Oh The Places You'll Go

Today I was invited to the final dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly at the MET by a recent colleague and current singer in one of the upcoming MET productions. She graciously invited me as her guest to the rehearsal, and let's just say it was a BIG day for lil' old me.

AMONG the singers I saw AND met backstage, wandering around, supporting their other colleagues, reporting for rehearsals, etc, etc were:
Angela and Roberto!!! (R I saw just walking into the theater to get ready), A I actually met). Both were donning some sort of urban/Euro fashion t-shirts and looked like they were getting ready to go clubbing--but in a good way.
Maria Ghulegina (sp?) at a Macbeth Reh.
Carlos Alvarez in the hallway backstage Left.
Most of the Butterfly cast in between the 1st and 2nd intermission.

I'm not quite sure how to describe how it felt. Not star-struck, but just a bit in awe that these people work here and I'm in the same hallway as them, at a place that I hope to work one day, and that it would just be completely normal to see them, meet them, and chat with them in the hallway.

About the Butterfly...it was like buttah.
SO pretty. I had seen some pics from last season, read about the production, but could never have expected a thing of so much beauty.
Just go see it yourself if you haven't. You'll be moved by SOMETHING if not the A-mazing singing by Racette and Roberto, as well as a very strong supporting cast.
The one comment I do have- orchestra was a bit all over the place, PLUS they were too loud (not for Patricia), but for just about everyone else.
And I was sitting in row K.
I know sometimes it cuts better to the back of the house, but the voices for most of Act I were close to inaudible if their parts weren't written as soaring high notes OVER the orchestra.
Couldn't even hear the chorus bits during the wedding scene that much and that's about all that's going on in the pitter-patter chit-chat scene.

ALSO, it's a small world after all---after attending the same "institution of learning" a few years back and being acquaintances in Chorale/Chorus (well, more like I was a freshman and knew who the soloist grads were and she may not have had a clue who I was), I met ACB in person. She checked out Act I and II before dashing off to a coaching/rehearsal of her own.

After that, some down time on the UWS and then a dinner of mixed business and pleasure to catch up and plan for the future.

Tomorrow: Shopping. Maybe some boots, Maybe some fall/winter wear if I'm inspired and not in a shopping-hating mood.