Blog The Second:
Having thus far managed to jump the performing trans-city/trans-composer/trans-gender hurdle I decided to treat myself to a day as a spectator here in NYC yesterday. I saw two shows, beginning with "The Screams of Kitty Genovese", presented by the New York Musical Theatre Festival. It was performed in a small theater inside a church, and involved 12 principal singers accompanied by a small ensemble of instrumentalists. The musical, based on a real incident in 1964, tells the story of a woman who, coming home one evening, was followed and stabbed in the streets of NY right outside her apartment building. It was later discovered that, although almost 40 neighbors had heard her screaming for help over a period of about 30 minutes, no one called the police or went out to help her. Her attacker came *back* after that half hour and killed her; if anyone had responded to her earlier calls for help she could have been saved. Obviously, the topic is very intense. I am always interested, as an opera singer, to see different performance genres, and this one was fascinating for me because I could watch a whole different technique of stage presentation. Each performer had a small platform on which to work (each platform representing a different apartment), and the singing was projected with microphones. It was fascinating for me, being used to performing on huge stages, often feeling like I need to cover a lot of space physically to reach every part of the audience, to see an actor/singer perform for 80 minutes continuously on one small square of stage. It helped that the venue was so small and you could really see the details of each individual performance, but the focus that each actor had really carried. I was also interested from a vocal perspective; in opera one really needs to face out over the audience to be heard, whereas when using a microphone one doesn't have the job of projecting vocally so facing an audience becomes almost another color that one can use in one's characterization. It becomes a really strong position that in opera, because of the sound issues, can lose some of its strength because it is employed almost constantly. I learned a lot!
My second spectator-sport of the day was "Spamalot" at the Shubert Theater. Quite a dichotomy between the two shows, but I had a couple of hours between one and the other to switch gears. "Spamalot" was a hoot, and the whole audience had a great time singing along and applauding some of the more memorable Monty Python lines ("Bring us a SHRUBBERY!") I was really amazed to see how many of the cast members of both shows were products of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I was based in Pittsburgh for many years to study with my teacher, and do remember having seen an amazing performance of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" at CMU years ago, but never realized just how many of their students went on to have careers in musical theater. It's really remarkable! Also, some of the cast members had also performed musical theater at NYCO which I thought was fabulous. American musical theater is as close to opera as we have in our culture here in the States, and was the only bridge *I* had between myself and opera, so I think it's great when an opera company, especially one like City Opera, can provide a venue.
OK, folks, I'm in my last two functional days here in NY so I'd better get everything tied up and ready to move out!
Next stop: Baltimore!
Click here to return to VivicaGenaux.com
Having thus far managed to jump the performing trans-city/trans-composer/trans-gender hurdle I decided to treat myself to a day as a spectator here in NYC yesterday. I saw two shows, beginning with "The Screams of Kitty Genovese", presented by the New York Musical Theatre Festival. It was performed in a small theater inside a church, and involved 12 principal singers accompanied by a small ensemble of instrumentalists. The musical, based on a real incident in 1964, tells the story of a woman who, coming home one evening, was followed and stabbed in the streets of NY right outside her apartment building. It was later discovered that, although almost 40 neighbors had heard her screaming for help over a period of about 30 minutes, no one called the police or went out to help her. Her attacker came *back* after that half hour and killed her; if anyone had responded to her earlier calls for help she could have been saved. Obviously, the topic is very intense. I am always interested, as an opera singer, to see different performance genres, and this one was fascinating for me because I could watch a whole different technique of stage presentation. Each performer had a small platform on which to work (each platform representing a different apartment), and the singing was projected with microphones. It was fascinating for me, being used to performing on huge stages, often feeling like I need to cover a lot of space physically to reach every part of the audience, to see an actor/singer perform for 80 minutes continuously on one small square of stage. It helped that the venue was so small and you could really see the details of each individual performance, but the focus that each actor had really carried. I was also interested from a vocal perspective; in opera one really needs to face out over the audience to be heard, whereas when using a microphone one doesn't have the job of projecting vocally so facing an audience becomes almost another color that one can use in one's characterization. It becomes a really strong position that in opera, because of the sound issues, can lose some of its strength because it is employed almost constantly. I learned a lot!
My second spectator-sport of the day was "Spamalot" at the Shubert Theater. Quite a dichotomy between the two shows, but I had a couple of hours between one and the other to switch gears. "Spamalot" was a hoot, and the whole audience had a great time singing along and applauding some of the more memorable Monty Python lines ("Bring us a SHRUBBERY!") I was really amazed to see how many of the cast members of both shows were products of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I was based in Pittsburgh for many years to study with my teacher, and do remember having seen an amazing performance of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" at CMU years ago, but never realized just how many of their students went on to have careers in musical theater. It's really remarkable! Also, some of the cast members had also performed musical theater at NYCO which I thought was fabulous. American musical theater is as close to opera as we have in our culture here in the States, and was the only bridge *I* had between myself and opera, so I think it's great when an opera company, especially one like City Opera, can provide a venue.
OK, folks, I'm in my last two functional days here in NY so I'd better get everything tied up and ready to move out!
Next stop: Baltimore!
Click here to return to VivicaGenaux.com
posted by Frogge at
4:59 AM
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