rehearsal day 2

We've had two good days here so far.
As a departure from the norm, we did not have a sing-through of the piece on day 1.
Since 2 of us arrived from out of town and are singing the 2 leads, we had a musical rehearsal on our duets and arias yesterday, then staged our Act I duet, and today we did a rewind, staged some of Act I with another character..and TOMORROW is our sing through!
So I've already been running around with these people for 10 hours over the past two days..and tomorrow we will get to really hear the stuff.

My impressions so far-
It's great to be back. I know the rehearsal space (super live), I know the town (although I still had to ask for directions to the supermarket), I feel comfortable with this cast since I know mostly all of them already, as well as the direction.
What's not the BEST right now- is that we're being 'plugged in' to a production that has already been done. Both the conductor and director have done it together, actually, so before I even go to make a musical turn or impulse, that has sometimes been pre-emptively curtailed because of what they did 'last time'.
That's not to say that I have to sing in the exact same way.
But this piece has a LOT of room for cadenzas, playing with space around recits, musical moments and comedic timing...and, when you're following something that's already been laid out and has 'worked', you don't really get as much say..or rather, I can't motivate as much musically, since it has already been 'worked out' on stage.
So my goal for this staging, even though it doesn't get to be 'mine', is to MAKE it mine.
Of course, I've done productions before where I get 'plugged in', or that are being repeated with a different cast, etc. It has never been something that has gotten in my way, perhaps because of the musical style of the pieces I've done before- Mozart, and Verdi- with no dialogue.
So this time even though I was able to learn it 'freely', I have to play within the lines.
I think I'm up for the challenge.