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FROM THE TOUR: A New Perspective from POGO

Submitted by Portland Opera To Go on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 15:25

Music affects each person in a different way. It has the ability to comfort, to enliven, to console, and to energize. There is new music being created every day, and we are constantly given the opportunity to hear another piece of music that affects us in a new way and that can change our perspective about something.

 

As a new member of the Portland Opera To Go (POGO) program, I can safely say that my perspective has been changed. It’s been an exciting first week of rehearsals as our new cast gathers and begins the process of creating opera for children.

 

Our mission for this month with Opera Improv is to create a completely improvised opera that allows the children to choose what they see onstage. This is a totally new experience for me. Normally in opera, the music, dialogue, and staging is fairly concrete. As a performer, my job is to re-create a masterwork, perhaps with a bit of my own personal spin on things. So you might wonder: how do you rehearse something that you make up? What do you rehearse if the performance is going to be different every time?

 

Well, the performance we do for children is created and improvised on the spot…sort of. There are many things the children get to choose for the opera they see, but there are also many factors that we plan in advance. These factors are what we have been rehearsing this week. Some of these factors include the general story that we are trying to tell, and a couple primary pieces of music that provide direction for the story. Other than these things, everything else is a variable.

 

FROM THE TOUR: All I Need to Know about being on tour I learned from Kindergarten.

Submitted by Portland Opera To Go on Mon, 03/16/2009 - 10:31

This is my first time being on tour and I mean really on tour, out of town for a week at a time on tour.  I wasn’t sure I knew how to be on tour.  After spending some time with many different Kindergarten classes before the performances I began to realize that all I needed to know about being on tour I had learned in Kindergarten.

 

Rule number one, share everything.  This rule was easy!  After week one we had all passed around a cold of some form.  Once we hit the road Sarah and Wendy learned how to share their costumes.  I shared all my tissue, gum, tic-tacs, and ibuprophen. Oh, and we all had to share hotel rooms.

 

#2 Don’t hit people.  I must have missed this day in Kindergarten.  During the fight over the hat I almost hit Wendy in the eye.  I scratched Wendy’s arm during one show.  Sarah hit me in the face once when I was trying to get past her to the prince.  Stacey loves to hit whoever is playing Tisbe with a pillow.  Maybe we all missed this lesson.

 

#3 Clean up your own mess.  I use to try to pick up all the feathers my boa would leave on gym floors, but after a while I just gave up and picked up everyone’s empty water bottles.

 

#4 Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.  I can’t count the number of times “I’m sorry” gets whispered back stage during the show because someone has ignored the “don’t hit people” rule.

 

#5 Wash your hands before you eat.  We have all learned to wash our hands or use hand sanitizer after giving high fives and shaking kids’ hands.  I think we have finally gotten rid of the sickness that we have been sharing!

 

FROM THE TOUR: Halfway, Oregon and Snow

Submitted by Portland Opera To Go on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 11:13

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009    

Part 1
We started the day dark and early in Baker City.  Most of us woke up somewhere around 5:30am or so in order to meet at 6:15 to depart for Pine Eagle Elementary/Junior High/High School in Halfway, Oregon.  The hills and mountains were covered in snow, but the roads were clear.  Opera singers really don't like getting up anywhere near this early, and I would say most of us weren't exactly bright-eyed or bushy-tailed as the saying goes.  But we were treated to a spectacular sunrise in the mountains as we drove along the Hell's Canyon Scenic By-way. The sun cast a reddish orange glow over the peaks while the mountains and valleys were a colored in the deep purple filter of early dawn's shadow.

We couldn't afford to spend too much time admiring the view though as most of us were putting the finishing touches on learning some new music for 3 upcoming concert performances or catching a few more moments of sleep or making sure that the van didn't drive over the edge of the twisting roads.

We arrived at the school without incident and were met with enthusiasm, if not necessarily the most sure directions on where to unload the set from the truck.  Having been told that it would work best for us if we drove the Penske truck around the building, our fearless and intrepid tour manager proceeded to drive around the back of the building. 

However, we were then told that we would be better off if we had stayed in the front of the building.  In the course of moving the truck back to the front of the building, the moving truck got stuck in the snowy "trail" that was behind the school.  At this point we were getting closer and closer to show time, and we hadn't unloaded one piece of the set.