sweeneytodd

I could have sworn I updated this thing more recently than over a month ago, but it seems not.
Well, since I last updated, I finished working on one opera (Rigoletto, with a great cast but a so-so production), and started work on a new one.

Well, technically this one's an operetta, not a full-blown opera -- The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan. And let me tell you, if anyone out there thinks shows like this are easy-to-produce fluff compared to Verdi and Puccini, I will kick you square in the nuts. This is easily the most demanding show I've worked on in a long while, and I'm not even directing it, just assisting. The music is deceptively challenging, and the staging is extremely complex. Try doing Broadway-style choreography with a cast and chorus full of opera singers (who, it must be noted, are not known for their dancing skills). This show promises to turn out great and be a big hit, but it will be a long uphill road.

Add to all of that the fact that once we've done our mainstage performances here, we're taking the whole show on a short state-wide tour. We have to cut down the 2-hour show into a 1-hour abridged version with a reduced chorus, and restage it, rehearse it all and have it ready for performance in less than two days. Who is the lucky asshole that gets to write the reduction and supervise the tour performances? That asshole would be me.

Needless to say, I'm going to need a long nap come May 1.

(And that's just in time to start rehearsals for the next show I'm working on -- a straight play that I'm actually acting in and co-producing. Oh, well. No rest for the wicked, right?)

Thank god for cigarettes and coffee.