Not too much happened this week to be honest. Everyone is
really starting to reach beiling point because the opening night is next
Saturday, June 28th. People are busy with rehearsals and recovering
mentally from rehearsals. Sitzprobe and full staged runthroughs in the theater
have begun for Madama Butterfly, the
final staging rehearsals for Don Giovanni
were completed at the local elementary, and orchestral rehearsals for the
symphonic concerts have been going and going as they are allotted.
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| The Orchestra Management Work Corner |
One
thing that happened on Sunday was that my housemates and I were to go to
Shennandoah National Park for a nature hike. That day, I decided to go shopping
at Walmart for a few house necessities: shower mat, dustpin, water bottles, and
air fresheners. When I got back, I found the house was empty except for me.
Everyone was gone and I assumed that they left without me. So I drove out to
the park, spent $15 on admittance, and drove up the mountain, enjoying the
incredible views. Absolutely breathtaking. Too bad that when I finally got a
message to one of them, it turned out they went to the pool at Meadows house
across from the festival tent. So after taking some more pictures, I rushed
back to Castleton, pissed that no one had informed of their change in plans.
Luckily, they had never meant to leave me out of the trip had it happened. So
we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, playing ball and barbequing. It
was a much-needed break from all the hubbub.
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| Shenandoah National Park |
The
rest of the week has been nonstop rehearsals. We finally started in the theater
on Tuesday, after a few sitzprob with both show casts. I was very impressed
with the design of the sets and backgrounds. I will be even more impressed once
decisions of the background projections are finalized. Otherwise, everything is
absolutely beautiful. There was one staging direction that went from beautiful
to hilariously distracting of one person: Trouble. Of course, I mean the child
actor who plays Butterfly’s child. In the scene where Butterfly and Suzuki set
flowers on the floor, the way the scene is originally set is to have just the
two of them. But the director wanted the child to join in setting out the
flower petals. But she was too distracting, and Maestro Maazel would not have
it. She was removed from that part of the scene so that it would just be a
beautiful moment between to friends finding great joy in Pinkerton’s return.
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| A view of the pit |
This
past Thursday, I made a trip out to Maryland. I was informed the day before
that I would be driving two of the orchestra members to different shops in
order to pick up their rental instruments for the remainder of the festival.
Luckily the shops were only 20 minutes apart. L & L Music was in
Gaithersburg, where my roommate Rupert got a rental horn. The cellist Stephanie
had to go to Bethesda to get a cello at Potter Violins. Both store staff were
great to talk to and very understanding of the time restraints and
international issues for ID. They were also very impressed on our being part of
Castleton. I would definitely recommend to those who need good shops to go to. And
luckily, we had an enjoyable time in the car, discussing our favorite and least
favorite music, the people we left behind at home, and how much we couldn’t get
the festival music out of our heads. And after making a lunch break at
Firehouse Subs, which was incrediblely delicious (better than Subway even), I
made it back to drop them at the rehearsal in time. Good thing I get reimbursed
for gas for errands in my personal car, because I probably used as much as gas
that day as I had originally purchased that morning.
Besides
finally having a functioning printer/copy machine again, there isn’t much else
going on. I will let you faithful readers know that the opening night of Madama
Butterfly will be streamed online. So I hope that you will either come out to
Castleton to view the operas and concerts, or watch the opera opening nights
online. More info on that soon.
Until next time, this has been The Castleton Diaries.
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