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I'm in the greenery of the northeast in my parents lovely secluded house 8 miles away from town and the outlets.

It's nice that after the two singing "things" this week I am finally getting this cold out of the way. My throat is raw, my nose is stuffy, I'm generally tired, and I can actually take something because I don't need to sing! Yesterday it was advil cold and sinus. Today it'll probably be theraflu, tea, cough drops.

I got a lovely "no" email from the Sullivans. Two other sop friends who sang for them did as well. Ah well- next year maybe. Hope I'm free in November.

Just read TWOC blog for NY day two/three, which mentions "gestures" in arias- in the "nether" regions....Hmm, I can't really imagine what guy aria would refer to that area. I do, however, think that there are many girl arias that could potentially go there without distracting in a negative way from the performance. Opera may be a higher artform, yes, however, in its heyday there was very often a comedic element, a level of "shock", something that would read for educated and uneducated audiences.
Whether it was a furtive glance or wave of a fan in the Victorian age, or actually a scene set in bed, or any other intimation of sexuality and intimacy...I do believe that these kinds of gestures belong in arias, scenes, character representations- IF they are not used for shock value alone, but have something to do with the story line.

For example, I'm not sure if I was one of the "females" of the WTOC post, but I definitely went for the physical in "Glitter". You can't ignore Bernstein's choice of words, choice of setting (notes, runs, etc), and I think the characters from the start in Candide all have a strong sexual presence.
So if I'm singing about "honor, lost"- yes, I'm going to refer right to where that honor was taken from and not feel like it's over the top, because the character is herself distraught, has no strong moral views about the acts that she has been committing with the high priest and the head rabbi, and therefore is one which I think merits pointing to wherever- since she's been handled so freely in the first place.

In addition, many of the "soubrette" characters, the sly maids, the saucy and informed ladies in waiting- what do you do with those characters today? To audiences today it's no shocker if despina sings about the "devil's tail", if Susanna and Figaro are measuring out a bed together, if Zerbinetta's "ah's" are "awww, I'm so in love and I love boys and it's fun to be saucy". But if you change some of that to rolling around on that "to be bed space" for Susanna, and Zerbie's Ah's come from a feeling that is not so much in her mind but a sensation a bit lower down, that to me is what will let the audience feel as excited/titillated as they may have in Mozart and Strauss's eras. So I agree with updating gestures and stagings to make the opera just as "cutting edge" as it was to audiences of the day it was written for.

Of course there is no need to be crude. There is no need for scantily clad women either. But the level of stakes can be raised from eye-lash batting and fanning to a little more, can it not?

Back to my vacation.
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