How the time flies! My calendar tells me that, one week from tomorrow night, we will have our opening night of La Boheme at Verismo!
I’ve been busily singing my two roles nearly every day. I sing them when I think I’m in good voice, and when I think I sound like I’m calling the hogs. (All singers have these days.) I sing them when I’m feeling rested, and I sing them when I’m tired. I sing them when my head is full of mucus and my breath seems no more than an asthmatic wheeze. And why do I do put myself and my neighbors through this? Because, on August 13th and 15th, who KNOWS what my body will be up to! I may have a cold. Since I’ll be commuting between Chicago and Spring Green, Wisconsin, I’m certain to be tired. I may have some acid-reflux, which, while not bothering the average citizen, can be the bane of a singer’s existence, causing dryness in key tissues. By drilling this music over and over, I am persuading the involuntary muscles engaged in singing to retain the memory of the way in which the notes and words should happen inside my body. I’m creating muscle memories that I hope will stand me in good stead, in spite of any impediments that may come my way on performance dates.
I began, as I always do, with mining the score. What are the keys in which the characters sing? Are they major, or minor? Bright, or fuzzy? (Every key has its distinct feeling and sound.) When do they change, and what might that indicate? When do the time signatures change, and do I see a reason for that? How about the changes in tempo? Are they driven by my character’s motivations, or the feelings or machinations of a scene partner? Next I go on to the text. Having already created a word-for-word translation for myself from the Italian, I went back and did the same for the other characters in my scenes, particularly if we are engaging each other directly in the course of the story. I need to be able to listen to the other singers with full understanding of their words, so that I can respond to them in the moment, in a fresh way every single time.
I’ve given a lot of thought to who Benoit and Alcindoro are, as people. They may appear to be one-dimensional when see against the broader picture of the opera in its entirety, but if I present them as such, I would be doing a great disservice to Puccini and to my colleagues. I have to know what they really, REALLY want, both in life, and in the particular scenes in which they appear. I need to know where they just came from, and where they’re going next. How do they feel about their shoes? Their mothers? Their wives? What makes them happy, or sad, or angry, or frightened? For instance, I’m envisioning that Benoit has been goaded by his wife into asking for the rent. I think he blusters from the hallway before his entrance, because his wife can still hear him, and he has to keep up the bravado. But once inside, surrounded by much younger men, I think his natural temerity will be obvious, even as his gullibility makes his mission go “South.” Alcindoro is normally seen as an unpleasant fop, more concerned with his position and reputation than anything else, as he scolds Musetta again and again for being the free spirit that she no doubt has always been. But then, I have to ask myself why he is with
her? Clearly she is an exciting woman, and I need to find ways to play the opposite of his terror at her public display. I’m seeing Our Guy Al as a fella who likes to be ordered about, even as “the lady doth protest too much.”
As I’m working from the inside of the picture, I am also working from the outside. I have made some decisions about what I think these two fellas look like, how they move, and where their body weight is centered. I like to begin with a physical and a vocal picture for myself. For Benoit’s body and movement I have chosen Ebenezer Scrooge; For his voice, Barnaby in Babes in Toyland. For Alcindoro’s body and movement I’m currently imagining a penguin; For his voice, since I see wide leaps and arpeggios in his vocal line, I’m thinking JoAnne Worley.
As I sing the parts every day, I move around my house as I feel the characters would move, making sure to sit down, and get back up, and to lean or shift my weight in character. I have also started to change my breathing. Rather than taking a full, voice-lesson-breath before singing each phrase, I “listen” to the line that I am responding to, and attempt the breath that would happen as a natural response; these breaths are sometime short and shallow, other times deep and ponderous, depending upon the situation. (And if you’re really lucky in your colleagues, this will change from one reading of the piece to the next!) I also visualize the other singers, how I think they will move, and be dressed, and may respond to me. I need to get into the physical skin of the characters so that I can be prepared for my colleagues at group rehearsals. Now, of course my work is being further shaped by our fine director, Michael La Tour. His blocking is appropriately athletic, and, for my work, very, VERY funny. And he has been most helpful in watching and listening to me, and then suggesting ways in which I can delineate the two characters for the audience. There isn’t very much actual time that passes between Benoit’s exit and Alcindoro’s entrance in our version of the score, and I’ll want the audience to really understand that they are seeing two different people, and to connect with them and their personal mission accordingly.
And here’s my most interesting discovery: Puccini is so very, very MODERN, in terms of the “dialogue.” Characters talk over each other, interrupt each other, switch keys, tempo and time signatures on each other in an attempt for dominance. Just like real conversation! I didn’t study a lot of Puccini in school, so this has been new learning for me. And what a fine place to bring this piece, where the Chicago acting style, like the city itself, allows for no artifice, no false notes; Only genuine, personally grounded emotion will take in a Windy City audience. I hope I’ll see you there!
- Aaron Hunt
Verismo Opera Club
http://www.verismooperaclub.com
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