I woke up this morning with really big bruises on the back of my legs. One of them takes up half of my thigh! This is intense. My Mom was like, "Omgosh, what the heck are they doing to you?" But I know exactly how I got them.

Yesterday, I had opera rehearsal from 2-7:30. Granted, I didn't rehearse the entire time (I spent 3 hours assisting the costume designer! More on that in a second) but I had some intense rehearsal time. I blame all my battle wounds on Rossini.

We were doing the trio from The Barber of Seville for about 45 minutes. It's a very physical scene. The music is fast and the situation is intense so things get pretty crazy pretty fast. (Then again, the entire show is fast and intense and hysterical. I cannot wait to sing this show!) Basically, the three of us are trying to get out of my house so that the Count and I (Rosina) can elope. However, each character has a different opinion on the best method of escape so in the end everyone is pulling on everyone else and I really get whipped around the stage because it's me versus two boys.

There's this one section of the staging that came about by improv on the Count's part, but it worked so well that we kept it. However, it was tricky to make it "work" so we had to run it a few dozen times. In the course of the staging, the Count pushes me up against a thigh-high table. Hence the bruises. I kept saying, "I'm going to have bruises tomorrow." And I was right. But I am not ashamed of my battle scars! Besides, the staging is pretty sexy so it's totally worth all the bruising.

The three hours I spent with the costumer were so much fun. (We're starting on costuming for the big opera, Die Fledermaus, which we're performing in January.) She is really cool and über-creative. I wrote down measurements as she took them and helped her catalog all the clothes that people brought in. Between appointments, we got to chat and we were talking about the whole clothing-design industry and being an artist and what we want to do with our lives. She really loves what she's doing and I love to meet people who love what they're doing. She has a studio in NYC that I'd LOVE to see. I knew her vaguely because she worked with us on the opera last year. One of the best pro-s of being the scribe was that I got the scoop on the costumes for all the leads in the show. (The entire production presentation -- with sets, costumes, overall concept, etc -- is next week but it was so nice to get a sneak peek yesterday.)

I'm getting really excited for this show. It's supposed to be set in the 1860s but due to budget issues (and my director's innate dislike for "traditional" productions), we're setting the opera in the 1980s. ROCK ON. I was told that the entire first act is a pool-side scene. The lead soprano is going to be in a bathing suit, cover-up, and heels. The tenor is the pool-boy (LOL). When the costumer asked him if he'd wear a Speedo (and nothing but a Speedo, LOL x 1000), he flat-out refused. Then she asked if he'd wear tiny shorts instead, but he refused that, too. He put his hand to his knee and said, "No shorter than this!" He talked about it for the rest of the day and made his Facebook status "Derek will absolutely NOT wear a Speedo on stage. EVER. Final Answer." <3

I was even more excited to hear what my character is going to be like. They've decided to make my character GLAMROCK. Think David Bowie. Frilly shirt, leather jacket, big boots, crazy hair...YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Apparently the party that I'm throwing is actually a social experiment. All the guests/victims (aka the chorus) are uppity socialites and I'm the "cool" rebel. Cool stuff. I cannot WAIT for January!

I came home so exhausted last night. But it's that great feeling of exhaustion when you're happy and tired and fulfilled. This morning was another story. My severe lack of money forced me to drink instant coffee (that I can get for free at the office I work at). But that's okay. I can settle for instant coffee. In fact, it tastes good just because it's a symbol of what my life will be and I'm happy to take that life because it means that I get to sing opera again tomorrow.

For opera scenes this semester, I might get to play Sesto, possibly one of the coolest characters under the sun. Listen to this:

Sesto (you might know him as Sextus) is right-hand man to Tito (Titus), Emperor of Rome and he's going out with the deposed emperor's daughter, Vitellia. Now, Vitellia is only interested in Sesto because she wants to knock off Tito but Sesto's too nice/naive/in love to notice this. So the whole show Vitellia's trying to convince Sesto to kill Tito. Not only is Tito the Emperor, but he is Sesto's best friend, mentor, father-figure, and the reason that Sesto has such a good position in the government.

So in the fantastic aria that I might sing, Vitellia has just asked Sesto why he hasn't left yet (to go kill Tito) and Sesto sings "Parto, parto" (which means "I'm leaving, I'm leaving!").

Sesto is so complicated and unpredictable and incredibly nice (which makes him unbearably cute and yet sometimes annoying) and I really hope that I get to play him!

Here's one of my favorite renditions of this aria, sung by the wonderful Susan Graham. This aria is from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and it's not usually performed this way. The opera takes place in ancient Rome but this staging is modernized. I just love that they have Vitellia putting on war paint while her boyfriend desperately just tries to get her to look at him. It's different but it works. Also, listen for the crazy clarinet solos. That is TOTALLY Vitellia manipulating Sesto. (Mozart, you're ingenious!) I apologize for the Italian aria with Spanish subtitles. I couldn't find one with English. :( If you want to know what's actually being said, a rough English translation is under the video.




I'm leaving but, my love,
let's make peace!
Your happiness
is all I want to have.

Look at me and I'll do everything for you.
I'll take your revenge!
A single glance for me!
Oh gods, to know such beauty!

People amuse me.

A bunch of kids and their teachers were walking over the unispan (glass enclosure that goes over the main street) at my school. I was walking with them, enjoying the various reactions. One kid said what I always think when I go over the unispan:

"What if this really big truck goes by and smashes through? Wouldn't that be cool? We'd be like 'woooah!' and we'd fly through the air and..."

That was a 10-year-old boy. Love how the same thoughts that go through a 10-year-old boy's head go through mine.

Then they passed by the doors to the library. One teacher said to another,

"You want to peek your head in, just to see it? It looks like a hotel lobby in there."

I never realized what a ritsy school I go to. *shrug* Whatever. I'm not paying for it.

Speaking of paying for school...

I've decided that scholarship or no scholarship, I'm going to get my masters in Europe. I don't know why I didn't come to this conclusion sooner. There's no point in studying in the States.

The way I see it:
1. It's waaaay more expensive here ($30,000-50,000 a semester vs. $800-1,000 a semester)
2. Opera is a European art form. They're better equipped to teach it. Besides, their programs are driven toward opera; in the states, opera is just an add-on.
3. Why not? I'm going to move away anyway. Might as well go all the way.
4. Foreign languages don't scare me. In fact, they excite me. Might as well make my life as interesting as possible.
5. I could possibly win an all-paid scholarship to study there. You can't beat that.

Speaking of foreign languages...

I started my annual summer language study. This year I picked Russian because I'll be playing a Russian prince in the opera in January.

Russian is so cool! The alphabet is the love child of ancient Greek and English (aka "my" alphabet). The printed letters look nothing like the written ones, but WHATEVER. They have so many more letters than we do. There are ten vowels. Ugh.

The really interesting thing is that the letter for "I" is actually the last letter in the alphabet. There's something psychologically interesting about that. I'm always interested about a language's choice for the word "I" and how they handle its capitalization. As in German and Italian (and probably tons of other languages), the Russians only capitalize I when it's at the beginning of a sentence. What is it about us English speakers that we always capitalize it? There's no grammatical need for it. "i" is not a separate word. Is there something haughty about the fact that we always capitalize "I"? Is it a confidence thing or a mere grammatical tradition/decision? This is very interesting...

I cannot wait to master Italian. When I do, I'm going to write a novel in the language. I feel like it is so much more conducive to fiction. If I were writing a philosophical or other non-fiction work, I'd use German, but I'd never use German for fiction. It's horribly incompatible. That's a rather broad generalization and I'm sorry. My point is: I want to write in Italian one day. The end.

But I'm enjoying Russian. My co-worker is shaking her head at me saying "RUSSIAN?!?" Whatever. Got to love the shock factor.

I just can't completely be my character if I don't know the basics of his language. Certain words and phrases need to come out of my mouth without thinking. In the show, English (usually German, but we're doing this production in English) is his second language. That needs to be apparent. I'm going to work on my accent. Yay! I love imitating accents; it's so fun and I can usually do it. The Russian accent is hard, but I think I can handle it.

This is going to be such a fun part in general. I'm really looking forward to working on it. How often do I get to be a spoiled young princeling?

More to come.