If you want to see the TV interview that Gage, Karen, and I did with Oklavision for La Traviata, go to the following site:
Oh the left side, choose Program Guide (very bottom option).
Click on the Nov 19 tab for live broadcasts.
Our interview is the third choice down under the heading Oklahoma City University Presents.
I actually can’t believe it’s over.
Watching the show Friday night was kind of…indescribable. Like maybe it didn’t really happen. The orchestra started the Preludio and I was just overcome with so much emotion. I didn’t breath again until the end of the show.
Saturday night was….even more incapable of being described. I don’t even want risk cheapening the experience with words. They just don’t exist. Maybe surreal: a bizarre mix of fact and fantasy. I had been dreaming of this moment for so long. Every time we’d watch something in Capitalplatz and La Traviata would come on the screen during the previews, Marlen and I would freak out saying “Oh my gosh, I want that so badly!” And then we got it. Even up until the day of the performance, I didn’t think there was any way that I would actually be going on that stage as Violetta.
The show just blazed right by me. I don’t have any time offstage that I can relax and think or take it all in. During the two intermissions, I’m getting my costume on for the next scene. The only time I have offstage during the run of the show is about 13 minutes in between scene one and two of Act II, and I’m changing costumes again for about seven or eight minutes of that. As each thing ended I thought, oh my gosh…I’ll never do this again. This is the last time……..at least on this stage. As I was laying in the bed during the Intro to Act III, I was almost numb. I tried to memorize everything I could: the costumes, the voices, the set, the music…I couldn’t hold on to it long enough. Things kept slipping out of my fingers. Then the curtain opened, and I was Violetta again. It was time to go down the road to death.
I fell, the curtain closed, and the chorus ran out to take their bow. I barely remember walking onstage for my bow. I remember feeling an intense surge of happiness as I took my bow. Like everything was right. This is what I was meant to do. One more bow and then the Maestro entered. Company bow, then final curtain. I sunk down on the bed as the lights came up backstage. There was cheering all around, but I was still. It’s done. It’s over. Once you leave this stage, you’ll never come back as Violetta. I came up the stairs from the dressing rooms to cheering and applause and almost passed out. The rest of the night passed quickly. I greeted friends and family for a while, went out to eat, and went to bed.
Sunday came all too soon. Not only would it be done for me today, but it would be done for both of us. For all of us. I was an emotional wreak all through the third act. After the show we went to clean out the dressing rooms and then headed up to the stage for strike. I walked out onto the stage and stopped short. The crew was ripping our set apart. They were tearing it down to start preparing for the next show. I just stood in shock for a few minutes, unable to move. Then I had to leave to do some other job. I couldn’t help tear apart something so sacred to me.
I’m going to wake up at any minute, and this will have all been a nice dream. I’m sure I’ll wake up at some point and realize that it wasn’t quite real. But, for now, I’m content to live in this lovely dream world.
I got to the dressing rooms at 6:00 p.m. last night to get into hair and makeup. Even though I haven’t cut my hair since before I left for Austria in June, it’s still to short for the time period. I’m wearing various hair pieces throughout the show. Luckily, I’m not wearing a wig. And the hair pieces are the exact color of my hair. The cast didn’t even know it wasn’t my own.
Last night was also my first night with full costume, lights, and orchestra. It was quite a thrilling experience. The feeling of abandoning everything you are on stage and stepping into someone else is a feeling I can’t actually describe. Onstage, I don’t know who Liz Lang is. I only know Violetta. What is also interesting are the relationships between characters. It doesn’t matter what is going on with us as normal, everyday human beings, but as actors we are everything to each other. I could absolutely loath someone offstage, but if their character is my love interest in a show, I’m completely head-over-heels in love with them once my foot hits the stage.
So we’re standing behind the scrim and curtain while the orchestra plays the Preludio. I think back to the day I found out OCU was doing La Traviata and that I bought my score the same day. I remembered the countless hours I spent wondering what it would be like just to get a callback for the role. I thought about all those moments in Austria when Marlen and I would go weak in the knees any time we saw or heard anything having to do with Traviata. The day I got cast and how shocked I was. How shocked I still am. And now I’m standing here. On this stage. In full costume and makeup. I’m Violetta.
The curtain opens and the auditorium is filled with the smoke from the hazers. I can’t see into the audience. It’s like I’m actually at my own party, playing the hostess. From then on, Liz Lang is left waiting in the wings for Violetta to come off stage and pick her up again. After the show, I’m completely exhausted. I move around in a trance, unable to make sudden movements. I wonder what it will feel like when I also have the energy of the audience in the hall with me…
Today, I’m still totally wiped out. I can only half pay attention in my classes. I haven’t found a single spare second to complete my loads of homework. (I’m writing this post in my Music History class…oops.) I have a test in my Form and Analysis class on Friday that I actually don’t know how I’m going to complete. At least I know I’ll get one point for spelling my name right. I get done with tech rehearsals at about 11:00 p.m., and then I’m so tired I fall asleep while walking back to my room. I have class from 9-5, and when I’m not in class, I’m working on my score trying to get every last drop from it that I can. Or I’m doing something Traviata-related. I physically don’t have time to get anything else done unless I just don’t sleep, which I’ve considered. But then I’d get sick, and than canNOT happen. I haven’t even started writing the three papers I have due in various classes at the end of the semester. I guess I’ll either figure it out or spontaneously combust.
Thursday is my final dress rehearsal. Then Saturday is GO time. Oh my god. I can’t wait.
Saturday the cast of La Traviata started our tech week. Yesterday was the longest of the weekend:
9:03 Wake up
Get ready for church
10:50 Sing four blow-you-brains-out anthems at church
12:00 Rush home to get ready for rehearsal
1:00 Fight call
3:00 COOL (Central Oklahoma Opera League) performance with fellow cast mates
4:30 Rush back to tech rehearsal to belt “Sempre Libra”…again.
5:00 Dinner
7:00 Wanderprobe (first rehearsal with the orchestra)
10:00 Homework?
Surprisingly, I was in bed by midnight. We really booked it through the Wanderprobe, so we were released early. The COOL performance was actually really enjoyable. We got to sing for a room full of opera lovers, some with past careers, and others who just live to see performances. We were greeted very warmly after the mini performance and treated to some afternoon snacks.
Tonight we’ll be in costumes for the first time with the Friday/Sunday cast doing the run. My cast’s run is tomorrow, and I can’t wait! I don’t actually know how I’m going to get everything done this week (Form and Analysis test on Friday, Conducting assignments, just to name a few) on top of more extensive work on Traviata. I guess time will tell.
I’m finding it harder and harder to make time to write. Wednesdays are my nights off…sort of. At least until next week. Tech week. Oh my god. Tech week.
Basically I’ve been eating, sleeping, drinking, and dreaming Traviata. I actually sleep with my score. Is that a bad thing? We’re going to have some publicity stuff coming up that should be really exciting. Tomorrow we have something special going on in the caf (at 1:00 for any OCUers that are reading this). I’ll try to post about that after it’s done so I can keep it a surprise. Then on Sunday I’ve been asked to perform selections from the opera for the Central Oklahoma Opera League with some of my fellow cast mates. A week from Friday (opening night!) I’m doing a TV interview with Oklavision during the day with my Alfredo. It’s just a five-minute little snippet, but it’s my very first one so I can’t wait!
The school seems to be getting really exciting about this production. As they should be. Our director Karen is probably one of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever worked with. Her vision for the show is absolutely stunning. I don’t think people are ready for what is about to happen. Once we get into tech week and the show goes up, I’ll be posting lots of photos. Tomorrow we have a costume parade so the costume mistress can see how everything looks onstage, how items work together, how outfits work with each other, etc.
This past Sunday I did my very first full run of the entire show. Surprisingly, it was a lot easier than expected. The major obstacle with this show is my character sings in all but about 13-17 minutes of the entire two-hour opera. It’s one of the biggest roles in soprano literature. It’s such an honor and a joy to be sinking my teeth into it at 20 years old. I’ve never felt so alive and right as when I’m doing this role.
In other news, I got an audition in New York for the Chautauqua Music Festival summer program in January. It has to be a live audition, so I’ll fly in for the weekend and stay with a friend. Hopefully we’ll be able to attend a Met performance or two. They happen to be showing La Traviata and Rigoletto (my two favorite Verdi operas…heck, my two favorite operas ever!) in the same day, so maybe we’ll make it a double header. I’m also looking into taking a lesson or two with potential graduate school teachers. One I’m looking at in particular is Stephen Smith. He was Joyce DiDonato’s teacher, and I absolutely love her and her technique, so I’m hoping to meet with him. He’s also the author of The Naked Voice which I can’t wait to get my hands on. I’m doing some research on other summer programs such as TAOS opera and Si Parla Si Canta in Italy. I don’t know which one I’d like to go to more, so I guess the first step will actually be getting excepted first. Then I’ll take it from there.
School has been non-existent it seems. Everything has been about the opera. I mean, I can’t really help it. It’s huge. But I’m also in 20 credit hours this semester, so sometimes I feel like I’m unraveling from both ends. I can’t wait until grad school when I can just focus on my art.
I’m currently waiting for my last load of laundry to be finished. I finally found time to get that done…I can’t wait to see all my family and friends next weekend (oh my god next weekend). They’ll be taking up the entire row K of the Kirk auditorium. Tech week officially starts Saturday, so I might not have time to post for awhile. I’ll try though.
Addio!
lalalizlang 