DAY FIFTY FOUR - Friday May 18
We did a run in the morning - Patti did some work with the ballet company when they weren't with me.
Each time we run, we get closer and closer to having something that will be ready by next week. But because of the unlearned lines, the chorus who still is uncertain of where they should be and the fact that everything takes three times as long because of the translation, to say nothing of what is lost in translation, we sure could use another week. I can't believe I'm saying that after eight weeks of rehearsal.
After rehearsal, Gregg and I happened into the rehearsal room of Izumrud - the house band here. Here is their poster wall:
As I have said before, they are some of the most amazing musicians I've ever met. Nobody plucks faster anywhere. They asked us if we wanted to hear a song - and we got a private concert! I know accordionists sometimes get a bad rap - but how you can not love this guy's playing is beyond me. All of them are fantastic. Keep in mind that the traditional Russian balalaika has only three strings and the first two are tuned to the exact same note! Not an octave apart. THE SAME NOTE.
If you want to be even further amazed, check out my post from Tuesday April 24th (you can click the date) and scroll almost all the way down to the bottom to see the percussionist play the xylophone... blindfolded.
We did not have an evening rehearsal because it was the culmination of the contest of Operetta and Musical Comedy. I watched the final contestants (which took about 2 1/2 hours with no intermission).
By far, the best performance was by Ludmilla Lokaychuk - one of our Marys. She did Olympia's aria from Offenbach's "Takes of Hoffman" but made up her own scenario - and performed it brilliantly. Here is a link. She's pretty incredible. Pretty and incredible.
Perfect, musically, and totally clear and hilarious story. There was also a trio (although only one of the performers was officially competing) who did a cute song but the best thing about them was the nearly-Cirque du Soleil antics at the end of the number. They got such rousing response from the audience that they repeated the tricks not once, not twice, but three times! It was pretty brilliant. If I can get video - I'll post it.
Then the awards ceremony started with the son of the composer whom the contest is honoring. He is a composer in his own right and, judging from the audience reaction, VERY popular. Then there were a couple of songs performed by some members of the company here - many of whom were in our show. Then they gave out the awards. It seemed like there was a slew of runners up and one winner in each of the operetta, and musical theatre, categories. I would say that I thought the winners were excellent - but I didn't necessarily agree with the runners up - although there were a heck of a lot of runners up - so maybe they just gave out a lot of awards.
Luda was actually announced as the winner in the Operetta category - but minutes later, a white sheet of paper came onstage and one of the hosts read it. She was disqualified because in the number she did the day before, she used a microphone with is apparently verboten for the operetta category. The theatre, her home theatre, which hosts the event annually, didn't know that?!
Here's some video.
VID HERE
I hung out for a very short time at the "after party" where I tried to chat with a few of my new "friends" but it didn't last long since I had no translator and conversation was extremely limited. This was the night I could have seen that Stanley Kowalski in "Hamlet" - I was a bit torn.
I also had to work on the staging for a musical number I was doing tomorrow.
We did a run in the morning - Patti did some work with the ballet company when they weren't with me.
Each time we run, we get closer and closer to having something that will be ready by next week. But because of the unlearned lines, the chorus who still is uncertain of where they should be and the fact that everything takes three times as long because of the translation, to say nothing of what is lost in translation, we sure could use another week. I can't believe I'm saying that after eight weeks of rehearsal.
After rehearsal, Gregg and I happened into the rehearsal room of Izumrud - the house band here. Here is their poster wall:
As I have said before, they are some of the most amazing musicians I've ever met. Nobody plucks faster anywhere. They asked us if we wanted to hear a song - and we got a private concert! I know accordionists sometimes get a bad rap - but how you can not love this guy's playing is beyond me. All of them are fantastic. Keep in mind that the traditional Russian balalaika has only three strings and the first two are tuned to the exact same note! Not an octave apart. THE SAME NOTE.
If you want to be even further amazed, check out my post from Tuesday April 24th (you can click the date) and scroll almost all the way down to the bottom to see the percussionist play the xylophone... blindfolded.
We did not have an evening rehearsal because it was the culmination of the contest of Operetta and Musical Comedy. I watched the final contestants (which took about 2 1/2 hours with no intermission).
By far, the best performance was by Ludmilla Lokaychuk - one of our Marys. She did Olympia's aria from Offenbach's "Takes of Hoffman" but made up her own scenario - and performed it brilliantly. Here is a link. She's pretty incredible. Pretty and incredible.
Perfect, musically, and totally clear and hilarious story. There was also a trio (although only one of the performers was officially competing) who did a cute song but the best thing about them was the nearly-Cirque du Soleil antics at the end of the number. They got such rousing response from the audience that they repeated the tricks not once, not twice, but three times! It was pretty brilliant. If I can get video - I'll post it.
Then the awards ceremony started with the son of the composer whom the contest is honoring. He is a composer in his own right and, judging from the audience reaction, VERY popular. Then there were a couple of songs performed by some members of the company here - many of whom were in our show. Then they gave out the awards. It seemed like there was a slew of runners up and one winner in each of the operetta, and musical theatre, categories. I would say that I thought the winners were excellent - but I didn't necessarily agree with the runners up - although there were a heck of a lot of runners up - so maybe they just gave out a lot of awards.
Luda was actually announced as the winner in the Operetta category - but minutes later, a white sheet of paper came onstage and one of the hosts read it. She was disqualified because in the number she did the day before, she used a microphone with is apparently verboten for the operetta category. The theatre, her home theatre, which hosts the event annually, didn't know that?!
Here's some video.
VID HERE
I hung out for a very short time at the "after party" where I tried to chat with a few of my new "friends" but it didn't last long since I had no translator and conversation was extremely limited. This was the night I could have seen that Stanley Kowalski in "Hamlet" - I was a bit torn.
I also had to work on the staging for a musical number I was doing tomorrow.
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