBS.  I remember attending live performances in my home town.  When we were starting out freelancing we played several small opera festivals in the summers, and some of our orchestras were able to put together semi-staged productions within our seasons.  But for regional orchestras and small towns now the opera opportunities have gotten pretty sparse.  Universities can sometimes put productions together, and the big opera companies are still doing their thing, but I can't count on any regular pit playing in my life anymore. 

An opera is a huge thing.  There are a lot of moving parts, and my bits - the orchestra bits - are among the smallest.  Sets, costumes, staging, direction, supertitles, star singers, choruses, conductors - I’m surprised anyone still does this!  It’s incredibly expensive and time-consuming to do a real production, and the market for it is small.  EXTREMELY enthusiastic, but small. 

All this to say, when I get an chance these days to dig into some of this fantastic, rich, complex music I do not take it lightly.  The Northwest Indiana Symphony is presenting a concert version of Puccini’s Tosca tomorrow night, and the rehearsals have just been thrilling, and I cannot wait to perform it.  It’s just breathtaking material, beautifully sung by great soloists, and the orchestra will do fine, and I will be on the edge of my seat, loving every minute. 

Details HERE.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knife Sharpening

I've gotten a lot of questions on this topic, and the most recent querent prompted me to make a video to demonstrate.  You can find that  HERE . Knife sharpening seems to strike terror into many hearts.  And it's little wonder.  Many famous oboists have gone on record as saying that a sharp knife is the most important aspect of reed making. People have entire systems of stones and strops and rods set up to sharpen their knives. And it is important, of course it is - but I don't believe that you need your knife to be razor-like, or objectively the sharpest blade of any in your home.  The reed knife has one job - scraping cane off in precision ways - and it has to be sharp enough for that, and sharpened optimally for that purpose.  More than that is overly fussy for my taste. This is not to say that I allow my knife to be dull.  A dull knife forces you to put too much pressure on the reed and can cause cracking. Obviously it can lead to terribly inc...
7 comments
Read more

Zoe's Musical Beginnings

I've mentioned before that I started out on the piano by figuring out melodies.  Connecting notes and trying to learn how they worked.  I'm fascinated to observe that Zoe's initial approach to the instrument is totally different from mine. She sits at our new piano and plays random notes, and tells us what to feel.  If she is playing slowly then the music is sad, and we should cry. When we are "crying" she either gets up and hugs us so we feel better (so awesome!) or bangs faster, to indicate that the music is now happy and we should dance.  Her other piano game is accompanying herself - she plays "chords" in alternating hands while she "sings" the ABC song or Camptown Races or Sesame Street.  She makes us sing along.  She loves it when we clap at the end.  When I was little I wanted to know how music worked. Although I make my living as a performer now, I learned about the interpersonal aspects of music later.  Her immediate interest is in ...
2 comments
Read more

Exciting Upcoming Concerts

The South Bend Symphony has a great concert this weekend that I've been really excited about. If you are in town you should definitely try to attend, as it features Prokofiev's thrilling Symphony no. 5 AND our marvelous concertmistress, Zofia Glashauser, playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. However, I will not be there. This Friday and Saturday I am playing Strauss's Ein Heldenleben with the Milwaukee Symphony , and loving every single minute. This orchestra sounds spectacular, and here's why. They rehearse. They have plenty of time to really listen to each other and get things right. This morning, our service was a wind sectional, which blew my mind. Almost 2 full hours with only the winds and brass, just on this one 40-minute piece. The conductor worked with us on every detail. Intonation, articulation, ensemble, balance, style. And still we have another full orchestra rehearsal tomorrow as well as the dress. I haven't sat in a winds-only rehearsal...
7 comments
Read more