The summer is winding down. Holy moly, it's going by too fast! This weekend I finished my little stint with the Utah Festival Opera. It was so fun to be able to play in two little crowd-pleaser shows... Musica Magnifica- a patriotic display with operatic flair, and Carnivale Operafesto- a"pops" night of favorite well- known arias and operettas. It was a really neat opportunity to be able to meet and work with real professional musicians as their colleagues and sort of "try on" opera as a future career.
I didn't realize how the world of professional musicians worked, so let me enlighten you with my experience. You audition to the opera director with excerpts from Mozart and such, they email you to tell you you're in, they mail you a contract, and a rehearsal schedule. You might be nervous realizing that there is only 1 scheduled rehearsals for the shows you are in. You get a call a week before the show to say that your music is ready to pick up. You practice on your own, and watch the various arias on YouTube to find character and tempo markings. You show up for the one and only rehearsal 10 minutes early just to be safe, and everyone else is already in their seat warming up. Rehearsal is more like a run-through with brief discussions of what to watch out for in each piece. You come back that night dressed in all black from elbow to ankle, in the dead of summer, and put on a show with music that you hardly feel acquainted with. Somehow everything goes according to the directors wishes and the hall is packed and the show is an amazing success. And you get PAID for it! What a whirlwind of excitement! I could definitely get used to this!