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Jess Crawford

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PDX OPERAbeat | A Company Blog is the blog for all things Portland Opera, featuring a variety of guest contributors who will provide insider's tidbits on all we do to celebrate the beauty and breadth of opera. Jess Crawford is our primary blogger. Jess spends much of her time eating enormous amounts of cake, making long lists of books she'll probably never read, and challenging people to arm-wrestling contests. During the day (and sometimes at night) she is Portland Opera's music librarian. She writes more about her escapades at her personal blog: http://bravissimi.blogspot.com

PDX OPERAbeat's Blog

More adventures in music librarian-ing: Salome edition

Submitted by PDX OPERAbeat on Mon, 06/03/2013 - 09:03

This is my last week in the office until July. I'm off contract for three weeks, then return for three weeks in July to work exclusively on the gala, then off for three more weeks, returning in August for the 13-14 season. Being away from the library for the summer, as most librarians are, presents an interesting set of challenges. It's like preparing to go on a vacation except the vacation is many weeks long and nobody can call you if something goes wrong. (Technically they can call me -- I'm not going anywhere -- but because I am off contract we try to avoid that.)

My main goals for this period between the close of Falstaff and my final day in the office have been 1) to get all the rentals for the gala set up, so that the music arrives while I'm back in July; and 2) to clean and correct all the Salome parts in order to get them to the orchestra before I leave.

Salome horn IV. Yikes.

Yes. Salome. Salome, which begins rehearsing in OCTOBER. What can I say? It's a really hard piece of music. I can't give it to the orchestra with the normal lead time, which is 3 weeks before the first rehearsal. It's extremely, extremely difficult music, and they haven't played it since 1990. I imagine many of our people haven't played it at all.

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40 years of Portland Opera: Reflections on retirement

Submitted by PDX OPERAbeat on Tue, 05/28/2013 - 14:36

The season is over! Forgive my absence last week; to be honest, I was just plain old worn out. It seems every year we forget that just after the season closes, we could all use a few days to catch our collective breath. I often say we claw our way to closing night, because by the end of the season we're all very tired. With the seemingly constant Falstaff hijinks, 'tired' was kind of an understatement this year. Sorry to see the season go (no opera until the fall?!), but also happy to have a normal schedule for awhile.

And hey, three-day weekends! Those are great. Watching movies! Being home for dinner! Sometimes it truly is the little things.

As the season closed, we said farewell to a few beloved, long-time opera folks. Our principal accompanist, Tom Webb, leaves us to move about as far away as possible -- Australia! -- to be with his partner. Rae Minten, who has been a much beloved face in our costume shop -- and also, incidentally, our awesome yoga teacher! -- leaves to pursue a new career in the healing arts. Long-time violinist Dolly Clarizio retires this season, having been a member of the orchestra since 1966. 1966!!!! Finally, one of our choristers, Martin Tobias, has just retired after 40 years singing with us.

Marty has written us a synopsis of his time here, which I find profoundly fascinating, having only been with the company for 8 seasons. It seems kind of trivial to say, but things have changed a lot in 40 years! I'm particularly struck by the number of remarkably cool/weird productions we've done over the past four decades. Menotti directed here! Who knew?! And I am so sad I wasn't here for Love for Three Oranges, which is so totally up my alley.

40 YEARS OF PORTLAND OPERA

as seen by retiring chorister Martin Tobias

Falstaff: Even more mischief

Submitted by PDX OPERAbeat on Mon, 05/13/2013 - 11:29

Never a dull moment, part 2 of an apparently ongoing series

I spent part of last week frantically searching for a last-minute replacement for one of our principal wind players, who had to leave the country for an extremely pressing family emergency. We also found ourselves short a string principal on opening night, a development which happened at the eleventh hour, and for a similarly pressing reason. As Mo. Manahan and I chatted in the hallway before Friday's opening, he wondered, "What is this, Macbeth?!"

All of this is to say: it's been a very long week. I swear at some point I'll tell you what the music librarian conference was like. In the meantime, a prize goes to the person who can come up with the best collective noun for a group of music librarians. Some inspiration: it's been suggested that a group of regular librarians should be called 'a hush of librarians' (or 'a shush of librarians').

Now, the last onstage installment from super Diana Harris.

Monday, May 6: Orchestra Dress #1

So, here's the routine: you have a make-up call and must initial the sign-in sheet at or before your assigned time. I'm the last face Vonda does, because I don't go on stage until well into the second part. All chorus members, basket-men, pages, and innkeeper (who are also supers) get made up before me.