marika wrote:

moving to another entirely different music genre, i was reminising
about the times when i lived here many years ago. when i volunteered
for the opera here. it's an old journal entry, but i will add a few
things for clarity

my friend who owns the rira restaurants that i had mentioned previously
was a sponsor for madame butterfly. he brought his whole family. but
i didn't go out front. i was dressed sloppily because i was
volunteering.

Pancake makeup on sequins makes for a high drycleaning bill.

I don't have any REAL stories about the whole opera roanoke thing
except my favorite line from the supertitles. supertitles are what
they project on to the screen so that those who don't understand the
original language of the opera can better understand. usually they are
projected above the stage, on a screen, and so are called super for
above. by contrast film and tv titles with translations are subtitles.

my favorite line of the supertitles.

Intermission
3 and 1/2 years

indicating of course that that much time had passed after pinkerton
dumped cio cio san. coincidentally, that is the exact amount of time
spent in dc...

It is fascinating to help out backstage.
The chorus is all mostly locals, some music students.
They don't have to audition yearly, and some of them are a thousand
years old.

Pinkerton was having a lot of trouble due to allergies.

He was incredible during rehearsals, and it is a shame that he got hit.
A lot of people ended up having colds on the chorus. He may have
caught it.
He was really good in rehearsals as I said, but my fave was Goro. He
just mugged through that whole thing. Seth Williamson was such a geek
in his review saying that he was only serviceable. In rehearsals, he
was the best actor of all.
Madame herself was just adorable. But Suzuki, man what a gorgeous
woman. Her voice just knocked me over. She has this incredible
speaking voice, sounds like my sister's very deep, yet when she gets
on that stage, quite high.

The coolest thing about wigs and makeup was that we had three real
Japanese ladies helping us with the obis. They said the real thing
takes half an hour. But these take about five minutes because they are
costumes not full traditional wear. Their English was not great but
they explained a lot to us.
They were so lovable. They had me taking pictures of everything.
Kinuko was my favorite. She kept dragging me over to take my picture
with some of the principals. I don't know why, because we never really
get to talk to the principals. They are stars, you see, so they don't
mix with the chorus. They have professionals tending to them, not goofs
like me

Although I did get to see Uni, the star at Red Dragon. i note
parenthetically that uni means eel in japanese, but somehow i am
convinced that she was not named after that creature no matter how
tasty i may find it. simon, who threw the poor princess across the
stage in the ballet was there. simon's family were there same time,
and when I introduce Uni, Simon goes, oh are you a drag queen???
(mixing it up with M. Butterfly, the play and movie). Of course, he
almost said that, but for once kept his tongue instead of letting it
fly. fortunately he really only said it to me, thus preventing
embrrassment.

Also, a really interesting thing about Pinkerton, as nasty as he seemed
on stage, he is a sweet little geek in real life. He was one of the
principals who would actually talk to you like a fellow human. He sat
through most rehearsals reading a Science Fiction novel.

Also, Bonzo, the huge samurai? I think it is astonishing that he has
red hair and beard. The transformation is amazing. how we charcoal up
his beard and hair.

Linda, the lady who invited me and who is the prez this year, and whose
husband works with me. i found out from her that the costumers,
wardrobers and makeup artists have simultaneous contracts with the
local theater too, in addition to the ones they have with the opear.

Oh yeah, the other thing, the Friday night party was catered by Back
Stage. It rocked. They had these incredible fried wonton cups with
wasabi mayonnaise and curry shrimp and wasabi encrusted salmon, and
this huge samosa with yams and it was quite nice.

The production went on the road at the end of the week, to Covington
and then later to Lexington. I was be an opera roadie! i accompanied
them to these places and helped them with wigs, makeup and obis on the
road.

the whole opera thing was really exciting to me, and being able to
volunteer for this production particularly wonderful, because my
mother's aunt was apparently the first madame butterfly. so that was
kind of cool and my mother really enjoyed knowing that i was doing
this.

mk5000

'what's the joke about vivaldi. he wrote one piece a thousand times..i
fell in love with vivaldi