The alarm is set for 8:30—but Misty, the family lab/shepherd has other plans….so I am awakened earlier than planned… I think to myself ….uuh, what day is it, what is rehearsal today? As I stretch, I am reminded we just performed a very busy Eugene Onegin last evening (which is a delight—but demanding on many levels). Ah,yes—speaking of demanding, it’s Act II of Die Meistersinger in costume with orchestra… that means Jimmy Levine in the pit, too (a true delight). I have had the great fortune of performing as a Lehrbuben since Otto Schenk’s production was created at the Met. Talk about demanding!! First there is the small (rather large) issue of acting like a 12 year old boy (mind you I am a ?? year old female!!) Many people I know will tell you that I should have no trouble with the 12 year old acting part, and I must admit… it is true. Actually it is kind of fun to reconnect with that free childlike attitude —and being given permission to do so. This is the fifth time around for this production….so one could say yes, even more of a challenge this time around.

What a delight to come back to a piece like Meistersinger with almost all the same colleagues doing the Lehrbuben—and a couple of new ones—God bless them. I say this because it is a very demanding work for us—staging, physically and of course, musically.

There are many specific things to do, like completely building the Meister’s platforms and the singing platforms in Act I —very detailed about who puts which piece where. We have developed a nice rhythm with all of our “bits” and many times invent new ones as we go-because we have become comfortable enough in the piece.

Back to Act II rehearsal of today: Johannestag!!! Preparations are beginning for this huge festival day. All the Lehrbuben are cleaning and preparing the town for Johannestag.—spring fever is everywhere and the young Lehrbuben are feeling the season.

Later the Lehrbuben rehearse the “fight” scene with the entire cast. What a scene this is, with the complete town being awakened from a dead sleep to such cacophonous goings on. The Meisters come out in partial night clothes and day clothing thrown on in some odd fashion, then the townspeople and Lehrbuben join in, wearing similar attire. All are singing what seems like, and is, their very own screamy version of “what the heck is going on here?” This is such a difficult musical scene to sing and maintain one’s place musically (what a genius Wagner is here, and Jimmy Levine’s interpretive command of the orchestra and singers on stage is needless to say, impressive). You cannot imagine until you hear it… and if that is not enough, fights break out all over stage between Meisters, Lehrbub and townspeople. One of my fellow “bubs”, Irwin Reese, and I really go at it, he picks me up and slings me around in a circle until I am so dizzy I can hardly sing. We often get so tickled during this, but yes, we do manage to continue to sing. That is until the townspeople have had enough and dump their chamber pots on us to stop the ruckus. And it works: we flee the stage screaming. What a great scene it is—great fun to perform.

And now on to Act III tomorrow.

This entry was posted by Deborah Saverance on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 3:28 pm and is filed under New Production Countdown. 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.