No it's not what it sounds like. I mean that we now are more than half way through the run of five performances, so as of the intermission last night we were "over the hump". Yesterday was a bit of a nail-biter for a few reasons. First, while I had received a "Not Available" from the DNO to go to Leuven for my transfer rehearsal in the afternoon, I was still called in the morning, until 1:30. As it happened the rehearsal in the morning was cancelled, but by the time I had discovered this and tried to book a train ticket all of the high speed trains to Leuven were sold out, and I mean, all of them. Normally you can buy a ticket without a seat and sit in the bar, or in the little foldout seats between the carriages, but even these were at capacity. So I bought a slow train ticket and reconciled myself to arriving late.
Fortunately I thought to call Lisette, our Donna Anna; she lives in Den Haag and we quickly changed plans; I was able to take a short trip to her and then we drove together directly to Leuven. Whew!
The show went quite well, actually. The other aspect that was "nail-biting" was the question of vocal readiness... we had taken two weeks off without singing through the show together, and many of us had been battling illness. Lisette, Britt and I were all much improved but much of the cast still has a nagging cough. The Schouwburg (playhouse) in Leuven - built sometime in the 1910s or 1920s - is quite beautiful to look at, with four balconies and boxes in the usual style, and while there isn't much sound coming back to the stage the sound in the house is quite good, I think, provided one is not too far upstage. We adjusted the staging somewhat to help cheat downstage and sing directly into the house at all times, and having the orchestra in a pit instead of sitting on stage right was more comfortable, plus it meant that it was easy to have peripheral vision contact with the conductor at all times.
There were some videos taken for COBRA television, I think of the Brussels performance, but perhaps of Antwerp, that show some of the performances, plus a little bit of yours truly, in my guises as the Commendatore and as Masetto.
But about Amsterdam, I really haven't had much time to see anything. Getting my bearings has been challenging enough, learning the tram lines, meeting the cast, etc. Fortunately it is a 800m walk to the tram stop, then a straight shot of ten stops to the theatre, so that can usually be done in under half an hour.
There is a swimming pool perhaps 300 metres from the apartment, and a 12-visit card is about 50 euros. Not super cheap but the convenience is really appreciated.
The city is lit up at night and has a perpetual festive feeling, with many open markets, and lots of people out at all hours, although our apartment faces the Rembrandtpark and is very, very quiet.
The opera house itself is a new one, built in 1986 and seating 1600; like the slightly larger Four Seasons Centre in Toronto, it has a glass facade allowing people inside to stay connected with the exterior. For the first time in my working experience, the ballet is also housed within, and they are preparing productions at the same time. It's quite cool to be walking back from the canteen with a cup of coffee and hear music coming from the studio, and to catch a glimpse of the dancers going through their paces, or to eat your lunch sitting next to a bunch of ballerinas with their stiff ruffled skirts over the back of a chair, or the young men with their leg up on the lunch tables stretching out a cramp.
We have had some musical rehearsals already, but on Wednesday we had the entire cast look at the presentation of the maquette of the scene design, and then spent the rest of the day reading through the translation of the opera from a printed copy, in Russian, English, French and German. This was done in a big room with about 50 people in attendance, with over thirty of those people cast members. The strange thing is that most of the cast has one or two lines to sing, so it was a lot of sitting and waiting. Kris, Guillaume and I are of course familiar with this approach as it is the same as we experienced with La Traviata last year, but there were some worried faces on those who I am sure wondered if the next six weeks will be spent sitting listening to others read their lines. They can relax, we only have to do this once!
I had a look at the designer's concept for the costume of Baron Wurmerhelm; it would appear that I will be dressed in Bavarian Lederhosen for the show, which delights me to no end. As well, in this production the libretto clearly plays with the idea of people entering the stage continually whenever their name is mentioned, and Andrea wishes to extend this to the other people in the cast. Wurmerhelm and the Baroness his wife are mentioned frequently, as they disapprove of Alexei (the main character) and of his employer (the General) and the general's girlfriend (Blanche) because of Blanche's past antics. Serafina (who will play the Baroness) and I expect to be seen in the periphery of the stage many times throughout the opera, and also in the Casino scene.
As it takes place in a casino, there was an Amsterdam casino visit organized for yesterday, and today the players in the casino scene will be watching excerpts from Scorsese's 1995 film Casino. This is presumeably to help them understand the kind of feeling that is needed in this important ensemble scene, which is really the climax of the opera.
What else? I managed with some consultation with Maggie to confirm the ingredients of my Grandmother Helen's Apricot Chicken Curry, and so managed to make do in a strange kitchen with some less than usual ingredients. Still it all worked out, and Kris was very appreciative. We'll see what he makes when it's his turn to cook.
Meanwhile I have a couple of days at home before returning to Amsterdam on Sunday, so luckily I will get to sleep in my own bed tonight before Maggie's parents arrive for a ten-day visit, to coincide with the Toussaint school vacation for Maggie and the boys. I wasn't sure that I would see Hugh and Sheila right away, so that is a lucky alignment of schedules.
Today it's laundry and assembling some articles that the apartment lacks, that I don't wish to purchase but can borrow from home. Have a Happy Weekend!
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