BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT

While it took a little longer than I expected to get the video from our workshop of The Golden Ticket edited, I’m glad to report that the sound quality is excellent, and today I am posting a short excerpt for your viewing and listening pleasure! As one of my earlier posts discussed the casting of Veruca Salt, I thought that I would include a scene from the opera in which Veruca is prominently featured.  

In this scene, we see Veruca for the first time. Mike Teavee was just interviewed on television about finding his Golden Ticket, and she is none too pleased that her rich father has yet to buy enough chocolate bars to find her a Golden Ticket. I can’t wait to see how the production team brings this scene to life: a factory floor full of workers opening chocolate bar after chocolate bar, all at the whim of a spoiled little rich girl!

The response to our workshop of The Golden Ticket last weekend has been incredibly positive. Interestingly, both before and after the workshop, there has been a lot of discussion as to whether or not workshops should be open to the public. I strongly believe that inviting the public in to see pieces in development is a crucial part of the process.  

As composers and librettists (not to mention producers and directors) are working on a piece, we all become very close to the work at hand.  Regardless of how objective we strive to be, there is incredible value at being able to look at an opera being developed with a completely fresh perspective, and simply put, that is impossible when you are part of that process.  Most opera companies develop new works behind closed doors.  I understand why they do this.  The last thing anyone wants is for a new opera to be prematurely ‘judged’ or evaluated. Other companies invite select guests to their workshops. Again, I understand the protective rationale; however, I believe that by only inviting ’select’ guests, a company is effectively stacking the deck and not getting a representative sample of the public that is ultimately going to be the audience for the piece.  Feedback from opera ‘experts’ is valuable, but equally valuable is feedback from our intended audience. 

This is not to say that ALT is the only company that opens the workshop process to the public, but we are in the minority. The development process should not be a mystery.  It can take a LONG TIME to develop a new piece.  Let’s acknowledge that, and honor that. Too often, operas are rushed to the stage well before they are ready.  While I’m not going to cite any specific examples, I’m sure we can all think of pieces that could really have benefited from further development and ‘audience testing’ so to speak.  A new movie or television show would NEVER be launched without extensive consumer testing. Plays and musicals are increasingly being put through a more extensive workshop and audience testing process.  For Broadway Musicals, this is what out of town tryouts are all about.  In opera, we don’t have the money for ‘tryouts’, and generally, operas are more complicated musical documents in which it is not easy to pull out one song that doesn’t work and replace it with another.  If we want to properly revise works in progress, we need to give our writers sufficient time to really address the issues at hand.  Hence, ALT feels that the workshop process is absolutely essential if we are to provide opera writers with the best environment in which to develop their work.

At our workshop of The Golden Ticket last weekend, we had an audience of 150 people.  While we had our entire design and production team in attendance from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, as well as representatives from other opera companies considering co-producing the world premiere, the majority of those in the audience were not directly connected to the piece. We created an online audience survey that was distributed via email to that segment of the audience in which we asked a wide variety of questions.  We start off with basic information about their attendance habits for both opera and musical theater; their age; and their previous knowledge of the book and both film versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We then ask them about how they felt when they heard about an opera based on this famous story, and how - if at all - those feelings changed after hearing the reading. This information is very valuable from a marketing perspective.  Then we dive in deeper.  Were they able to follow the storytelling? Were there parts where they didn’t understand what was going on?  If so, where did this happen? What did they really like? What didn’t they like?  And finally, we simply open the floor to any comments they might have about the piece.

Scary? Not really if you think of a couple of things.  First of all, we are not developing new operas for ourselves - we are developing new operas for AUDIENCES.  Yes, we care what they think.  Are we going to respond to every issue raised in an audience survey? No. But, we are going to look for areas where there is a strong consensus among audience members. Sometimes, those issues are already apparent to all of us working on the project. More useful, of course, is when the majority of the audience has a strong feeling about something in a piece that we had not previously thought to address. Ultimately, the composer and librettist - working with the producer and director - need to stay true to their vision of the piece. But, we really do urge the writers to consider audience perception, and to consider how that perception can be used by them to improve their own vision for the piece.

So that, in short, is why we open our doors to the public!  Without the public, there is no reason to write new operas. Being defensive about what we are creating - or scared of public opinion - is not only going to hurt the work at hand, but ultimately will have a negative impact on the art form. Opera needs audiences.  Let’s take time to listen to them whenever we can. They may not always be ‘right’ to us, but they are always ‘right’ to themselves, and they are the ones who are going to buy the tickets or stay home!

If you weren’t at our workshop this weekend, I’ll be posting short clips to give you a sample of The Golden Ticket. We had two cameras recording the workshop - mostly for archival purposes and so that The Golden Ticket team could listen to the piece repeatedly. But, I do want to share some highlights with you!  Today, a scene from Act I, where Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde are interviewed by Candy Mallow - a TV talk show host - just after they have found their Golden Tickets.   

Timothy Redmond conducts Andrew Drost (Augustus), Kiera Duffy (Violet), and Elise Quagliata (Candy). Brian DeMaris, piano.

More video soon!

As promised, today I took the video camera into the rehearsal studio as we did our first work through of The Golden Ticket.  I have to preface this with a note of thanks to our wonderful cast for being willing to share the process on this blog. Rehearsals can range from performance caliber to very bumpy, but I think it can be really interesting for people who are not singers to see into the studio from time to time. Today’s work through went incredibly well, thanks to all of the preparation our wonderful cast has put into the piece.

The session was incredibly productive.  We read through the entire opera from start to finish - stopping along the way to fix some sections, and making notes about other sections that we want to call more extensive rehearsals to address. Ultimately, the main purpose of the run was for the full cast to get a sense of the overall shape of the piece.  We also were able to take preliminary timings and start assessing certain production related factors, like how long we have for scenic transitions.   

The video above features about nine minutes from our three hour work through.  The rehearsal is led by conductor Timothy Redmond, with our Assistant Conductor Brian DeMaris at the piano.  

Tomorrow, the chorus will have an extensive session, and we will work individually with a few singers on their scenes.  Donald and Peter (the composer and librettist of this amazing opera) arrive tomorrow as well, and I feel good knowing that we are well along the way to very polished performance next Saturday.

Do you have your tickets for the showing yet? If not, CLICK HERE to buy them now!

One of the most common questions people ask me is, “How do you cast an opera?”  The answer isn’t simple, as there are so many factors that go into making casting decisions depending on the nature of the project and who is involved, but I’ll try to address this question by looking at a specific example: the casting of Veruca Salt for our upcoming workshop of The Golden Ticket.

As ALT is co-producing the world premiere with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, I felt it very important that Jim Robinson (who is both Artistic Director of OTSL, and the stage director for the production) have input into the casting of our workshop.  As I explained in an earlier post, singers cast in the workshop are not guaranteed to move on with the production, but we certainly want to cast the workshop with an eye towards the future. 

In mid-December, I put out a casting notice to Artist Managers with details of the workshop and future plans for the opera. We also included a casting breakdown, which provides them with information about each role, including the vocal range and certain vocal and physical characteristics we are looking for in each role. For Veruca, we wanted to find a young-looking Mezzo Soprano with considerable range (c’ to b”) and who also could embody the character of a spoiled rich little brat!  We received 37 submissions of singers to consider for this role.  Of those 37, we asked to hear 8 in live auditions in January.  To narrow the number down from 37 to 8, I consulted with Jim and the music staff at OTSL to see which of the submitted singers they might be familiar with.  Our own music staff was also familiar with many of the artists.  By looking at their previous professional experience (including roles sung and the companies with which they sang those roles), as well as a certain degree of typing-out (the process of narrowing down candidates by physical characteristics - in this case we definitely wanted a young looking singer who was not too tall) we selected the 8 singers to hear live.  Jim and I were familiar with some of those singers, while we had never heard others.  We always remain open to discovering new talent, and this is exactly what happened in the case of Finding Veruca Salt.  Enter Abigail Nims.

Abigail auditioned for us on January 7th.  For the auditions, we requested that each singer bring at least one contemporary aria in English (as this demonstrates diction and ability to communicate effectively, as well as their comfort level in contemporary musical idioms), as well as other arias that they feel best show off their voice.  We give each artist the option to choose their first aria, and if after their first aria we feel that we want to hear them sing something else, we typically choose a contrasting aria.  In this case, we videotaped the auditions so that they could be reviewed by Peter and Donald (the composer and librettist of The Golden Ticket) who live in London. Abigail very graciously has allowed us to post her audition here, so you can get an inside look at what the audition process is like.  Thanks also to Curt Pajer, her wonderful pianist, for allowing us to post this.

Abigail chose to begin with “Things change, Jo” from Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women.  Having directed Little Women myself a few time, I am very familiar with this challenging piece.  It shows a singer’s range, as well as her ability to make sensitive musical and dramatic choices .  As such, many Mezzos now use this aria in auditions, and we hear it often.  Abigail’s singing of the aria really grabbed my attention.  First thoughts: a beautiful voice, well produced, clear diction.  Second thoughts: very expressive, successful at communicating the character’s situation in the opera (which is a challenge to do in an audition room), and lovely musical choices.  Third thoughts: Charismatic. I want to hear more.

This led Jim and I to ask Abigail to sing a second aria.  She had a few to choose from on her list (forgive me but I forget all of the options).  Jim asked to hear “Smanie implacabile…” from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.  This is an excellent choice for potential Verucas, as it shows some of the fire that this character requires, not to mention that Mozart also shows off the voice.  Abigail immediately engaged both Jim and I in the recit to the aria, and kept our attention throughout.  Again, we heard a beautiful timbre, and saw a well thought-out characterization.  I could immediately start picturing her as Veruca. Here was the combination of charisma, fire and vocal beauty that we needed.

We continued our auditions the following week, and by the end of the auditions, Abigail stood out as the clear first choice for Veruca in the workshop. I thought it would give all of us involved in the project a chance to hear her in the complete role, and Jim agreed that she was an ideal Veruca prospect.  With that in mind, I sent this video of her audition to Peter and Donald. They agreed she had what we were looking for, so we offered her the role.

I am, of course, very happy that Abigail is joining us for The Golden Ticket.  If you want to hear Abigail create Veruca Salt in the workshop, get your tickets as soon as possible! She is just one of the stellar singers who we will be working with on this exciting project…

Over the past two years, I have become an enormous fan of many Blogs.  It is a wonderful way to not only share interesting information, but also a way to engage in a dialogue about many different topics.  So why a Blog for ALT? What do we have to contribute to the Blogosphere?

Well, hopefully, a lot!  ALT’s mission is to develop New Operas for New Audiences.  Our programs include the only full time mentorship program for emerging opera composers and librettists in the country, as well as the commissioning and development of new operas for production by ALT in New York in partnership with some of the country’s leading opera companies.  While there are many wonderful Blogs on operatic topics, I have yet to see a Blog that really goes behind the scenes and explores the process of developing new operas, as well as the development of the artists who are writing those new works. BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT is intended to do just that - to let you see into our process at ALT, and to invite you to participate in the discussion about New Opera.

The launch of this Blog comes at a particularly exciting time in ALT’s development as a young company.  Our first mainstage commission is The Golden Ticket, a new opera based on Roald Dahl’s beloved book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”  ALT commissioned the completion of this work from American composer Peter Ash and  Donald Sturrock in partnership with Felicity Dahl, Roald Dahl’s widow.  The Golden Ticket has an interesting back story that begins before ALT was founded in 2005. We’ll get into that in upcoming posts! Since ALT commissioned the completion of the opera in 2006, Peter and Donald have developed their piece from a “diamond in the rough” to a truly spectacular opera.  Why are we so excited about The Golden Ticket? Take a look at this video introduction to the opera and I think you’ll hear why…

ALT will be producing the final developmental workshop of The Golden Ticket from March 25th to April 4th, 2009, which will culminate in a public reading of the opera at 7:00 PM on Saturday April 4th. Tickets for the reading are available online by clicking HERE.  As we prepare for this workshop, we thought this would be the perfect time to introduce BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT.

We are also very excited to announce a new collaborative relationship with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.  OTLS will present the World Premiere of The Golden Ticket in June 2010, directed by James Robinson.  After the premiere in St. Louis, the production will travel to multiple venues in the US and abroad.  As those production plans develop, we look forward to sharing those details as well.

So what else can you expect from BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT?  Much more…  We will be tracking the continued development of The Golden Ticket, as well as other new works in the ALT pipeline. We will feature guest entries by the composers and librettists writing these works, as well as entries by the  singers, conductors, directors, designers and producers involved in their development. During rehearsal periods, I will be posting video clips from rehearsals, as well as BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT video interviews. We will also explore producing considerations beyond the artistic, including fund raising and marketing.

I also would like to hear from you… what would you like us to explore on BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT?  Please let me know if there is a specific topic related to the development of new operas, or to any of our specific projects, that you would like us to explore here.  

Thanks for reading, and come back often!