17 October, 2010

opening niiiiight and the following matinee

Woo hoo! Had a great opening night of Zauberfloete.
At this point I am most comfortable in saying that I have no weirdo pre-show routine for THIS show, and perhaps this show only in my life...so far.
I have sung it so many times. I know the notes will be there. I can eat bbq flavored potato chips in my dressing room, followed by half a twix bar BEFORE the first aria and the second half of the bar BEFORE the second aria. I can have cereal with milk for breakfast, or I can have pineapple for breakfast.
And IT DOESN"T MATTER which is -- awesome!
I am relaxed. I KNOW that everything rides on those high F's, and I know that I got'em...so...I'm pretty much good to go.

YES, there is that moment right before the set opens up to reveal me before the act I aria that my heart starts pumping harder than usual. Yes, I can feel my heartbeat going a bit higher and faster...but no, it doesn't affect me.

Before the second aria there is just so much dialogue that frankly, if I worried about ANYTHING at all it would be that dang dialogue, not the aria.
And once I get through the FIRST run with the F's, the rest is easy as pie.

Opening night went really well. Had a resting day off where I nearly went stir crazy inside because it was rainy and freezing outside and I didn't want to risk a late-in-the-production chill. I went out to dinner with some castmates last night (pasta with salmon), woke up around 10am today, left for the theater at 1, and the show began at 3pm.

Today the audience was much more enthusiastic, although I'm not quite sure the performers were. For me, it's a total of 10 minutes of singing, so I crank it up every time..frankly, with Queen, there is no way not to.
But most people hate matinees- whether it's immediately after opening night, or after a day off..it's still tough to get INTO it after waking up early, freaking out because you've been on a late night sleep schedule and now it's 10am and you have to make sure the voice is there at 3pm instead of 8pm. The second performance is usually dubbed the lower-energy performance by the singers. So a few singers were feeling sluggish in energy, but I don't know whether it made a difference on stage or not (since I never sing with anyone until the 'death scene' at the end!). Well, I sing TO Tamino and Pamina, but in this production I don't really have contact with them directly.

Aaaanyway, I'm feeling GOOD about today's performance AND opening night.
I have SO much yummmmy chocolate from the bonbons that we all gave each other, and yes, I have been eating them. And will continue to do so. DON"T JUDGE.
NO, I haven't been doing yoga every day either. please don't judge?
thanks.

1 comment:

Alexandra said...

No judgement here! I should be learning this beast of a German piece, instead I'm eating cheesecake factory and watching weeds...