Behind the Scenes of "The Greater Good"

The Young American Artists

2006-08-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

Valerie M. Trujillo: Co-Director of the Young American Artists Program

We accept about 500 applications for the Young American Artists Program, which we narrow down to a number of singers we will hear in person. This year we accepted 27 singers and one pianist as an apprentice coach. Once the Young Artists arrive they begin rehearsing for the mainstage productions. Their responsibilities in each production vary between singing chorus, singing a role, or covering one. Every Young Artist is responsible for covering at least one role. They learn the music and also observe the principal artist in rehearsals. The Young Artists get an opportunity to sing the roles with staging in front of their colleagues and friends in a cover run. This allows them to get through the show once and make sure that they are comfortable with the staging in the event that they have to go on. This summer has already been quite eventful for covers. Hannah Sharene Penn went on as Rosina a few weeks ago, and Christian Reinert went on as Števa just the other day. They both did incredible jobs, and we couldn’t be happier. Many of these singers will get work as covers before they have mainstage roles so it is very important that we give them the proper training and experience as they begin their careers as singers.

Once the shows are up and running our attention turns to auditions. We bring in orchestra managers, artistic staff from opera companies, artist managers, and conductors to hear the Young Artists. This year we are bringing in about 45 people. By the end of the summer many of the Young Artists will have management, or have managers that are keeping an eye on them. It is wonderful exposure for them. We also do an opera scenes concert as a thank you to Cherry Valley, which is the town where all of the Young Artists and Coach/Accompanists live. The Assistant Directors stage the scenes and the Young Artists sing all of the roles. Each Young Artist also gives a recital of about forty-five minutes in length, and we encourage them to pick music that relates to the operas on the main stage that season. It also gives the pianists a chance to play something besides orchestral reductions.

The biggest event of this summer has been the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s The Greater Good. We have six Young Artists in that cast, which is almost half of the roles. It is wonderful for them to get the opportunity to premiere a role in a new work at a company like this one. I think it also speaks to the program’s strength that for a piece of that level of difficulty we can put our Young Artists in those roles. This is certainly one of the few summer programs that offer mainstage roles to young singers. Many programs offer a lot of chorus and covering experience, but not roles. It is a very busy fourteen weeks that these singers have here, but I think my Co-Director Timothy Hoekman and I have done our best to make sure that they are getting the proper training and exposure to become successful singers.

Photo:
1. Elaine Alvarez, member of the Young American Artist Program, premieres the role of La Comtesse de Bréville in The Greater Good.

Running in Repertory

2006-08-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Abigail Rodd: Techincal Director

At most opera houses each production runs consecutively, without overlap, so you just deal with one show at a time. At Glimmerglass all of the shows run at the same time, so our biggest challenge is storage space. We have to fill the stage four times and find a place to store everything when it isn’t being used. The storage space that we have is actually smaller than the stage. I’ve worked at theaters that run a more standard season, such as New Hartford. There we wouldn’t start building for a show until the previous one had gone onstage because the shows ran consecutively, not in rotation. Once the show onstage was done it went into the trash. We saved some items that we thought could be reused, but we didn’t have to worry about storage at all. Here, the place we store the sets is also the place that we build them. This means that as the productions are being created we have to leave enough room for construction. It’s like one of those puzzles with a bunch of movable squares and one empty slot. You have to keep juggling things around.

This year there are a lot of set pieces hanging up in the flies, which means that we aren’t quite as cramped for space in the scene shop and storage trailers. However, to get things to fly in and out, without hitting other things that are hanging up there, we have to use breasting lines to tie back set pieces for whichever show is not running that night. All of these flies have to be untied and retied as we transition between shows each day. The snow effect in The Greater Good is a perfect example of this. It is a one foot-square snow roller. The line sets are positioned in a way that prevents things upstage and downstage of it from flying in and out. This doesn’t cause a problem during Greater Good, but it would cause problems if it were left that way when running Pirates of Penzance. When we change the set out from Greater Good we have to take it to the grid and place other things underneath it so they can fly in and out unobstructed.

When you first think about the mechanics of building all of this stuff, finding a place to store it, and changing between the shows quickly it seems completely ludicrous. However, we make it work every year. We even made it work this year, when it was raining every day so we couldn’t work or store things outside. There was also a week when we were losing power at three o’clock every day because of the storms. Now that the carpenters and set painters are gone things become much easier. We don’t have to worry about leaving space for them to work. The tough part is when we’re running two shows and building the other two. Thankfully, we’ve gotten through that part of the season.

Photos (from top to bottom):
1. A view of the set shop, one of the storage locations for the sets and props of the productions.
2. Set pieces from The Barber of Seville, The Greater Good, and The Pirates of Penzance sit side by side.

Junked Set Wars

2006-07-30T13:36:00.001-07:00

One of the most entertaining events of the season doesn’t take place onstage, and many patrons have no idea that it exists. Every year, after the shows are built, the properties and carpentry departments face off in Junked Set Wars. Any materials left over from building the sets are fair game for the competition. A new challenge is devised every year and is announced to the teams the morning of the competition. Frantic planning, strategizing and building then begins. An esteemed panel of national and international judges assembles to award the prizes at the end of the competition. One is given for accomplishing the objective of the challenge, and the other for superior aesthetics and style. This year the judges were: John Conklin (associate artistic director), Robert Wierzel (lighting designer, Jenufa), Isabella Bywater (set and costume designer, Jenufa), and Jonathan Miller (director, Jenufa)

This year the goal was to transport twenty water balloons across the pond in front of Glimmerglass’ Alice Bush Opera Theater in five minutes. To complicate things, two riggers were put into the middle of the pond as pirates, trying to capture the balloons before they made it across. It so happened that this year both the carps and the props teams devised the same method of a basket attached to a pulley system, so it came down to whose construction was better. Baskets flew over the pond as the pirate riggers hurled cables at them trying to stop the balloons from reaching their destination. After a harrowing five minutes of yelling, cheering, and the occasional hurling of balloons at the opposing team, the final count was taken and the panel of distinguished judges made their rulings. The carpenters won the award for transporting the most balloons across and the props team won the award for superior aesthetics and style. A third award was given to the riggers for excellence in piracy.

Photos (from top to bottom):
1. David Benetello (Assistant Techincal Director) prepares for the carnage of Junked Set Wars.
2. The distinguished panel of judges confers about the rules of this year’s competition with Matt Kirby-Smith (production manager) and Abigail Rodd (techincal director).
3. The contraptions built for the challenge with the props team on the left and the carpenters on the right.
4. The company staff cheers on the teams.

Preparing the Covers

2006-07-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

Michael Shell: Assistant Director

In a festival setting like Glimmerglass, covers are very important. All of these shows run for a little over a month, so the likelihood of one of the principals becoming ill is higher than at a standard opera house. They have to know their music, where they’re going onstage, and what else is happening around them. Although they haven’t had as much rehearsal time with the roles as the principals have, they need to develop a close connection with the character that they are portraying as well.

As assistant director, it is my job to teach the covers their blocking and help them find their characters. This has been a challenge with The Greater Good because not only is the music difficult, but the blocking came out of such individual choices that David Schweitzer (director) guided the singers to make during the rehearsal process. It isn’t simply, “walk over here and stand there for five bars and then cross to stage left.” The moves are always very character driven, so it is challenging to teach that in the very few rehearsals that I have.

We have a total of seven rehearsals with the covers, the second coach/accompanist, and the assistant conductor. This culminates in what is called a cover run. This is a run with an invited audience of other members of the company so that the covers get a chance to see how it feels to run through the show from beginning to end. This is done at the rehearsal space with most of the props, rehearsal costumes, and some mock-ups of set pieces. The carriage, which is so central to the show, will not be used in the cover run because it has already been moved over to the theater for performances. Still, it is the only opportunity that the covers get to dig their teeth into the show. If they end up going on for one of the principals they will have never been on stage in costume before. It is a very challenging thing to do, especially with a piece as difficult as this one, so it is important that I prepare them as best I can.

Photos (from left to right):
1. Michael Shell (assistant director) watches as the covers for The Greater Good run a scene during rehearsal.
2. Michael Shell works with Holli Harrison (cover for Boule de Suif) and Elise Quagliata (cover for Mme. Carré-Lamadon) during a cover rehearsal.

The Wigs for "The Greater Good"

2006-07-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Charles G. Lapointe: Hair and Makeup Designer

I’m very lucky to have four exceptionally good people working for me. This meant that we could build all of the wigs for The Greater Good in about a week. When you are able to custom build a wig for someone it looks much more natural because it fits their head perfectly. That can make the difference between something looking like a wig, or looking like the singer’s real hair. To build a wig we begin by doing a head wrap on the actor. This means prepping them in a wig cap, covering it with tape, drawing out their hair line, and then removing that from their head. We then construct a netted fabric in the shape of their head, select suitable hair, and ventilate it into the netting. Ventilating is the process of tying the pieces of hair to the netting. It’s called ventilating because in the 18^th century wigs were primarily built with felt, which didn’t breathe a lot. Louis XIV brought high fashion into wigs at that time. Someone invented a wire mesh material to tie the pieces of hair to, which was much more comfortable than felt. This was called a ventilated wig and from then on the process has been called ventilating.

My initial interaction was with Deborah Shippee, the Costume Director. We had a conversation about the designs and she sent me all of the sketches for the season. From there I talked to the costume designer (David Zinn). We got together and went over the looks for the show. He had very specific ideas for the looks, but allowed me to take care of a lot of the details. I didn’t work with the director, David Schweizer, until the tech rehearsals onstage. Decisions about what hair color to use and how to style the wigs, are primarily mine. I try to stay within the hair color ranges of the singers. It is very difficult to take someone with black hair and make them a platinum blonde. If we do change people’s hair color, then their skin tone has to be taken into account as well. I start to think about what can be done with the makeup to make the hair color look natural. I’ve described all of this in a very clinical way as if there is a process to it. Honestly, I really just go on instinct. I just do it. If I think about it too much I get in my own way. Often times I sit there thinking, “What the hell am I doing?” Then I sit down with the hair and just do it.

In terms of makeup, I’m a non-makeup makeup artist. It’s not really my thing. I’m probably utilitarian at best. There are basic concepts of shadow and light that you follow. We use very little color on the face. Unless they are supposed to look “made up,” like the prostitute Boule de Suif, I want singers’ faces to look completely natural. We start by taking away all of the shapes and contours of the face and them putting them back, a little bigger and bolder so that they can be read from the house. I want the singers to look like themselves up there, as if they’re not wearing makeup.

That natural look is something that my crew and my business partner Tom Watson and I believe in very strongly. From Tom I’ve learned a great deal about this craft. He was a hairdresser and then fell into this business because of his love of opera. Tom is primarily self-taught. All of us who work for the company are as well, for the most part. This gives our work a very naturalistic style. Often times when you go to the theater the wigs look very hard and structured. They look intentional. I want my wigs to look like any second the hair styles could fall out. It should look as if they did their hair themselves. That looseness in design is the main thing that I’ve learned from Tom. It has to look real.

Photos (from left to right):
1. Allison Imoto (Hair and Makeup Intern) preps a wig for The Pirates of Penzance.
2. Molly Weinreb(Hair and Makeup Assistant) builds one of the wigs for The Greater Good.

Opening Night

2006-07-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

How does it end? That is a question opera audiences so rarely get to ask. Tonight, as audiences take their seats and wait for the curtain to rise, they will. Tonight the cast and crew's hard work, energy, and time finally come to fruition. After a week of music rehearsals, weeks of staging rehearsals, hours spent painting sets and building hats, and countless other duties the piece is going onstage in front of an audience for the very first time. Although it is always a special moment when a production takes the stage, this one will be particularly special. Audiences will have the chance to see a work which has never been seen before. We hope that you will join us this summer to be a part of this incredible event. In the next week we will have a few more updates and insights into the creation of The Greater Good, so make sure to check back. We hope that you have enjoyed this look behind the scenes of a world premiere thus far, and look foward to seeing you at the theater!

Beefing Up Boule de Suif

2006-07-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

David Zinn: Costume Designer

This opera is so much about appetite and sensuality. At that time being overweight could be connected to an idea of sensuality. This lines up so neatly with the story because it exaggerates what is both attractive about Boule de Suif and what ultimately imprisons her. Caroline Worra is the perfect person to play this role, but she is a very lovely figured woman. We knew that we really needed to pad her because that fact that Boule is fat is so central to the story. She needs have a lot of flesh. The important thing was to pick a size that made the point and was believable. It is a real body shape that we felt could blend well with the parts of Caroline’s body we do see. This was difficult because we’re not doing a lot of makeup to make her face fatter, and the suit has to look believable with her face and her hands. It’s also been a great stand-in as we’re working on her costumes. We have it set up on a dressmaker’s dummy in the costume shop, which is sort of weird. It looks very lifelike, and it’s strange when she’s not wearing it. It’s very weird to just stick pins in her boobs.

photo:
1. Boule de Suif’s fat suit waiting for rehearsal in the costume shop.

Looking Back

2006-07-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hartke: Composer

Having now been through the experience of writing and rehearsing this opera, there is little that I would change, musically speaking. It turned out pretty much how I expected it to. At some moments it turned out even better than I thought it would. This is such a big piece and has so many facets to it. There are a few things that I could beat myself up about if I wanted to, but over the years I’ve learned that it’s just not worth it to do that. That is why it took me a long time to write the piece. I had to be sure it was at a place where I could live with it.

The gratifying part of the process has been watching the faces of the singers as they shape the characters to themselves. There are some scenes that are so much more powerful than I predicted. This is a great cast, and their involvement in these characters is incredible. There is a scene where Boule sings about her illegitimate child while the others are playing cards. The range of displeasure that they show towards her makes the scene very chilling. That kind of detail makes moments in this opera more than I could ever have imagined.

Writing this opera has been like being the father of the bride. I’ve nurtured this score for a long time and now it has to go out into the world. I can’t hold its hand any more. I have to let the score go off with the people who have come for her and trust that they will treat her well. I didn’t really have fear or trepidation going into this process, but there is a very emotional response when you hand over that score. Your kid goes off to get married and you have to trust that it will work. You can do nothing other than make sure that you’ve raised a good kid. The piece is completely independent of me now. There’s a kind of emptynest syndrome that sets in. It isn’t my piece anymore.

Every piece I write changes me. It doesn’t just change my music, it changes me. Whenever I finish a piece I get very excited and think, “Now I know how to compose!” Then I begin the next piece and feel like I have to figure it out all over again. I’m starting a piece for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra right now, and I’m a bit distracted at the moment. I’ve been sitting in the orchestra rehearsals for this opera and thinking, “Maybe I should do more of that.” This new piece is for the same orchestral makeup as Bach’s first Brandenburg Concerto. I do find myself listening to what I’ve done with the oboes in this opera and trying to think about what other things I might do in this next piece. I really enjoy hearing the oboes in this orchestra. They have a wonderful sound.

One thing I definitely learned with this piece, somehow, was how to write music quickly. I don’t know if that lesson is going to last or not. I had to get the piece done somehow, so I did. I wrote the second act in seven months. I don’t really know how I did that. A lot of this is because much of the material in the second act is developing things already heard in the first. Still, there were places where I really didn’t know what I was going to do. The old nun’s aria was one of those spots. I had an idea of what it was going to be, but not completely. It ended up taking me around two weeks to finish. That was a big hunk of music to get done in that amount of time. Learning not to beat myself up so much was a lot of the process. As you get older and accumulate more pieces you relax a little more. You realize that not everything hinges on one piece. When you’re young you have only a few works. You get nervous and think, “I hope this is the piece that makes my career!” No single piece makes your career. It is the body of work that does it.

photos (from left to right):
1. David Schweitzer (director) and Stephen Hartke (composer) look over their scores during an early staging rehearsal.
2. Stephen Hartke (composer) talks with Seth Keeton (Cornudet) during a break from rehearsing the aria accompanied by “clanging bowls.”

Reflections on the Rehearsal Process

2006-07-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

David Schweitzer: Director

The addition of the orchestra added a huge amount of information for me. The first Sitzprobe was the first time that anybody had heard this piece. Stephen (composer) had heard it in his head, and Stewart (conductor) could understand how it sounded from looking at the score, but for everyone else it was brand new. The way Stephen uses the orchestra is so meticulous and so refined. Every phrase is rife with meaning. With a new piece there is always that inevitable frustration that you only have a handful of rehearsals with the orchestra.

I have snuck into every orchestra rehearsal to get as much knowledge about this piece as possible. It allowed me to know when I could take even further advantage of the sounds in the music. I would go back to the rehearsal hall and put new ideas into the staging. While writing the piece, Stephen would tell me what was going on in the orchestra, but that is completely different from actually hearing the music. Being informed by the orchestral sounds over the last week and a half has certainly given me the challenge of utilizing everything that is there. In the end it should look as if we were as comfortable with this piece as we would have been if we did an older one with recordings.

Stephen has done some really audacious things in this piece. There is sparseness to the orchestra that is very striking. The music rises up and creates excitement from time to time, but for so much of the piece he only uses what he needs. The instrumentation is so beautifully exposed in this piece. It is risky at times. The singing is very exposed as well. There is a very subtle, translucent quality to a lot of what he’s done in this piece. It really places the onus on the singers. They have to have a real stage presence. They can’t just stand there and sing in a sort of generic way. I’m so pleased with these performers. Everyone has been so responsive in rehearsals. It has been a wonderful process.

One thing that I tried to do in rehearsals was create a very positive and supportive environment. When working with a brand new piece, it is important to eliminate any feelings of nervousness or tension. It was my job to create a playing field in which the singers could experiment safely. This allowed them to make their own discoveries within the range of what I was interested in doing with the piece. Then at a certain point in the process I became a little more specific with my intentions. This way of working gives you much more interesting textures out of people. Giving them that space is very important. In a situation like this, where everyone is dealing with something new and unknown, I could have been very specific. I could have dictated every action to the singers. This may have created a level of comfort. What I’ve tried to do, instead, is blend that kind of clarity with a good amount of room for experimentation. I staged the whole opera in a few days, which is something I’m known for doing. However, that is like a first draft. After creating that framework people can free themselves up a bit and really explore their characters. By having everything staged so quickly, the singers are given the illusion that we have more time than we really do. This is, perhaps, slightly manipulative, but the role of a director is manipulative to a certain extent. There isn’t enough time to be completely honest. If I shared everything I thought with them we would need many more weeks of rehearsal. I have to constantly search for strategies to create the illusion that we’ve endless amounts of time with the piece. The final product needs to feel as if the singers’ actions are natural and personal. If it feels as if I’ve placed the actions onto them, it can be spotted immediately. It has to be genuine.

photos (from left to right):
1. Caroline Worra (Boule de Suif), Andrew Wentzel (Le Comte de Breville), and Elaine Alvarez (La Comtesse de Breville) in the final dress rehearsal for The Greater Good.
2. David Schweitzer (director) showing Mark Wendland’s (set designer) set renderings during the company intro the day before staging rehearsals began.

Being Under Lights

2006-07-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Caroline Worra: Soprano (Boule de Suif)

I really love the feeling of having the lights on my face. That is the final touch that tells you that the performance is coming! It helps us to keep our faces up and emote outward. Sometimes when you are working in a rehearsal space with people sitting right in front of you, you act very inwardly. When you are on stage with those lights, there is so much more space and the feeling is much larger. You finally have an opportunity to really emote. At first it is a process of finding where the lighting is hitting on the stage and moving towards those spots that you estimated in staging rehearsals. We’re very lucky that we have Chris Akerlind (lighting designer). He is so good at creating this mysterious would with these strategically placed fields of light. As performers, it is our job to make sure that we are using that light to its full potential. I just feel so beautiful when the lights are shining on me. That is part of the process. You have to feel beautiful, bigger than life so that you can project your character. It is, however, a hard balance between emoting and still projecting a personality that is believable and intimate enough to be real.

Photo:
1. Caroline Worra (Boule de Suif) and Matthew Worth (Coachman) in scene from Act II.

Lighting As An Interpretive Art

2006-07-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

Chris Akerlind: Lighting Designer

Lighting this show is a lot like doing a contemporary dance piece. The set is essentially an open space that has to be carved up into different story-telling zones by the lighting. It has to be done in a way that not only creates an atmosphere, but also has a nice series of contrasting looks as the story moves from place to place. There is something very effortless and very theatrical about an empty space with human beings and their problems in it. I would much rather do this slightly abstract kind of work than a completely literal depiction of the space. There are people in the theater world who still don’t grasp the concept of lighting design as an interpretive art. You’re not included in the process and you are asked to come in at the end and provide what the director requires.

David Schweizer (director), who is much smarter than that, is interested in everyone’s input from the very beginning. I’ve been meeting with David, Mark Wendland (set designer), and David Zinn (costume designer) since sometime in the winter. At that point the set design had still not been finalized. David Schweizer finds it important to get the lighting designer’s input very early on. In the case of this production the question was: How far can we take the idea of darkness? This idea plays out in two very different images in this piece, both a white space and a black space. It is a lovely project for a lighting designer because it goes to an intrinsic series of qualities of light. It illustrates the arc between bright and dark. This is very interesting to me because it becomes an exercise in composing those ideas of darkness and light rather than recreating something that we see naturally every day.

Hearing the music came very late in the game for me. I got a CD in the mail three weeks ago! This was fine, because I have a kind of loose philosophy about how to approach things. There is something interesting about adding a creative ingredient into the process when that person doesn’t have all of the information. In this case that would be me. My ideas were not, initially, wound around the music. This gave a collision of fresh ideas during the stage rehearsals. I only hear the full orchestration of this piece twice before opening night. This can be kind of frightening, but the results are often very interesting. I’ve listened to some of Stephen’s other music, so I had a pretty clear idea of what his sound was. There’s a simplicity and directness to it that I think is reflected in the set and also in the lighting.

The timetable that a lighting designer works on is very different from that of the rest of the team. It all happens at the last minute, during the rehearsals that take place onstage. I use the expression a lot, but there is a quality of improvisation to the process. I like to have some lights in air that I’m allowed to think creatively about. Some lights have to have a clear intention, filling the space in a way that clearly articulates the figure, for example. However, there is a wonderful creative element added when some of lights are assigned an intention a week before the show opens as opposed to a month before. It helps to keep the visual ideas fresh. I think that is what gives my work a kind of liveliness. I refuse to decide what it is going to be until I’m in the thick of the moment. Then you have to work fast but also have a conception of what the whole is. Otherwise you run the risk of an eclectic series of images rather than a solid composition. Glimmerglass is a great place for that kind of work. John Conklin (Associate Artistic Director) makes sure that we are able to keep exploring until the very end.

Photos (from left to right):
1. John David DeHaan sings his Act II aria.
2. Chris Akerlind speaking at the production seminar for The Greater Good.

The Musical Colors of "The Greater Good"

2006-07-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Stewart Robertson: Music Director / Conductor

The colors that Stephen Hartke (composer) pulls from the orchestra are brilliant, which didn’t surprise me at all when I started receiving the score. It seems like a very natural progression from Stephen’s earlier music. There are so many varying timbres and combinations, from a small chamber group to a fairly lush romantic sound. I hear a bit of his recent symphony (Symphony No. 3) in it as well. He’s pursued a few interesting sonic ideas that are a little bit different. When all of the guests are eating with the tuned bowls, he has created a kind of miniature gamelan orchestra onstage. It is both amusing and very interesting to watch the singers “playing” their bowls with the orchestra. There is another very engaging effect where the string players play above the bridge to evoke a specific event in the piece, but I don’t want to give that one away. I’ll just say that it is highly original.

The makeup of the orchestra is what really gives this piece a unique color. In our initial conversations Stephen said he was very interested in tilting the sonority of the piece in a certain direction. He’s written for four clarinetists instead of two. They play everything from contrabass clarinet to piccolo clarinet. The result is this oily color. Much of the time these clarinets are written clustered in the low register, which gives the orchestra a deep molasses sound. The sound of the piece has a tendency towards the dark and interior. I love it. It is a very striking sonority.

photo:
1. Stewart Robertson with Caroline Worra (Boule de Suif) and Matthew Worth (Coachman) at the second Sitzprobe.

The First Time in Costume

2006-07-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Caroline Worra: Soprano (Boule De Suif)

It is such a wonderful transformation that happens when you put on your costume for the first time. Most of your character work is done internally, but having those outer layers really helps to add the last details. In the first weeks of staging you’re wearing your own clothes and a rehearsal skirt to get a feeling for what it will be like. Once you have the real costume on, everything is different. This has been especially true with this character because I have to wear a fat suit. It became a lot more difficult to climb into the carriage! There’s also a scene where I have to pass food out to people. Bending over to get things out of the basket was much more challenging with all of that padding in front of me. The red-haired wig made a big difference as well. As a redhead, you act very differently than you do when you’re a blonde! We’ve also been very lucky to have so many rehearsals in our costumes. We’re beginning our final week of rehearsal now. At most companies, the last week is when you would first get your costumes, but we’ve been wearing them for most of last week as well. It helps to have that extra time to adjust and really explore the character.

photo:
1. Caroline Worra (Boule de Suif) in the costume designed by David Zinn.

Boule de Suif's Costume

2006-07-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

David Zinn: Costume Designer

It is important that Boule de Suif stand out in a subtle way in terms of costuming. The color undertones on her clothing are slightly more vibrant than the others in the carriage. The choices for the cuts in her clothing were important as well - what parts of her she’s revealing compared to what other people are. What I didn’t want to do was put her in a miniskirt or something ridiculous like that. First of all, she’s a courtesan, she’s not a hooker. She needs a kind of dignity. She’s a little bit of the freak at the party, but there have to be enough similarities to make it believable that she is riding in the same coach with these snobbish people. Her exterior has to be such that she can pass in that society. This is done in the details. She has a few more shiny things than the others. She has a jacket that we’ve cut in a slightly more modern way, like a little denim jacket, so that she seems a little more tarty. Like I said before, these things have to be subliminal messages for the audience. I don’t expect them to notice a lot of these choices consciously.

photos (from left to right):
1. David Zinn’s sketches for Boule de Suif’s costume.
2. David Zinn’s color rendering for Boule’s costume.

Commissioning "The Greater Good"

2006-07-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Stewart Robertson: Music Director / Conductor

I’ve known some of Stephen Hartke’s (composer) music for over twenty years, particularly his orchestra piece Pacific Rim. I thought his was a very original voice. Since my first encounter with the work, first hearing it and then conducting it myself, I have been following his music. When it came time to commission a piece for Glimmerglass, I wanted a piece that would satisfy both audiences and musicians alike. In general, I feel that much of contemporary American opera is very conservative in style, and lacks the musical substance that earns respect from musicians. Stephen is a composer whose music has both compositional integrity and a unique style. I had a few conversations with the folks at the Howard Hanson fund at Eastman. They were already awarding Stephen a commission for a new work. It wasn’t quite large enough for an operatic commission, but we decided that we could find funds to make it a suitable amount. One thing led to another and Stephen received the commission.

While Stephen was working on the piece we had a few sessions where he would come out and play what he had written so far. This was not only for myself, because I could read the score, but for my colleagues as well. It was particularly helpful for the design and technical teams. He would try and approximate what he had written for the orchestra on the piano while singing the vocal lines. They were quite entertaining days, actually, since much of the music is for soprano! We began receiving the score in pieces as it was written. The final pages arrived very much at the eleventh hour. We got the last chunk of music towards the end of May, which was only a few weeks away from the initial rehearsals. It was quite a challenge. One surprise was that the piece ended up being about twenty minutes longer than we initially expected. I’m glad, because the work needs to be that long. The shape of the piece is wonderful. However, in terms of budgeting, I had planned orchestra rehearsals for a shorter piece. Financially speaking, it is too late to add another rehearsal at this point. I now have to steal some of the orchestra time from another production to try and accommodate for the extra length of the opera. That is a bit of a trick. This is a very musically complex piece, but I feel like in the last week the cast, the orchestra, and myself are finally finding a level of comfort with it. I almost hesitate to use the word comfort because this piece is a challenge and will remain one, but I think we’ve finally clicked into the groove.

photo:
1. Stephen Hartke (composer) and Stewart Robertson (conductor) discuss the music during a break from the first Sitzprobe.

"The Greater Good" in the New York Times!

2006-07-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Anthony Tommasini Interviews Steven Hartke

In case you may have missed it, the New York Times had a full page article about the the premiere of The Greater Good in yesterday's paper!

You can read the article here. If you don't have an account with newyorktimes.com, you'll have to sign up for one. Don't worry, it's free!

The First Sitzprobe

2006-07-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

Liam Moran: member of the Young American Artist Program (M. Follenvie)

The word Sitzprobe is German; meaning “sitting rehearsal.” It happens once we’ve learned the staging and have become more comfortable with our roles. Typically it takes place in the opera house with the singers seated on stage and the orchestra in the pit. Because this is a summer festival, The Greater Good is not the only show that needs stage time. For this first Sitzprobe we couldn’t rehearse in the opera house, so it was important to remember that the balances will be different in the real space. We sat behind the brass, which was intense. At some points they were just blasting away at us. Thankfully it won’t be like that in performances!

A Sitzprobe is the first time the singers and the orchestra come together. It’s been really satisfying to finally hear all of the colors we’ve been imagining this whole time. Stephen (composer) put so many great indicators in the vocal score telling us what the orchestration was, but hearing it in person is a totally different thing. As a singer, it is much easier to have the orchestra there because the tones sustain more. A piano is a percussive instrument, so you’ll hear the note at first but then it dissipates so quickly. It can be hard to keep afloat sometimes in that situation. Fortunately we have two Sitzprobes for this show. Usually there is only one, but since this is a brand new piece, it will be nice to have a second chance to focus on the music. For the first Sitzprobe we focused on act one, which, according to the Maestro, is much more intricate and complicated than the second act. It makes a lot of sense dramatically because in the first act there are a lot of surprises for the characters. In the second act we sort of settle into this depressive state. You feel everyone’s pulse slowing down. Musically speaking, it is terribly effective.

photo:
1. Liam Moran (M. Follenvie) and Dorothy Byrne (Mme. Follenvie) at the first Sitzprobe.

Working with Color in the Costumes

2006-07-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

David Zinn: Costume Designer

Early on we thought that it would be wonderful to keep all of the clothing black. Because the opening of the show is so dark, this choice allows people to be revealed as the landscape is revealed. When they’re in a white landscape, they become like crows or vultures. They’re these sort of raptor-like birds in very high relief. However, this is a long piece and we want people to have things to discover as they’re watching it. The black needed to have a sense of richness and we needed to link the various couples together in a way. These costumes have every shade of black hidden in them to make it more interesting.

There is some color in the show. The Prussian soldier is very theatricalized and his clothes are very bright. Currently, Boule de Suif has a robe that she wears at one point in the show which is very brightly colored. At this moment I’m not sure if it is going to be a part of the final product. David Schweizer (director) and I have talked about it a lot and I have really mixed feelings about it. It may be the perfect touch, or it might be really horrible. We just won’t know until we see it working on stage. I could justify either choice at this point. The Follenvies, who run the inn, are sort of colorful. They are in browns which, in many cases, would not be considered colorful but definitely are in this world. The Follenvies not high class people. They are country people and they are very warm and inviting. As an audience, we need to see them and know this right away.

photos (from left to right):
1. David Zinn’s color rendering of the Prussian soldier.
2. David Zinn speaking about his designs at the production seminar.

Orchestra Rehearsals

2006-07-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

Katherine Hannauer: Principal Second Violin

Because we’re working on something completely new, right from the start the learning process is different. I can’t just go to the library and check out a recording of this piece. It’s a clean slate for everyone. An added challenge is that we got the music for the second act only a few weeks before the rehearsal period started, and we have the other three operas to learn, too! The first step was to go through the part and get all of the notes under my fingers. At the same time I would find areas that I knew I really had to count carefully, places I’d have to keep an eye on the conductor, and passages that I needed to spend more practice time on. Because it is a new piece, I didn’t really know how my part fit in with the broader picture.

Coming into the first orchestra rehearsal, I finally had a chance to start working out how my part fit into the score. Even now, it is an incomplete picture because we haven’t had the singers yet. They’re doing staging rehearsals while Stewart Robertson (music director/conductor) rehearses us. So far we’ve had three orchestra rehearsals, totaling about eight hours. We’ve gotten a lot of great work done, but it is a very accelerated process. You have to be a quick study to make something like this work. Stylistically, there are challenges that you wouldn’t encounter in music of more familiar composers. You’ll be in a fast tempo, changing meters every bar or so, switching between arco and pizzicato, and then suddenly you realize you missed a dynamic marking. It takes a while to get a hang of because it is not as instinctive. If I sit down to play Mozart, I’ve been doing that all of my life. I know what he sounds like. Learning the language of this score has been such an interesting process. Working with a living composer is great, because there is no guesswork – if you have a question, he’s right there! With a piece as challenging as this one it would have been great to have another rehearsal, but I think due to budgetary reasons it’s not possible. I think the orchestra is starting to get a handle on Hartke’s sound at this point, but it won’t really come together until the sitzprobe, a music rehearsal with the singers and orchestra, tomorrow. Fortunately we have two of those for this production, which will really help with getting the music solid.

photos:
1. The orchestra in rehearsal for The Greater Good with Maestro Stewart Robertson
2. Violinist Katherine Hannauer

Inspirations for the Costume Design

2006-07-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

David Zinn: Costume Designer

Very early on David Schweizer (director) and Mark Wendland (set designer) had an idea that this world should be black in the first act and white in the second. From that I knew we would see these people first in darkness, and then as silhouettes. When I started working on it only the music for the first act had been finished. The story had been worked out, but I usually begin with the music, so it was difficult. We knew that we wanted these character studies, and that there would be a very minimal set. In terms of clothing, we wanted to keep the story in its original period: occupied France around the year 1869.

I had a sense of Stephen’s music for this opera from hearing the first act. There is a kind of neurotic, obsessive quality to the music. I wanted to capture that in the costumes with a sense of detail and decoration. 1869, for women’s clothing, is a very strange period. You’re in this odd place between Gone with the Wind hoop skirts and bustles. It’s a very unpleasant amalgamation. The look is very sculptural and awkward, which works great for depicting these displaced aristocratic people.

What you’re seeing is period costumes that, in a literary sense, deconstruct themselves. The layers of the clothing contradict each other and they don’t really resolve. They’re not torn apart in any way, but they sort of double back on themselves. Each outfit is its own neurotic creation. This makes the costumes theatrical in a way that is very important when designing for opera. If I were designing these costumes for a film the details could be much smaller because the camera could zoom in on them and focus your attention in specific places. By exaggerating or theatricalizing a few details in the costumes I can draw attention to them in the way that a close up shot could in a movie. The singers should, hopefully, still seem like real people wearing real clothing. Despite the fact that details have been exaggerated, they are based in a real world.

photos (from left to right):
1. David Zinn's black and white sketches for the stable boys.
2. David Zinn's color rendering for the Countess.

The Sound of "The Greater Good"

2006-07-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Zachary Schwartzman: Assistant Conductor

We received this score in installments, so we were discovering it bit by bit. When I first looked at it I knew that we would have a big challenge ahead of us. I remember having the same impression when we started working on The Mines of Sulphur two seasons ago. Often the singers have to work to find their pitches, because the harmonic language is complex. The music has a very American sound to it: very rhythmic, and a few parts of the score are jazz-inspired. This is not to say composers from other places in the world don’t incorporate those elements into their music, but a composer like Tan Dun is not likely to be inspired by the same musical sources as Stephen Hartke. Another thing that I noticed early on was the deliberate and intelligent connection between music and drama, the hallmark of great opera. As we received the last parts of the score, the last blocks of the musical architecture fell into place and we could see Mr. Hartke’s over-arching vision. The music unfolds very naturally, but the underlying construction gives the work coherence and shows masterful craftsmanship. I didn’t get a chance to look at the orchestra score until the beginning of June or so, but the cues in the piano/vocal score had led me to suspect that we were dealing with a vibrant and colorful score with an inventive orchestration. Unfortunately I haven’t been to an orchestra rehearsal yet because I’ve been covering for Maestro Robertson in staging rehearsals while he works with the orchestra. I’m dying to hear how it is coming together because I think we’ll hear an orchestral sound which is unique and quite astounding.

It has also been wonderful to have Stephen Hartke here for the rehearsals. To have the composer present while you’re working on a piece is a very rare opportunity. It has taught me something about the way I approach other music. When I’m rehearsing Mozart, I try to follow the score as literally possible because he’s not around to ask questions. I think this is generally a good idea, but having Stephen here has reminded me that opera composers notate with an imagined idea of the theater in their head, but they are ultimately concerned with projecting the drama of the piece to the audience, and are willing to adjust the music to that end. Stephen has been very open to allowing us to interpret this piece and adapt the music to what’s happening on stage. It’s been strange to notice that, with the composer standing right next to me, I actually feel like I have more flexibility than I would if I were conducting Mozart.

photo:
1. Zachary Schwartzman (assistant conductor) conducting a staging rehearsal.

Building Hats for "The Greater Good"

2006-07-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Katie M. Smith: Costume Crafts Artisan

Most of the women in The Greater Good wear hats, which become the responsibility of the Costume Crafts department. Each of these hats is built on site from scratch. The first step in the process is to get a combination of research and sketches from the designer. I built Boule de Suif’s hat, so I had David Zinn’s (costume designer) sketches of her costumes, photos of hats from around 1870, and also a few swatches of the fabric that he had chosen for her clothing. It was then my job to convert those drawings into a physical piece of clothing that could be worn by the singer. First I built a mock-up of the hat out of paper, which took about two days. Most of the time was spent arranging the feathers for the hat, which I attached to the paper mock-up. This was used in Caroline’s early costume fittings so David could get an idea of how the hat would look and make a few adjustments. After that, I took it apart to use as a pattern. I used wire and a type of fabric called Buckram to create the structure of the hat. Buckram is a two-ply fabric that has glue embedded in it which allows it to hold its shape very well. This is then mulled so that all of the edges are smoothed and rounded. Next, the hat is covered in fabric and the trim and feathers are attached. I used a combination of dyed ostrich feathers for the brighter colors and iridescent pheasant feathers for the darker ones. The iridescent feathers reflected the fabric David was using on Boule’s dress. There is a color changing fabric being used in her costume that looks different as it moves under the light. These iridescent feathers do the same; they are primarily black, but they give off other colors as you look at them from different angles.

photos (from left to right):
1. Katie working on Boule de Suif's hat.
2. The research for Boule de Suif's hat: David Zinn's sketch, photos of other hats, fabric swatches, and feathers.

Stephen's Favorite Operas

2006-07-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hartke: Composer

I’ve been going to the opera for a long time, and definitely have my favorites. Although I don’t keep scores in front of me while I’m sitting in the theater, I’m always listening very carefully and thinking about which pieces work and which ones don’t. I love the intimacy and the directness of Monteverdi. Sometimes when I’m feeling really cranky I’ll say that the last great opera was Orfeo. Purcell’s music is an influence for me as well. He has such an energetic way of handling the English language. Verdi is a composer who has had more influence on me than most would think. When I was about eleven years old I fell in love with his Requiem and used to play it at the piano all of the time. Every once in a while I’ll go back and listen to it and think “Oh my god, I’ve been doing that in my music!” I’ll always go to see a Verdi opera because I find the construction so masterful. Another composer I encountered at a very young age was Mozart. When I was thirteen I was understudying the third genie in The Magic Flute for two years. It was an incredible experience watching the principals work in the rehearsals and coachings. I would always have to sit in the green room doing my homework waiting to see if the guy I was covering was going to keel over.

The first act of Puccini’s Bohème is very near perfection and was in my mind when I was working on this opera. His handling of realistic continuity in that opera was something that I wanted in my own. I do think of what I’m doing in The Greater Good as a kind of neo-verismo. His seemingly casual way of handling all of those very different characters and their interactions is something that I really admire. The Girl of the Golden West, which I saw here for the first time, is another really incredible opera. The second act is certainly one of Puccini’s greatest achievements. Wagner is so overwhelmingly impressive; I can’t believe what he’s doing. At the same time, he irritates me. He’s such a psychological terrorist. He forces you to remember all of those tunes until you think that you love them. The whole time you’re thinking, “No! No! Stop manipulating my brain like that!”

photo:
1. The piano reduction for The Greater Good, with Stephen Hartke in the background.

The First Time on the Stage (The Carriage Part 2)

2006-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Michael Shell: Assistant Director

There are two main goals we’re trying to accomplish with this first onstage rehearsal. The first is dealing with the functionality of the carriage. Most of the first act takes place in it so there is a lot to be worked out. We had the interior piece for the carraige in staging rehearsals, but not the exterior. All of the choreography for the carriage has to be adjusted now that we’re working on the actual stage with both pieces. In staging rehearsals we only had the interior section of the coarriage. The other goal of this rehearsal time is to give Chris Akerlind (Lighting Designer) and Mark Wendland (Set Designer) another chance to look at what is going on onstage. Although not all of the lights are focused, it will give Chris some time to better conceptualize what he’s panning to do with the lighting. There are a lot of effects to suggest snow on some parts of the stage and not on others and so forth. We won’t have a full crew for our afternoon time on the stage, so we can get a few looks at how things will be, but we won’t be able to run anything. For the evening rehearsal we’ll have the members of the cast that appear in the first forty-five minutes of the show. This will give both them and us a glimpse at how things will be in the theater before we go back into the rehearsal space.

photos (from left to right):
1. David Schweizer (director) explains the carriage to the cast and members of the company using a model.
2. The carriage is prepped for the cast's first time on the stage.

Working with the Carriage

2006-07-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Kathryn Koch: Stage Manager

In many ways a stage manager is the air traffic controller for the show. We oversee all elements of the production from scheduling to calling entrances, scenic elements, and lighting. Essentially I am responsible for running the show and making sure everything happens when it is supposed to. I call the show from a console, with monitors in front of me to see what is going on onstage. My assistant stage managers work in the wings, making sure that the singers don’t miss their entrances, that they’re wearing the right costumes, and so on.

In this production, the characters have to spend a long amount of time riding in a carriage. The set piece that has been created to represent the carriage is quite an amazing contraption. Before we came into the rehearsal hall we spent a lot of time with a miniature scale model of the carriage working out every single movement. This process is called “paper teching.” We mapped out where it goes, how long it takes to get there, what it does once it’s there, and how long it stays there. We treated that model like our bible so that when staging rehearsals began we would know what to expect.

We have the interior section of the carriage for staging rehearsals, which take place in a rehearsal space in Cherry Valley. Until we are on stage, this is what we’ll use to block all of the carriage’s movement. This allows the singers to become comfortable with the carriage and a way for us to fine-tune the preparations made earlier on. It is definitely the main set-piece of the show, with a lot of stage time. Because of this, the set designer Mark Wendland had to create something that would keep the audience engaged. The carriage is an exceptionally flexible and multi-functional piece of machinery, but I don’t want to give away exactly what it does…

photo:
1. Kathryn Koch calling the carriage movements during a staging rehearsal in Cherry Valley.

Challenges in Telling the Story of "The Greater Good"

2006-07-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

David Schweizer: Director

The physical landscape in which this story takes place is very problematic. If you’re thinking of a story to turn into an opera, Maupassant’s Boule de Suif is an unlikely choice. The first half is set inside of a coach and the second half is mostly taking place at various meals while they’re trapped at an inn. That really isn’t the most invigorating thing to watch. To make things trickier, Stephen Hartke (composer) and Philip Littell (librettist) follow the story very closely. What this story does provide is a sort of psychological ensemble. There is this unit of screwed-up, snobbish French upper-class people. Together they create this single character which is a besieged social class in the midst of the Franco-Prussian War. Even this can be tricky in terms of conventional opera because it does not easily provide moments for individual to step out of the framework and sing an aria. However, these were issues that Stephen and Philip were really interested in exploring and solving.

I was around for a lot of the development process of the work. Part of me would think, “Do we really have to be in the coach for that long?” Another part of me would say, “Let them just do it!” This part of me won, because it interested me to take on the challenges that they were creating with the opera. I like to say to myself that nothing is impossible on the stage. You can find a vocabulary to tell any story. Later on in their writing process they would ask if certain things were okay, or if more music was needed between different scenes. I told them whatever they wanted to do was fine and that I would find a way to make it work.

Glimmerglass is an incredible place to work in terms of artistic standards. The designers, the singers - there are so many wonderful colleagues here. However, it’s not a rich company. We didn’t have a lot of money for this show. There’s a large stage that has to be filled with imagery and we can’t simply throw big scenic ideas at it. This situation is fine with me because I don’t really work that way. For me it is about creating strong images that are very haunting and imaginative. We want to transport people into another world without spending millions of dollars to show them the literal setting. I’m very interested in seducing the audience and drawing them in.

photos (from left to right):
1. David Scheizer explaining the show using the model of the set.
2. David Schweizer working on staging with Dorothy Byrne (Mme. Follenvie).

Let's Go Shopping!

2006-07-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Karen Cahill: Properties Shopper

The Greater Good has been a big job for me, because so much of the items need to be authentic. Eating is a very important part of the show. What meals the characters are sitting down to eat will express the passage of time. This means that we need many sets of dishes and glassware that look accurate to the period of 1870. Mark Wendland, the set designer, wants the dishes to be mismatched since the characters are eating at a small, humble inn that may not be used to feeding this many people. This means I can’t go out and find a single set of dishes. I have to compile a mismatched collection that looks good with the set and is appropriate to the time period. A lot of this stuff is being found in antique stores and flea markets in the area. It isn’t always easy to shop for props when you’re working for a company out in the country.

One of the most interesting hunts that I’ve had to go on for The Greater Good is the soup bowls. The composer, Stephen Hartke, thought it would be great if while they were eating they could create percussion sounds by banging on the dishware. So not only do I have to find things that are period appropriate, but they have to have a broad range of pitches when struck. It has been a fun challenge to go around searching for bowls and tapping on them to see how they ‘sound.’ Once we’ve accumulated enough of them we’ll start talking with Stephen to see which bowls produce the sounds that he likes. At that point we’ll also be figuring out whether we’re going to fill them with some amount of water or leave them empty.

photos (from left to right):
1. Karen tests out one of the "musical bowls" for The Greater Good.
2. Assistant Conductor Zachary Schwarzman leads the cast in a soup bowl accompaniment for Dorothy Byrne's (Mme Follenvie) scene.

The Many Sides of Props

2006-07-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

Anna Goller: Properties Master

For The Greater Good, the set is meant to look very abstract. The props and the costumes, however, have to look very realistic so that the audience can have a good sense of what time period the story takes place in. Much of the action takes place in a large set piece which represents a carriage, but on top of that there are piles of luggage trunks. The designer was insistent that we find real trunks that look as if they belong in the 1870s so that they look as realistic as possible. It has been a big challenge to accumulate enough trunks that fit with Mark’s image. Those challenges, however, are what I love about working in props. You never know when someone is going to walk in and ask for a flying woman made out of cardboard or a tandem bicycle that can easily be ridden backwards.

Another thing that is great about props is that you have to have a huge range of skills. We have an incredible crew of artisans that can do almost anything. They are skilled in carpentry, painting, sewing, welding, and anything else you could think of. Because props covers so many different kinds of objects you have to be ready for everything. Beyond this, you have to have a good knowledge of history. The designers will give clear ideas of what they want, but when they ask for a trunk from the 1870s that a poor person might own, you have to know what that looks like. In The Greater Good we are not building very many original pieces. Instead, the artisans are modifying the period pieces that we’ve found so that they can be suitable for use onstage.

photo:
1. Anna Goller takes inventory of some of her props.

Learning a New Work

2006-07-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Jill Gardner: member of the Young American Artist Program (Mme. Loiseau)

As a singer, working on a world premiere is very exciting. Anytime you open up a score, even if you’ve sung it four or five times, you want to be looking at it from a fresh perspective. With a brand new work there is no history. You are helping to create it. What that gives you, more than anything, is a deep respect for the music. All you have is that music; you have no memories of seeing it on the stage or hearing it on recording. Everything that you have is there on that page, which makes learning the role a much more detail-oriented process than when you’re rediscovering a familiar work. These details are used not only to learn the notes and rhythms, but to better understand who your character is.

We received the score in sections starting around January of 2006. Sometimes you would get a part of the score which had a lot of music for your character, and other times not. The final part of the score was given to us when we arrived here this summer. Mr. Hartke arrived after we had gone through the music a few times with Stewart Robertson, the conductor. What is fabulous is that Mr. Hartke will be here for the duration of the summer, both for rehearsals and performances. He is very generous and wonderful to work worth. His excitement is palpable in rehearsals, which brings a great energy to the singers as we work through the piece. There’s also a very reassuring confidence that I feel from him about the music that he’s written.

I think at this point we’re all finally beginning to get into his sound world. He has an incredible sense of rhythm. It is very clear that he is writing very specifically to the text. The music seems so in tune with the story we’re trying to tell. Mr. Hartke creates these wonderful moods and atmospheres that give you a lot of insight into the characters. Two days into staging rehearsals, I’m really pleased about where we are.

photo:
1. from left to right: David Schweizer (director), Jill Gardner (Mme. Loiseau), and John David Dehaan (M. Loiseau) in staging rehearsals.

Promoting a World Premiere

2006-07-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

Don Marrazzo: Director of Public Relations

One large difference between promoting a new piece as opposed to a standard one is that there is an obvious hook that you can use. You push the fact that your company is producing a world premiere. This guarantees a certain amount of coverage. It also gives us some obvious target areas in terms of marketing. The Hanson Institute from Eastman, for example, provided a large amount of the funds for the commission, so that gave us a very easy way to promote the work in the Rochester area. Working with a new piece, however, means that there will be many unexpected changes along the way. If, for example, you push in a specific area of the country because one of the singers is from there and then that casting suddenly changes, you have to be prepared to adjust your strategy.

The work itself is changing as well. I have to be sensitive to the fact that the composer or director may not feel comfortable giving interviews until they have finished a certain amount of their work. The press will often ask very specific questions about how the work is shaping up, what the second act is like musically, and so on. In the earlier stages of the piece Stephen said that he didn’t want to speak with much of the press. As the public relations director I have to strike a balance between pushing the work soon enough, and making sure that the composer is at a place in his process where he feels he can speak about the work publicly. Promoting a work of Stephen’s has been a great experience. He’s been wonderful to work with and has been open to the various ideas we’ve had in terms of how to pitch this opera to different radio stations and papers.

photo:
1. Don Marrazzo

Staging Rehearsals

2006-07-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

Caroline Worra: soprano (Boule de Suif)

Right now we’re in my favorite part of the rehearsal process. We’ve taken the first few days to work through the music and make sure we’ve really got it. It’s so important to have that confidence so that we can bring it with us into the first staging rehearsals. I love working with David Schweizer’s style of direction. He likes to get us up and into the work as soon as possible. A week into the process, we had the entire show staged. For a piece this difficult, it’s great to know we’ve gotten already through it and are now beginning to fine tune. We’ve gotten that first layer taken care of any now we’re putting in the details. At this point we’re beginning to develop our characters and their relationships with the other people in the story, which is so exciting.

A lot of the things that we’re discovering in our characters are already written into the music. The score is absolutely brilliant. As we’re getting deeper into our roles we’re finding that the music really supports us in the paths we’re taking. Working with Stephen Hartke has been so interesting. I can tell that he’s a very specific composer. Everything he writes is very intentional and has a clear reason for being there. It’s so fun to keep finding the reasons for all of his choices. Right now we only hear a piano in rehearsal, but even that has so many colors in it. You hear a certain color that may mean a certain action, or a certain attitude. Creating all of these connections is wonderful.

This part of the process is about experimentation. We’ve had the time to learn the basics of the piece and now we’re all trying to find out how deep we can go. All of us are trying many ideas so that David [Schweizer, the director] can see what is being brought to the table. He allows us the confidence to show our ideas and then works with us on exploring within that framework. It think it’s the mark of a great director when you feel as if he’s helping you to discover your character rather than defining it for you from the first rehearsal. At this point in the process, working with these people, I’m in seventh heaven!

photo:
1.Caroline Worra (Boule de Suif) and Laurann Gilley (Music Coach/Accompanist) in a staging rehearsal.

Musically Portraying the Story

2006-07-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hartke: Composer

Portraying the characters in this opera was an interesting challenge for me as a composer. Most of them are pretty terrible people. I had to divorce myself from that and present them in a way that seemed musically plausible to me. Although I don’t agree with many of these characters’ moral decisions, it was important to remember that we all see ourselves as the heroes of our own lives. When writing music for these people it was important that they come across this way. Loiseau thinks he’s the life of the party; the Count thinks he’s in control when he really isn’t. I remember in an early stage of the writing process Philip Littel wrote a line that I felt I really couldn’t set. I ended up setting the line and, in hindsight, realized it was bothering me for personal reasons and not dramatic ones. I had to get over that very quickly as I was working on this piece.

This story is really about waiting and being frustrated about it. These characters are trying to get out of Rouen and are being held captive there unless Boule will agree to meet the Prussian Kommandant’s wishes. The challenge is to musically and dramatically depict that without causing the audience to feel as bored and frustrated as the characters are. For this reason the music moves very quickly between these moods of frustration, boredom, and so on. It will, I believe, keep the audience engaged. Another aspect of this story which is very tricky to portray is the neutral feeling of it. I really want the audience to feel as if they’re not sure what is going to happen. Even though this story takes place in the middle of a war, the city of Rouen is nowhere near the battlefield. It is an occupied city which has calm mornings and quiet nights. For this reason the music in opening is a very simple diatonic theme in the harp that gets stuck in a rut. It doesn’t really go anywhere, leaving the listener unsure of what is going to happen.

photos (left to right):
1. Director David Schweizer (right) looks on as Stephen Hartke (composer) demonstrates his "bowl tree", an instrument he created for the opera to evoke the sounds of horse hooves.
2. Stephen Hartke and Zachary Schwarzman (assistant conductor).

Early Music Rehearsals

2006-07-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

Laurann Gilley: Music Coach/Accompanist

Some people may wonder what my job is if they only see the final product of an opera. Very often I’m not playing in the pit, but I’ve been a part of the rehearsal process from day one. As the Music Coach/Accompanist for the show it is my job to play for all music rehearsals and staging rehearsals. Towards the end the orchestra will come in, but it would be very impractical to rehearse with a full orchestra for the first few weeks. My job is to help the singers become fluent in this music as best I can. This means playing different parts of the orchestral score so that they’ll know what they’re listening for when the orchestra shows up, helping find ways to grab some of their pitches that are difficult to hear, and keeping an eye out to make sure everyone is keeping true to the music while we go through staging rehearsals. These singers are incredible; there really isn’t a weak link in the cast.

The first rehearsals for this were a little slower than they would be for an opera in the standard repertoire. It’s new for everyone and the music has many difficult moments in it. We reserved the first three days strictly for musical rehearsals. These rehearsals didn’t involve any staging. It was very important to have this time set aside to make sure everyone was comfortable with the music itself. The first two rehearsals were focused on fine tuning bits and pieces of the score that were challenging. On the third day we read the piece straight through with Stephen Hartke, the composer, present. That day was so exciting because we finally got to hear the entire arc of the piece. Its one thing to hear it in your head as you’re practicing, but to have all of those beautiful voices singing is a completely different experience.

Since then we’ve begun staging rehearsals and have been very lucky to have Stephen present for almost all of them. He’s been very good at allowing the opera be the piece of art he created and not changing very much, if anything. Throughout rehearsals he will throw out ideas about certain ways that he hears the music. We just finished working on a section with the coachman and he had pointed out that he heard it as a sort of blues. I wouldn’t have thought of that before, but it made complete sense. The orchestration and the rhythms in the score certainly give a blues feel to the music. The coachman has a very free, improvisatory sounding line while there’s a very steady bass note pattern in the orchestra.

photos:
1. Laurann Gilley
2. Stephen Hartke (composer) and Laurann Gilley

Welcome!

2006-07-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the production diary for Stephen Hartke and Philip Littell's opera The Greater Good, which recieves its world premiere this summer at Glimmerglass Opera. This diary will follow the production process from the first music rehearsals to opening night. It offers insights into the logistics of producing opera, the workings of a non-profit arts organization, and the creation of a world premiere.

Most importantly, this blog is a chance for you to connect with the artists that are creating this work. Please feel free to use the comment links to post questions that you may have and get responses from the artists!

For more information about Glimmerglass Opera, check out our website. The blog will recieve updates every few days so make sure to keep checking back. Enjoy!