Saturday, 12.9.06
We had costumes and makeup the past few days. It is so interesting to see all of the principals with black hair. Placido looks nothing like himself He also has a beard and mustache as does Paul Groves. Paul looked a little like Jesus yesterday because he was in white robes with his hair down.

I watched the last part of Act II on Thursday and the scene with the chorus is very colorful and impressive. They are in many-hued costumes and fill the steps. An authentic Chinese bell is played, struck by a log. Tan Dun worked numerous times with the fellow (in costume) ringing the bell. It must be awkward and hard to hit the right spot. Tan would yell out - more, not less, no, wrong spot, etc. I am not sure the bell spot is a sure thing at all. To me it sounds great no matter what. The water phones onstage are also a great effect. The players are now in black so they look otherworldly.

Technically the show is going a little better. We had orchestra yesterday and since we have had Steven, our asst. conductor, doing most of the rehearsals as Tan Dun listened from the house, we were not as accustomed to Tan Duns’s conducting style. A lot of us, myself included, were off by a beat or two times. We also were used to the percussive style of the piano and once with orchestra that gets lost and the beat is less well defined- hence the need for a conductor. There are numerous video monitors- in the wings, out in house- but it was still tricky. I think Donna, our prompter, may have to keep a strict beat for us to see. Tan will be very busy with the orchestra.

There is talk that there will be a few small cuts in the beginning of the show. I guess we will know more on Monday. There are still some acoustical issues and I am not sure what the answer to those is. Any noise the dancers made is fixed. Duane’s lighting is really fabulous. The chorus is very effective. One more week to go until dress rehearsal a week from Monday.

We were called to restage some of the Act II scene 2, yesterday afternoon. Monday we will do Act II with orchestra, Tuesday the entire show with orchestra, Wednesday with piano, Friday with orchestra.

My first act costume was much more comfortable without the armor. The two other costumes are that intense orange color and I feel regal in them. I have found many more arm movements and gestures in them. Stephen, the make-up aritst, did a great job making me up to look Asian. I have had him a lot at the Met and really like and trust him. My dresser is relatively new. Her name is Marilyn. So far so good. Vicky, who is my favorite and grew up near Riverside (IL) dresses the soprano who is normally the leading lady anyway.

The wardrobe, makeup/hair and chorus people are all exhausted. The chorus had been at “Don Carlo” the night before until after midnight and then sang an 11:00 AM rehearsal having to arrive early for makeup and costumes. I don’t know how they do it. They have 7 shows a week and right now there are some heavy chorus shows. The running crews, and performers usually only have one day free a week. The other house staff, accounting, publicity etc. have two days off. It is a grueling schedule. At least once we open the singers have days off but the rest continue to work very long days.

Now two days off for me.

This entry was posted by Susanne Mentzer on Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 8:22 am and is filed under The First Emperor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.