BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT

Following our work through yesterday, we spent today working in detail on specific scenes. We took the morning off, and started the afternoon with a private coaching for our Mike Teavee, countertenor Jason Abrams.  Peter has written an incredibly amusing and virtuosic parody of a baroque aria for Mike, in which he very creatively uses coloratura to portray a boy obsessed with television violence.  One of the best things about an extended workshop period is the opportunity for singers to work directly with the composer.  Jason actually started an email dialogue with Peter to discuss this aria before rehearsals started, and today, he had the opportunity to work through some of the ideas they discussed with our music staff. It was a very productive session, and by the end of it, Jason was transformed into a very disturbed and funny teenager!

We then moved on to an extended session for Veruca and Lord Salt.  Tim spent most of the session working with Abigail Nims (Veruca) and David Kravitz (Lord Salt) not only on the musical structure of the scene, but also on the fantastic dysfunctional relationship between the spoiled little rich girl and the father that stops at nothing to make her happy.  

After a dinner break, the full chorus assembled for a three hour session with Tim.  The chorus had two weekends of preparation time with our wonderful chorus master Jennifer Peterson before the formal workshop period started last Wednesday. Now that Tim is with us, he is building on the foundation Jennifer laid, and getting them to embody - both musically and dramatically - all of the different roles they have to portray.  In The Golden Ticket, the chorus plays the role of Oompa Loompas, Workers in Lord Salt’s Factory, Townsfolk, and Turkish Nut Sorting Squirrels in Wonka’s Factory…  Is there any other opera in which the chorus play such an wonderful array of characters?  Our chorus is fantastic and is embracing the challenge with an enthusiasm that is contagious!

Tomorrow, more individual scene work, with video footage to follow…