[This is a guest post by Jennifer Pugsley, Media Relations Manager at the Canadian Opera Company. Jennifer is joining David Feheley and many others from the COC for the U.S. premiere of The Nightingale of Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). This post was written Feb. 26.]

For the first group of COC-ers traveling to New York today it was an early call. A shuttle bus had been arranged to shepherd eight of us from the COC’s administrative offices on Front St. E. to Pearson airport. We all had to be at the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre for 8:15 a.m. 

Everyone made it, and except for a few grumblings about desperately needing a morning coffee, the group was in good spirits. The snowstorm that hit Toronto in the morning quickly picked up in intensity and the flurries fell faster and heavier.

It’s a false stereotype to think that opera singers can’t get up early in the morning and be ready to start the day. Of the whole group, the singers were probably the most alert and ready to go. Opera singers are savvy travelers, I have to say. Never have I seen a group grab their luggage, pull up to the self-serve kiosks and whisk their way through the line-ups at security with such ease. I confess to having had a hard time squeezing all of my “stuff” into one suitcase. Looking back I should have given Meredith Arwady a call for some tips. She managed to fit into two suitcases her wardrobe for the next four months. Now you might scoff and say this is nothing, but her travels between now and June are such that she needs to prepare for both cold and hot weather conditions, and all the seasonal quirks and quarks in between. Then consider how much extra stuff an opera singer needs to travel with on top of his/her regular clothing: clothing for rehearsals, performances, special events, receptions and parties, meetings, etc. Plus toiletries and the like. Two suitcases (both normal in size and neither of which were tagged as being extra-heavy) is an impressive feat!

After clearing security at Pearson, we learned our flight had been delayed about an hour. At the time this elicited some groans, but looking back, I can now say we were the lucky ones from the COC to be flying on Friday. Six more people from the COC were supposed to fly to New York on Friday, and as of 10 p.m. only two had made it, arriving long after they were expected. I can only assume the combination of bad weather in Toronto and gusty winds in New York (so strong they knocked people over on the street as told to me by Sandy Gavinchuck) was too much for the airplanes to handle.

We arrived in New York at around 1:30 p.m. BAM’s artist representative, Stacey Dinner, was there to meet us at the arrivals gate and whisked us off to the hotel. After stowing our luggage in our rooms, a few of us headed over to the theatre to get familiar with the setup at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. It’s a huge building, home to both the opera house and the BAM administrative offices. It’s also home to the BAM café which hosts free music on Friday and Saturday nights. Backstage, the production team, cast, chorus and orchestra is spread out over five floors, or will be spread out once everyone arrives on Sunday.  

Onstage, everything is in place and it’s business as usual at rehearsal. The afternoon session focused on the technical side of things with the acrobats working through the prop and hand shadows portions of the production.

 

Friday’s evening rehearsal was the first with singers and involved working through some of the fables of The Nightingale and Other Short Fables: Berceuses du Chat, Two Poems by Konstantin Balmont—using a recording of Teiya Kashara, who was one of the people to have her travel plans felled by Mother Nature—and The Fox. The group for tonight’s piano rehearsal included the acrobats and the Fox cast: Adam Luther, Lothar Odinius, Peter Barrett and Ilya Bannik, and Meredith Arwady who sings Berceuses du Chat. All of them (with the exception of Mededith Arwady) were part of the production’s cast for Nightingale’s world premiere in October 2009 and looked to be enjoying themselves as they took their places on the stage. Teasing banter was often heard between them during the short stops for tech adjustments and director’s notes as they went through their blocking and sang their sections of music.

The BAM Howard Gilman Opera House is a very intimate theatre and I think audience members will really feel like they're part of the show—some more than others. I couldn’t help but notice how close to the pool the first row of seats is located. I joked to one of the stage managers that the people in those seats may feel like they are in a splash zone, à la Marine Land. The stage manager replied in all seriousness, but also with a twinkle in her eye, that the Chinese dragon puppet does give a little flip of its tail as it splashes through the pool, so people should watch out. 

Rehearsal wrapped up around 10 p.m. with people in good spirits about the day’s work. It all starts again bright and early on Saturday, with costume meetings and lighting cueing and focusing sessions scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday’s rehearsals should be eventful. Tomorrow, rehearsals in the pool begin.

All photos © Canadian Opera Company 2011