A hint of magic

From Eric Hale:

Tonight was our final dress rehearsal. For the first time, all the technical pieces came together: sets, props, makeup, costumes, lights, orchestra. For the first time, we saw what the show is really going to look like.

This is a good time to talk about costumes and makeup. I’m not going to try and describe Ruth’s costumes, you really need to see them. However, it is now our job to protect them. The rules are pretty much common sense: Put your costume on after you put on your makeup. Don’t eat in costume, or at least wear a cover if you do. No drinking anything but water in costume - ever. A bathrobe will stop cookie crumbs, but coffee will go right through.

As for performing in the costumes: I can’t comment on costume issues for the women, but for most of the men in this show, the costumes are close enough to modern clothes not to present any problems. (This is not always the case. In Madama Butterfly, I had to worry about my satin kimono coming open at inopportune times.)

For this show, we need to look somewhat Spanish. For many of us, that means trying not to look “pasty” as Anna, the makeup artist, puts it. I’m used to how I look in my usual stage makeup, but I need to go darker. Wearing darker makeup means all the shadows and highlights have to be bolder. Before putting on the powder, which lightens and mutes the effect, you can feel pretty ridiculous looking in the mirror. However, the look really needs to be that extreme to compensate for the distance and the bright lights.

And yes, a dressing room full of men putting on makeup is every bit as self-conscious as you would think.

I know some of you noticed the qualifier “technical” above. All the pieces of the show weren’t there yet, but for good reasons. Two missing pieces deserve special mention:

First, some of the principals were marking. The chorus generally does not mark, because the demands on us are less. For those not familiar with the term, to mark is to use various means to save your voice. You might, for example, sing a high passage an octave lower or sing loud passages at a moderate or soft volume.

This is not laziness. In an ideal world, we would get a day off before the opera, just as a sports team takes it easy the day before a big game. However, the world is not ideal, and they are being asked to sing major roles four days in a row. Opera is hard to sing, and their first priority is to save their voices for the show. You will get to hear them at their best.

Second, there was no real audience, and there is no substitute for the energy an audience brings to the show. In live theater, the audience is part of the show, whether you think of yourselves that way or not. Every audience is unique, and that’s part of what makes every show unique. No matter how enthusiastic the cast, a show without an audience is only half alive.

For all of that qualification, wonderful things were happening tonight. The curtain came up, the light flooded in and we got a hint of the magic to come. Friday night, many of you will be part of that magic. Come make a show with us.