The Castleton Diaries: Week 6- The Storm and Patriotic Flag Waving

I'm very glad to say that opening night for Madama Butterfly was a huge success. We had a sold out audience and a wonderful cast and orchestra to brighten the tears in peoples' eyes following the ending. The Mozart concert the following day was also wonderful. Donald Runnicles is a pleasure to have at Castleton. So what next....

Full on battle mode for Don Giovanni has been the driving force of my work ethic that past week. We open just a week after Madama Butterfly, and on top of that, we had the Military Reserve Band led by Colonel Bourgeois. That in itself was a real experience to witness. The brave men and women who fought to serve our country and protect our rights were together to play some extraordinary music. Marches, Slow Drags, Anthems and Hymns, you name it, they played that patriotic tune. Plus, three choruses, US Army Men's Chorus, a youth choir from DC, and the Castleton Festival Chorus. We also had the honor of having Joseph Alessi, aka the world's foremost trombone player, to play the solo in Arthur Pryor's Blue Bells of Scotland, followed by an encore of Debussy. So moving, and on such a peculiar instrument.

       Colonel Bourgeois leading the dress rehearsal

The rehearsal beforehand also was a sight to behold. We had a huge storm the Wednesday before and the power went out several times. During the longest outage, the band played through The Stars and Stripes Forever by memory. Not something you see or hear everyday. Also, I spent that night without power or running water in our house. FUN!

The craziness ensued as we worked our butts off to make the music for Don Giovanni sound incredible. The horns had the blunt end of the demands from the maestro. "Can we get them to sound softer?". They moved around, muted, covered the area behind them with padding and blankets and even putting in sound guards. The next logical thing is to put them offstage. Hopefully I'm just being ridiculous and it won't come to that.  

Fireworks

Also, this is a time where I no longer trust all reviews. We got a pretty nasty review in the Washington Post for Madama Butterfly. But then we got a great review from DC Theatre Scene. I was pretty worried. But honestly, we still are selling out shows left and right, and we have a great Don G production premiering by the time this goes online. I have my doubts, but I also have great hope for the talent and production design. 

The raven ladies, symbolizing Don Juan's past

The big ending of the production may also scare a few purists, but when it was explained to me, it made sense in terms of the mythological man known as Don Juan. The production makes him out to be more of a legend more than a man. During the finale, the Commendatore is accompanied by Raven Ladies, symbolizing the women who Giovanni had "conquered". Then, Don Giovanni's body double, who lurks in the background of the show and who wears a mask made for this production from a face casting of the star baritone, is dragged to hell instead of him. But Don G is still out of reality by remaining on the other side of the pit and in the audience. This is supposed to represent how the legend of Don Juan survives in every generation.

Set design for Act 2 

The work has also been piling up in other departments. We had a late arrival of parts for the CATS opera scenes concert, so we attempted to use a program called Partifi to make easy parts from the scores. It ended miserably and now I keep getting pop ups on my Chrome browser. Musicians can't play music if they are missing measures. Luckily, we have all the parts now and the concerts will sound spectacular.

That's all I can really say for this week. Until next time, this has been The Castleton Diaries.

A very tired oboist goes full zombie from rehearsing all day.