SURF Experiences Summer 2011

I’m home, well fed, and up with the times ( I watched the new Harry Potter first thing when I got home).  This is my final post from my journal but I will post at least one more as a reflection in a few days to a week.  Basically once I get some down time from family and work.  I would like to thank everyone for the positive response that I’ve received and also to thank everyone that donated money to allow me to go.  Also I’d like to thank you for dealing with my non proof read posts, I’m sure they were rife with unintended words and grammar infractions.  I’ve learned so much and have grown not only as a musician, but as a person as well.  I hope that you all enjoyed reading my daily happenings as much as I enjoyed living them.

Thanks again and best wishes

-Ryan

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Day 38

Today I will get the rare opportunity to travel backwards though time.  In fact I get to experience what basically everyone asks for at one point in their life more hours in a day.  My day today will be 31 hours.  As this blog is about my travels you will not get my full day today as I will be done traveling by 5pm (Chicago time), exactly 18 hours after my day started.  The three of us who stayed together in a hotel room had 3 separate wake up calls starting at 5am (Rome time) and then one ever hour after that.  I made sure that the only thing that I had to do when I woke up was to pack my bathroom materials and then go.  It meant that I was up later than I wanted to but that was probably a good thing because, as I was extra tired, I was able to sleep almost 4 hours on the plane which means that I began my time correction on the plane.(I was wide awake by 8am Chicago time after my nap. So it worked out well.)  However, before I get to the plane ride I got to add one final chapter to my already bountiful compilation of this trip’s “Travel Travesties!”  The first shuttle left the hotel at 7am, I arrived 25 min early so as to make sure that I did not miss this bus. (a good thing too because luggage room filled up fast.)  I arrived at the terminal around 715 almost 3 hours before my plane had to leave (the number they recommend.  As the shuttle was coming in I saw that terminal 1 held my airline and in huge letters stated “INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS”.  I thought “great there is no way I miss that.  The line to check in was very very long and took me a good hour and a moved at a pace that would make my stepfather look like The Flash (for those unfamiliar with my stepfather I will inform you that he jogs at the speed of snail, Women with strollers have passed him).  An hour and a half later I arrived at the check-in counter only to see the cheery eyed desk worker’s expression switch to concerned and apologetic.  This “INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT” terminal check-in point which was of my airline was not for international flights going to the US.  She said she was sorry and that I had better run to terminal 3 as my flight now left in an hour and a half.  I did indeed run to terminal number three, a good 8 min away (every min felt like an hour and added 5lbs of stress to my heart),  and luckily found the small area far against the wall devoted to U.S. flights and advertised almost nowhere, huzzah.  The line was shorter but would have probably taken a good 45 min to wait through.  There was a man on the same flight as me who had arrived moments before me after experiencing the same difficulty and I was about to try and jump to the priority check-in lane to see if they could open it up for us when a desk worker came down the line to make sure that everyone on the 10am flight to Chicago was checked in.  We quickly told her no and she took us to our own private station where we were checked in, well he was and I got half way and was told that I needed to go to the ticketing counter to pay for my second checked bag and that she couldn’t do it there for a reason that I did not understand.  The ticket counter had no line but the lady behind it must have previously worked for the DMV.  I came up to her about a min after she answered a random persons question on where to go and the conversation appeared to have ended so I made my presence known.  I was received with a glare and “just a moment gesture” confused I waited a moment as she stared at him and then tried again.  She then snapped at me that she knew I was in a hurry but that I had to wait; I wanted to say “wait for what? For you to finish admiring the back of this mans head?” but instead I apologized and waited until she become content that the conversation between them was over, a good 3 min.  Finally, she was free to deal with me and I explained to her what I needed and about half way through she picked up a phone call which lasted another 3-5 min, great!  I thought it was odd how I can’t interrupt a nonexistent conversation but a person on the phone can interrupt me.  Once she had finished she took my info and my credit card and began entering it into the computer.  She had this wonderful 2 finger poke technique which really sped things along.  Not to mention she had to keep hitting the arrow buttons backward to fix what I assume were mistypes, which blows my mind as she only had to think about one finger on her left hand and on finger on her right.  She began making confused faces after 5 min and I was interrupted by another phone call which took another 3-5min.  By this time it was all I could do to keep a mask of patience and pleasantness when all I wanted to do was to ask her to just tell me what need to be typed in so I could finally move on to checking my bag.  Finally after she filled out 2 receipts (because she filled the first one out wrong) and after printing 2 forms (because she had typed in the wrong information) I was all set and I got to receive the information and receipts after she received a 3^rd phone call, if I had a cell phone and was smart I would have just called the desk after the 1^st call and I’m sure I would have been out of there will plenty of time to spare.  Finally I had everything set and paid for and after a quick stop at the check-in counter from before I was given my boarding passes and was told that she had sent my other bag along already because if she hadn’t it would not have made it to the plane.  I thanked her and got on my way.  Security was surprisingly quick and I had 45 min before my plane left.  There was a final passport checkpoint that I had to cross and wouldn’t you know it, the line I was directed to was the one that people in the fast lane got to jump into.  This was especially fun when a vehicle full of  old ladies pulled up and the man behind the counter took 2 min straining his neck to examine the women a good 40 ft away from him.  I passed though quickly and ran to my gate, only stopping briefly to pick up peanut M&Ms because I did not have time to grab breakfast.  I arrived at my gate with 25 min to spare and found that almost no one had boarded, in fact they had gotten quite delayed for some reason.  I counted my blessing and found 2 friendly faces in the crowd.  One was a lovely soprano from the program who lives in Cincinnati and the other was the relived face of Brian Leeper.  I told them about my adventure and shared a few laughs.   We were all boarded by 10 and took off a good 30 min late but I was just glad to be done with the stressful part.  The plane flight went well.  As I said before I slept for  a good third of the trip, watched a few crappy in-flight movies for another third, and read for the final portion.  We had 2 meals served.  The first was a very tasty lunch with a braised beef with potatoes and peas.  The second was, I think, supposed to be a square of pizza but it looked more like garlic toast topped with baby vomit.  I ate it anyway because I was hungry and it tasted like a mixture of green beans, unsalted bread, and soap. (My Italian neighbor and I exchanged equally disgusted looks.  The coffee which came after was only better by a small margin and only because I dumped sugar into it.  The grounds had been so burnt that it tasted vaguely like it had been brewed with an old cigarette in the grounds.  Oh well, food is food and caffeine was the important part.  Before we began our decent into Chicago I got up and chatted with Megan (the lovely soprano) about her time in Rome.  I headed back to my seat as the seatbelt sign was lit up and I was ecstatic to see the familiar ground beneath me.  I was not looking forward to the rest of my flights and layovers from Chicago to Detroit and then to Milwaukee, finally arriving at 8pm (I had asked Delta if they could just end it in Chicago and they said they could but it would cost me $300 more dollars!), and became optimistic at a possible change of plans.  This optimism came from the newly gained knowledge that I would have to receive my baggage and recheck it after this flight.  My thought was ok screw them I’ll just leave my seats unused and take a bus to Milwaukee.  This is exactly what I am currently doing.  My father is enroute to pick me up and I am miles away from my home town, life is good.  I think I may try to see Harry Potter tonight before I make my rounds to see family tomorrow and then it’s back to work on Tuesday.  This trip has been absolutely wonderful and I’ve learned so much! I will miss all the new people that I’ve had the pleasure of working with but I’m sure I will work with many of them in the near future.  I’m more excited to keep at my practicing and growing my voice.  This is the final day of my journal and I hope that I one day get to continue my travels in Italy.  So long for now!

I’m spending my final hours in a wonderful Holiday Inn with some great friends.  Rome was beautiful and my beard has officially been shaved (Yes Gustavo it’s gone! )  I can’t wait to see my family, friends, and my wonderful Christine! Buona Notte!

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Day 37

It only makes sense to start this entry officially on day 37.  I say this because it’s had to divide the days when you don’t actually go to bed.  I think the general consensus among my friends last night was to feed me drinks and keep me at the café, as I have this habit of being responsible and getting sleep.  I never allowed myself to get ‘drunk’ but I had a drink in hand most of the night/morning, thanks to some friends.  Around 3:30 am there was a group which wanted to go find the swimming hole for an early morning swim.  It was dark and chilly out so a few of us found an excuse to make it back into the bar before the group left and purposely distracted ourselves which brought the women back in and put an end to the quest for a swim.  I had a great chat with Denis Jessie in which he talked more on where he felt my vocal issues were really being created.  He was drunk but he gave me a lot to think about.  He said that he hears my potential but that I need to get out of my own way and not to bring my intellectual self on stage but to bring my performer/actor.   He went on for many more minutes but as I said earlier I was left with much food for thought.  The bar closed around 430 and so I sat and chatted with the remaining 3 people for another hour or so.  I had chosen to not to go to bed for a few reasons.  First was my roommates had gone to bed late and we have a tendency to sleep through our alarms, having one person awake to ensure that we all wake up for the bus is important.  Second was that one hour of sleep would have made me more tired than was worth it and I knew that I could get 4 hours of sleep on the bus.  I made it home to find that Benjamin James had woken up to his alarm, a first in a long time, and that we were well on track to getting out on time.  We ate the rest of the cereal and eggs for breakfast.  Rachel did not wake up to her alarm and it took many knocks to get her up.  We finished packing and cleaning and made it down to the buses with plenty of time.  The buses had problems packing in our suitcases and we suspect that some people had bought a second while being here.  The buses were packed full of students and, until the driver turned on the air system, the air was thick and smelled like a mixture of a bar and sweaty gymnasium; Many people were still drunk and despite me getting no sleep I appeared to have more energy than most.  I took the time on the bus to sleep and made it most of the way.  After a stop just over half way we made it to Rome by 1pm.  I met with Rachael and a baritone friend Michael Burton and we decided to follow a group of staff to their hotel just outside of Rome.  Neither of us had made reservations and the price seemed good.  It was quite a trek to our destination and we had to take a train and a shuttle to finally get there.  A room was 109 euro plus 3 per extra person which seemed a bit steep but the benefits well outweighed the price and by the time we split it 3 ways it was just a cheap as a crappy hotel in down town Rome.  We are staying in a Holiday Inn which has shuttles to the airport in the morning and has a nice pool and 2 wonderful soft queen sized beds.  It took all my effort to not just stay on them all day.  It feels great to be back on beds in which I can’t feel the ground beneath me and still have support.  The room is as spacious as a room in the states (which is surprising to find in Europe) we have one hour of free wifi and the normal amenities one expects to find.  Unfortunately, it took longer than I expected to make it here and I won’t be able to see much of Rome.  It is probably for the better because my muscles are quite sore from my hike yesterday. We took a shuttle bus to the middle of Rome from our Hotel at 7:45 pm.  What an amazing city.  Visually this is my favorite.  The only problem is that they have high metal fences everywhere because they want you to pay to go into it.  It was already too late to get into anything so we just made a large circle and saw the coliseum, the Circus Maximus, and the Roman Forum.  We got a great final dinner and had the best bruschetta of my life!  It was getting late and we all are tired from yesterday.  We hailed a taxi to get back and now I bid you all goodnight.  I will be in the states within 24 hours!

This is my final post from Italy.  We leave for Rome tomorrow and then Sunday I’m on a plane home.  It’s been so amazing here!  I cant wait to share ALL of my stories.  See you in the states!

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Day 36

I woke up not an hour later as I planned.  In fact I woke up when I was supposed to already be at the top (5:15), the sun was about to rise and I was an unhappy camper.  I woke up Ben who had also slept through the alarm and he responded with a curse.  I tossed and turned until I was able to fall back asleep.  I woke up on my own grit at what I thought was 815 when the alarm was supposed to go off but, this time, the alarm didn’t go off and it was 9.  The land lords were supposed to be here any minute.  I quickly tidied up and waited for them to arrive.  Around 9:30 I gave up and began making breakfast.  We have 9 eggs left and not much time to eat them.  So we played the game “let’s use up everything we can in our fridge”.  This resulted in the best breakfast I’ve had in over 5 weeks.  Breakfast was a 2 egg omelet with amazing cheese we bought (think blu cheese meets sharp cheddar) and diced mushrooms.  We had about 2 Tbls of butter so I threw it into a small pan chopped up the final mushroom and zucchini to have some sautéed veggies on top of the eggs.  With this I used the final tea packet and enjoyed the morning.  The landlords never came and we had to leave for the closing meeting of the program.  I received my certificate of attendance for Italian classes, a dvd of Rigoletto, and any poster that had my name on it.  I had decided at 9 that I was going to climb to the Maioletto or die trying.  After the meeting I had 4 hours to get to the top and back which is theoretically exactly what it takes.  I quickly grabbed some food for the trip and 2 large bottles of water and began what turned out to be an amazing trip.  I ran into Michel Jones on the way and invited him along (he had mentioned that he wanted to make it up there except 330AM sounded terrible).  We decided in the interest of time to take a taxi to where the road ends, basically to the base of the mountain.  We paid the cabbie and began our trek.  I was immediately glad that we took a taxi to the base because it was uphill all the way there and it only got worse.  We started our journey on the road which soon turned to gravel road and then narrowed to a dirt path.  There were no signs and for a while I was getting nervous that we were just following a water path up.  We eventually saw little laminated signs which had arrows telling us we had “chosen” the expert path up.  I had been warned of this and was really looking forward to a good hike.  The path was only large enough for one person to walk on, sometimes less than shoulder width apart.  It was overgrown in some places and had an occasional fallen tree which you had to climb over or find a way around.  The only hint of ascension, besides the constant incline, was the occasional reveal of the hills and houses below through a gap in the canopy.  The path got thinner and less defined as we climbed and the incline sometimes became so close to a 90° angle that ropes were anchored to the hill to assist the climb and to prevent hikers from falling backwards, which would have been most certainly a near fatal experience.  It was great to use the trek and really get to know Michael better, he was great company and at we were laughing pretty much the whole way up.  Finally after a set of 4 ropes, one after each other, we broke though the tree line and were left breathless; not too hard a feat considering how far we had just come but had I full rested lungs they would have been just as empty in this moment.  It actually took us a good minute or two to pry our eyes from the horizon and realize that our climb was over; there were the remains of a tower right in front of us the whole time.  We then had to climb over a wooden fence to get off the expert path, which had it been at the bottom would have served a great warning for what lied ahead.  At this point for us we just looked at it and had a great laugh.  We climbed into what would have been the keep and got a panoramic view of the local scenery and even a clear view to the ocean.  The castle/fort had been filled in mostly for safety and so we were at the highest point.  This emptiness made me feel like king of the hill.  There was an amazing breeze which did wonders to cool us off.  Within the fort what wasn’t filled in was buried by the previous crumbling caused by the earthquake.  After some adventurous walking on the keep walls we jumped another wooden fence and wiggled our way through an arrow slit/window and got to explore some of the inside.  It was pretty much just another chamber of a different guard tower but fun none the less.  After we squeezed back out and climbed up to the keep we sat on the edge of the wall and ate a light lunch.  We regrettably had to begin our journey home after lunch as I was called at 430 for a cue to cue of the opera scene concert tonight.  We got a (cute) local to take our picture before we left and passed up the fence that we had to step over to get back on the expert trail.  After realizing that this was too easy we backtracked to come out the way we came.  Down was easier and faster, though my knees and ankles disagreed.  It was a much longer walk back because we didn’t have a taxi to take us back but it was down hill and it allowed us to admire the scenery.  We took a “shortcut” to avoid walking all the way to the bridge on the other side of town and took a small respite at the river because we made good time.  My feet were so happy to be out of my hot shoes and socks.  Each step on the smooth river rocks felt like a massage loosening up my tired feet, which became really happy after a wade in the shallow river.  We spotted a swimming hole where the water would gather and current slow to nothing and after some convincing on Michael’s part I agreed to jump in.  I was in pants so I shed them and just swam in my skivvies, which the 3 local sunbathing ladies seemed to enjoy.  Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long and after only 2 min we left the refreshing waters of the river and after a quick dry off and change began our trip back.  What I thought would be a faster way just ended up being a dead end so we began to head toward that bridge anyway.  Unlike Venice this ‘shortcut’ only cost me 10 min and was well worth it because that swim was the icing to an already amazing trip.  I arrived to my scene call 15 min late and no one had missed me, in fact they had been set back and I still had to wait for 5 min until we began.  We flew though the 20 scenes just doing bows and then scene changes.  Right after many of us went to Jollies (a nice restaurant here) for one final meal in Novafeltria.  I had some great pizza and made it to my 7pm call with plenty of time.  The scenes concert started by 8 and went for 2.5 hours.  I was happy with my performance and I think everyone else was too.  It was sad giving my final performance but also exciting.  I’ve had a great time here and will chew over what I’ve learned for many more months.  That’s it for now I’m sure I’ll have after party stories for my next post. Goodnight

The picture is to come later as I forgot my cable.  See you all soon

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Day 34

Rain spoiled my plan so my day didn’t start until the sun was already up.  I learned that if you plan to get up very early and don’t you can end up with 12 hours of sleep and still be up before noon.  Despite the day not starting as I planned it ended up being a great day.  I had plenty of time to wake up and enjoy one of my final 2 bags of tea.  Breakfast was cereal and milk with some soft bread to spread jam upon.  After breakfast I went to watch another master class.  I’ve actually begun to really pick up some key elements through watching these that are already helping me in my solo practice time.  After the class I was called for a 4.5 hour scene dress rehearsal for tonight’s opera scene concert.  The scenes being performed today will also get to be performed on Friday but this give some of the more prepared scenes the extra performance time, which is nice considering the amount of time put into them.  Lucky for me not only were both my scenes being performed today but there were 2 of the first 3 in the program.  This allowed me to leave this marathon rehearsal within an hour of it starting.  I took the extra time to hunt down ingredients for tonight’s dinner.  I was determined to make sloppy joes; however the needed ingredients aren’t so common place in Italy as they are in the U.S. (no manwich here, not as if I use it in the first place) Finding the ground beef was easy as was the onion and even ketchup, it’s the final 3 ingredients which caused me some trouble: Mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and barbeque sauce.  I made a trek across town to the larger food store, as the one near me did not have either of those three, and sure enough I found Mustard (though it was honey mustard), and Worcestershire sauce(3 euros for a very small bottle!!), as well as the ketchup and buns.  I actually left w/o the mustard because I only needed a table spoon and suspected that I could borrow it from a student in the program.  Now the problem was, where the heck can I find barbeque sauce in Italy!  There are specialty stores that are peppered around Novafeltria where they have odd imported items and special foods so I decided to check there.  However, I couldn’t get this done until after 4:30 as all the small shops are closed between 1 and 4:30pm.  I made my way to some of my friends apts and after asking around 8 people I found someone who was willing to give me their mustard.  I sat and chatted until 4:30 and then went on my way to find the final ingredient, or something close enough to substitute it with.  On my 3^rd specialty store I found just what I was looking for (well mostly).  There right next to the Huntz ketchup was a small jar that said barbeque salsa!  Salsa it may be but barbeque is barbeque.  I bought it for 4 euros and then stopped by a produce vendor to buy the onion.  I went to an hour of another master class and left early to make dinner and, after a brief chase around town for the onion that I set down somewhere (I just ended up buying another), my adventure had ended.  After tweaking the ingredients and a few taste tests I found that I couldn’t tell the difference between this one and mine back home. (well minus the cost of this one)  The concert went really well and I was happy with my performance.   I celebrated with gelato and stayed up until 3 chatting with friends at Grand Italia (I drank mostly tea tonight as I perform for a master class tomorrow) It was a great day and my hike to Maioletto is rescheduled to Friday at 330 am.  I said I would do it before I left and I plan to!   Goodnight!

Day 33

It’s unfortunate that they schedule a 930 meeting on my day off but I suppose I’ll have plenty of time to sleep in a week’s time.  Today was filled with master classes.  I don’t participate in one until Thursday but I enjoy watching them in order to apply the same things to my technique and to better my pedagogical skills by listening to what the teachers address and how they go about fixing problems.  I was interrupted in watching all of the master classes by what has turned out to be quite a saga of postal issues.  On my way to the airport, almost 5 weeks ago now, I realized that I had forgotten to grab extra contacts from my apt in Whitewater.  I didn’t think this was going to be to big a problem as it isn’t fruit or a drug of any kind and it should mail easily.  First the mail package sat in the US Post office mail bin for 1 week and then it disappeared with the sole status of in transit to let us know absolutely nothing.  Finally just over 3 weeks later it has resurfaced except as 4 governmental forms in Italian addressed to me.  After I had the translator look over the documents she informed me that if I filled out and faxed these forms I could receive my contacts in 5 days, as I will be leaving the country in exactly 5 days this doesn’t bode well for my eyes.  We, the translator and I, spent around 1 hour getting the run around until finally we got the fax number and were told if we filled out one of the forms and left a note to send it back to the return address that they would do so.  Turns out the fax number they gave us was incorrect and we had to poke around on the internet and found, hopefully, the actual fax number.  So it looks as if I will have to deal with my now 6 week old 2 week contacts for 3 more performances.  Life goes on and I now know that contacts are counted as controlled substances when it comes to mailing to a different country (You know because there is a huge Italian black market for my specific prescription of contact lenses!).  At least it is over and now I just hope they get to the US and I’m not out $40 for that box of contacts.  The rest of the day went very well.  I bought chicken for stir fry and ground beef for sloppy joes.  I plan to get up every early tomorrow and climb Maioletto the castle on the hill top.  Bed time is at 8:30 because I have plenty to do tomorrow and a scenes concert to sing in.  Goodnight all!

It’s been quite a day here and I’m getting some R&R today.  Late tonight or rather early tomorrow I will be climbing up to that castle on the top of the hill/mountain.  It’s going to be a wonderful sunrise!

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Day 32

I was determined for good sleep last night and I achieved my goal.  The program decided to start scenes rehearsals early today w/o previous notice to those of us in the program that have to be there.  I was lucky to have woken up and gotten up to check by 11 which is exactly when I was supposed to in my scene.  (Normally nothing starts before 1230)  I arrived long enough before I had to be on stage, as I come on half way through the scene and found that we were missing our director.  At first we thought that not even he had been notified about the early start but we found out later that he was taking care of his wife who had been stricken with heat exhaustion. (Surprisingly so because the past few days have been under 90)  I had nothing left to do for the rest of the day except for Don Bucefalo’s 3^rd performance.  There was also a master class given by a German maestro.  It was good to hear some German lied and he did a lot of work with German diction which was good to take note of, even though I’ll be singing very little German rep this year.  Today was a day in which motivation was hard to gather.  I tried to make some frozen soup concoction that Rachel bought thinking it was for stir fry (though it said Zuppa right on the front ) it was really horrible so I had my second bowl of Frosties (frosted flakes) and later bought a slice of pizza.  I still cant believe I’m in the final week here.  When I first had the thought a few weeks ago I felt really sad to be going but the more I think of home the more I’m looking forward to being home.  I think this is coupled with the fact that Rigoletto is over and it was the driving reason for me coming and the highlight of my days.  This could also be a contributor to my lack of drive today.  Don Bucefalo went the best that it has ever gone.  Part of the reason is the abundance of English speakers in the crowed.  Even though we are singing in Italian it’s the non-Italians which are the most vocal about their enjoyment.  Getting hearty laughs and applause makes performing a show much more enjoyable my ensemble, which was once a chorus of men, got more “woops” than some of the principles.  As I did not have a performance tomorrow I finally got to go out and celebrate with the cast.  I was out until around 2:30.  For the first time in many weeks my night, once again, ended in wine and gelato.

Life is wonderful here and things are just beginning to wind down.  I can’t believe this is week 5!  I’ve had an exciting past 3 days I hope you enjoy this post. 6 days!

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Day 29

Today was a normal performance day for me.  I had a nice final voice lesson which I spent most of the time discussing what I learned in the program and which graduate schools I should be looking into.  I think Leeper is happy with the strides that I made this month and I am proud myself, but I still have far to go.  Today’s performance was only 30 min away but we left very early.  The theater was very intimate; it almost looked like something out of Sesame Street, and will probably be the oldest theater that I will perform in.  The performance went well even with a few memory slips; I would say that this was better than the first.  The city didn’t have much to offer except a castle that was being renovated and inaccessible and some very good pizza.  What’s more interesting than today’s events is the bubbling up of drama.  Starting around week 3 disturbances began and abrasive personalities started to rub on each other and now there is drama in full swing.  Diva attitudes are emerging.  It’s been interesting to watch as buddy-buddy attitudes eroded into whispers and then into full drama.  It’s not to the point that people are in all out civil war or disliking others who spend time with those that they don’t like, which is good for me as I talk with mostly everyone here.  I would say that my initial response on the people here is still true, they are all great people willing to work with everyone, but it was wrong to assume that egos would not rub on each other by the end.  There have been no catastrophes so far and the outlook is good as the opera end tensions will reduce.  Egos and drama just come with the performance business and I believe most people here are aware of it.  Tomorrow is Florence so I will leave this post short as it is now 1am and I must get up around 6.  Let’s hope I don’t get lost this time as I’m not sure I’ll have the energy to deal with it with a smile.

Day 30

What an amazing day.  I’m sure I’m going to leave off plenty in this blog that has already escaped my mind.  I woke up and dragged myself to the bus where I promptly fell back asleep.  It was really cold on the bus and I almost used the curtain as a blanket.  Despite the cold I slept the 4 hour drive and woke up refreshed.  We gathered into the most recognizable square in Florence (the one which the Uffizi is in) and after a few jokes at my expense we dispersed.  This time I decided to stick with the leader of the trip for a few reasons: first I had no clue what to see in this city and Aurelia had lived here for a few years, second I really didn’t want to get lost or be late for the bus so who better to follow then the person in charge.  A few more jokes were made at my expense but I can’t blame ‘em.   It turned out that not only did Aurelia know where to go but she knew about practically every historically significant building that we passed.  (I will leave out all the history I learned because I have to keep some stories to tell when I get home, and the magic is lost a bit in text.)  In Florence I saw the outside of both Medici houses, the two old churches in which Michelangelo and another architect were challenged to build, and some sort of mausoleum like structure for the Medici family which made them look like the rulers of the universe.  On top of all of that I had some amazing food and good wine.  I window shopped a bit for gifts to give to people back home but nothing spoke to me so I decided to hold onto my money.  I was one of the first back at the meeting point and impressed everyone.  The bus ride home was LONG!  It’s amazing how fast 4 hours can go when you sleep through it and how slow it can go when sleep is the thing you are trying to avoid.  We arrived home and hungry around 9.  I had a snack and now am retiring to bed. Tomorrow is closing night for Rigoletto.

Day 31

In 7 days I go home…what a strange thought.  I feel like this program zipped by, but at the same time I am looking forward to home.  I’ve learned and continue to learn so much and I know I am better for it, both as a person and performer.  I am sad that Rigoletto closes tonight and I will really miss working with everyone.  That being said I am stoked and plan on putting on the best show of my life.  I had opera rehearsal today before I had to leave for Rigoletto, but before that I put in what I’m sure will be my last load of laundry here.  I’ve finally gotten the hang (pun slightly intended) of using clotheslines and actually found that it works better than an iron 9 times out of 10 for keeping linen shirts unwrinkled, assuming you set it up correctly.  My scene is now fully staged and sounding good.  I’m finding it a challenge to get into character for just one scene but that is something that will just get better by doing it more.  The director leaves for other commitments in the next two days so this very well may have been my final time with him.  Cesena is where Rigoletto is performed today.  We performed in what was, in the 1400s, part of a convent.  It has since been converted into a performing area.  The stage is outside and therefore we will be assisted by floor mics.  I was afraid of over singing but with the small assistance you actually get enough back and singing is comfortable.  The stage is the largest we have performed on.  It posed for a possible problem of overcrowding in small areas but none of us had that problem and I loved performing on it.  The most issue we had was the dressing rooms.  They were about a 12 sq ft, were open up top, and had one light.  We ate at an amazing restaurant that was quite affordable, which is good because it was one of the few open on a Sunday.  Afterward we all headed back to the dressing “rooms” because we were losing sunlight to do our makeup by. (yes I meant that quite literally)  The show was amazing by far our best.  I think it was my best show both vocally and character wise.  I will miss this show a lot but we went out with a bang, even with two non double cast principles getting hurt/sick right before performance.  We got home and as I have a performance tomorrow I had to get good sleep instead of partying with the rest of the cast.  It’s 230 and I need bed.  Goodnight!

Day 28

French toast!  No more needs to be said.  Like any day that starts with French toast my day was wonderful.  Italian class is basically over so I have time to sleep on the weekdays now and I have my first performance/dress rehearsal free day in a week.  It is such a good feeling to have time to plan with.  I still had a scene rehearsal, which went well, and a coaching, with also went well, but I was done by 4.  I decided today was the day to start checking Items off of my bucket list for Italy.  My top two were climbing to that fort and to go see San Leo.  Today was not a day for hiking so I sent out word with some people that I’m closer with here that I was headed to San Leo and would love company in order to split the cab fare and to share the experience.  Word spread and by the time I was done by 4 I had a group of 3 women to come with me.  San Leo is a town known for its castle, in fact those of you who have seen Hudson Hawk should be familiar with this castle as it was filmed there, and it is magnificent.  It is perched on a hill taller than San Marino and the fort that I want to hike to.  I wish that I knew more about this castle but unfortunately I couldn’t read enough Italian to come away with the whole history.  A student ticket was 5 euro and with it came a pamphlet in English that did explain a bit of the history, both architectural and occupational.  Here’s just a bit of it:

“The origins of the fortress date back to the period of the wars between the Goths and the Byzantines; Particularly during the 14^th and 15^th centuries, it was disputed by numerous dynasties until, thanks to the young Federico da Montefeltro, it was finally conquered by the Montefeltro family in 1441. It then followed the fortunes of the Duchy and the succession of the various dynastic families – the Montefeltro, Borgia, Della Rovere and Medici – until it was devolved to the Papal state in 1631. Under the latter, it became a particularly harsh prison in which Count Cagliostro ended his days”

It goes on into greater detail but I will not.  It was an amazing spectacle to see and even with the majority of the information in Italian.  I had been to enough castles now I was able to act as a pseudo tour guide to the rest of the group as far as significance of rooms.  When we got to the torture chamber and exhibit I had enough information to lecture them through the whole thing. (I had the unpleasant opportunity to go to a museum of torture last year in Prague.  I found out after I had paid that this museum was a 3 story building filled with display cases with descriptions of how they were used and why.  I say unpleasant because by the end of the trip you’ve basically read the most depressing chapter in human history as 60% of the torture devices are still being used today, on top of our newfangled technological ones.)  The women enjoyed the lecture but we were glad to see beautiful scenery as we left the chamber which lightened our mood.  After seeing the castle we wondered down the hill and found the restaurant that we were told we must eat at in San Leo.  The owner said that they didn’t open until 8 which was too late for us as we wanted to make it to San Marino in time to see Cenerentola perform at 9.  We asked if 730 would be ok and he said that it probably would be.  Our group split up as I wanted to see the old churches and they wanted to shop, we agreed to meet up at the restaurant at 730.  This gave me 45 min to see the town.  It is a small town but old and beautiful.  Both churches ended up being very close to each other which allowed me to take my time.  They were quite old and very small; one only had around 15 pews in the center of it.  The second I only saw quickly as it closed its doors at 7.  It was a little larger and you could see that it originally had used the stone it was built on as a floor.  Like the castle of San Marino this church was built a bit into a rock cropping.  Outside the church was a gigantic bell tower separate from the church.  I wish I knew the history of it because it had arrow slits all around it and a foundation for a small building near the church was evident.  I had a few more minutes until I had to make my way back so I headed toward a monument dedicated for the founder (I think).  It was a spire engraved with a dedication and a crest with a sleek metal point which had an odd object upon it.  The whole metal part served as a weather vane.  I met up with the girls and had a wonderful dinner and wine and we were picked up at 845 to be taken to San Marino.  The show was enjoyable to watch and I thought the cast did a good job.  I had to leave halfway through the 2^nd act because our driver, Davidee, had to pick up another group at the end of the show, so it was either leave early or really late.  I went to bed still smiling about my day.  Tomorrow is the second performance of Don Bucefalo and my final scheduled voice lesson for this program.

Day 27

I did not even attempt to wake up with an alarm today; I knew I would just keep setting it for later, which meant that I was up and about around 11.  My schedule for the day was one that allowed me plenty of time to catch up on my blogging and even allowed me to Skype with Christine for an hour, a friendly face is wonderful to see 4 weeks out.  I’ve done the math and I have 12 days left and they are pretty full: Today is Rigoletto, tomorrow is Cenerentola(day off for me), next is Don Bucefalo, Florence trip is on Saturday (I’ll try not to get lost this time), Sunday is Rigoletto’s final performance, Monday is Don Bucefalo again, Tuesday Cenerentola has their last performance, Wednesday is the first of two Opera Scenes recital (I don’t know if I’ll be in this one or the next one), Thursday is Don Bucefalo’s final performance, Friday is the last Opera Scene recital, on Saturday we leave for Rome, and Sunday I’m flying back to the states!  The thought of leaving here is sad I’ve learned so much and want to keep making strides like I have here.  It’s hard to find opportunities which allow you to grow in a field as competitive as opera and I now understand a little better the importance of these programs first hand.  The challenge is getting your foot in the door and I really hope that I have achieved at least a toe hold.  This program has gotten me thinking a lot about what my challenges will be in the future and the hill looks steep.  I’ve always enjoyed a good challenge and do enjoy a good hike so the important thing is to take it one step at a time and when an opportunity comes to give you a boost it needs to be taken.  I had a scene rehearsal today and it is really shaping up.  I get to work with different directors for each of my scene (this wasn’t originally the plan but it’s crunch time and one person was not enough to get all the scenes ready in time.)  The directors are husband and wife and both of them are out there. (in a good way)  I enjoy working with both of them and usually have a good chuckle each rehearsal.  After my rehearsal I made stir fry again.  I’m getting pretty good at cooking them and I will probably keep it in my arsenal.  Today’s was veggies and chopped turkey meat.  I had stopped by the butchers and they didn’t have chicken that day so I decided turkey might be a fun change, it was delicious.  I then got ready for tonight’s show.  It must have been 85 outside with 80% humidity and I was not looking forward to the increased heat of the theatre.  Throughout the run I had to reapply parts of my make-up a few times and my costume was sticking to me by the end, it was gross.  The show itself was the worse we’ve done it since dress rehearsals started.  I didn’t have too many problems myself, but I was in the minority.  The Duke (the lead tenor role) was having issues and his voice kept cracking which was unfortunate because he sounds very nice usually.  The maestro’s assistant was conducting tonight (the maestro gives one show to his assistant each year) he did his absolute best but the orchestra decided to just go their own tempo for the most part which left us and him at damage control having to jump to wherever the orchestra was.  On top of that a gust of wind through the doors pushed down a wall panel in the middle of an aria.  The lead didn’t miss a beat and went on as if nothing happened, it was impressive.  The final act went better then the previous two and we ended strongly which is good.  It was nice not having to strike the set and get on a bus, but even nicer was that it was 1230 and the gelateria was still open!  Most of the cast went to the Café Grand Italia to drink but a few of us just sat getting our fix of gelato instead of wine.  The Caroll (one of the directors of opera scenes and the director of Cenerentola) ended up sitting with a few of us and we had a good chat; he was waiting for some family friends to come into town.  He remarked upon a lot of things but the most interesting was his take on coming prepared to the program.  Most of the faculty says that it is important to come to this program with your role memorized and coached so that you can be ready to stage it when you get here but Caroll had more thoughts on that matter.  He said something that hadn’t occurred to me.  He said that not only is it important to know your role for staging reasons but that if you come here with your role down then you can spend your free time in rehearsals of the other operas with score in hand and learn the lead role for your voice type there.  This allows you to get not only professional coaching of your role but to essentially understudy a role which you are likely to have to play in your life.  The thought is simple and really a good idea, one I wish I had thought myself.  I have been trying to absorb as much as I can from the direction of others, but to passively understudy a role would have been a good choice.  I got home around 1 and went to bed soon after.  Day off tomorrow!

If my lack of posting hasn’t cued you in on this yet I’ve been very very busy for the past 5 days.  Both my operas have successfully opened and Rigoletto’s second performance is tonight.  It looks as if the storage space on this site is becoming full and as such if you want to see more pictures you will have to check our my Facebook profile (http://www.facebook.com/rywhite) as the file size limitations have just become too small for me to upload anymore here.  I hope you all are well.  I should be more available to post daily for the final 12 days.

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Day 22

What a day!  It is Saturday as I write this and I had to read my last journal because I was convinced that yesterday was actually 2 days ago.  My schedule was as follows.  9am-5pm Rigoletto final dress 5pm-8pm Don Bucefalo run through and concert call at 9pm for a 2 hour concert!  This translates into me being in the same space for 14 hours straight.  The final dress rehearsal went wonderfully my costume, the ladies tell me, makes me look like a Disney prince; I’ll have to leave it up to my little cousins to be the final word on that.  Rigoletto looks amazing and though it still has some hiccups the production is becoming quite polished.  Costumes brought on some of the best character work from everyone so far, myself included.  It’s strange to think we only have performances left, we open on Monday.  Don Bucefalo looks better every day even with today’s bad news, the man who plays Don Bucefalo has a terrible throat infection and he may not be able to sing on Tuesday when we open and he was unable to make it to the run today so we all just mimed his existence which lead to some…interesting circumstances.  It’s important on days like this to keep a good sense humor because everyone is tired by the end of the day and needing to bring more energy then you have to the stage.  Our director wrote “I LOVE MY CHORUS” in her notes twice by the time the run was over.  I quickly warmed up some sir fry after my day of full runs and used the time it was cooking to get dressed for my performance that night.  I had just enough time to eat and dress as I arrived at 9 on the dot.  My performance went really well, I’ve sung better but I don’t think I’ve performed better, I received many compliments.  All of the intense singing that we have to do everyday creates improvement in all the aspects that a solo singer needs.   I never would have thought that I could have made as many improvements as I have in the past 3 weeks.  I go to bed and wake up tired most days but if that is what it takes for me to improve then I would do it for as long as it takes.  This whole experience has also taught me how to practice even smarter.  I wish that I had another concert to sing on but the operas will make me busy enough.  After my day I decided to enjoy some wine at the café for the first time in a week and I chatted until 2 am when I retired to my apt unwound and smiling.

Day 23

Today is a day designated for one thing, Don Bucefalo.  I woke up at 1030 made breakfast and did the dishes.  I wondered down to the school to check my schedule and to peak in on the final dress for Cenerentola.  My day really started around 1 when I began looking over my score for Don Bucefalo and at 2 I had a voice lesson.  I feel like with each lesson here I make a new stride forward with technique.  As I mentioned in yesterdays journal I think this is because I spend 14 hours a day either around singers or singing myself.  That means that I have at least 8 hours on average to practice technique and with 2 lessons a week anything I forget gets fixed before it becomes a habit.  I still have far to go but I am becoming more comfortable in my voice and my body when I’m performing (and before this I wouldn’t have said that I was uncomfortable in either) . Once my lesson was over I went back to the bench by the river that I was at earlier in the week and spent the next 3 hours memorizing Don Bucefalo, I now have about 90%.  The first dress for Don Bucefalo started at 7pm it was good to go through non-stop.  Darrell (the sick Don Bucefalo) was feeling well enough to come and do the staging as his understudy sang the part for him.  The rehearsal went…well it was a train wreck in a lot of ways, but the whole time we rolled with the punches leaving our audience and the director in stitches the whole time.  It was a lot of small things that caused this issue and the show still went really well and there were a lot of great things that happened.  My brain was on overload and I couldn’t find a single word during the rehearsal but I’m sure it will be settled by tomorrow.  I really enjoy Don Bucefalo now, whenever I leave the stage I’m grinning from ear to ear and laughing with the rest of the cast on how it went.  Our final dress is tomorrow at 10 and I would like to take this advantage to get some sleep, as I’m up at 8.  I decided that I’m making French toast tomorrow and I can’t tell you how excited I am to do it.  I bought some eggs and cinnamon on my way home today.  I should be on my way to bed.  Goodnight!

Day 24

Today came and went with no French toast L.  I decided I would wait to make it until I could share with my roommates as they were all still asleep this morning. (I would have been too if not more my 10am call for Don Bucefalo.)  We were met with great news Darrell was feeling much better and would be singing in the final dress!  This made everyone much more relaxed and set us up for a great run through.  Unlike the previous dress this one went very smoothly with only a few crinkles to iron out.  We went straight through with only one short break because we wanted to escape the theater before the heat of the day set in.  My character in his coveralls allows me to be the coolest (temperature wise) on stage, I had no idea of this in mind when I randomly chose his profession to be odd jobs but I am very glad that I did.  After rehearsal I hit a very strange point in my weeks here so far…I had nothing to do!  I’ve been so busy I didn’t even know how to react to this new challenge.  I decided to grab my book and get some gelato at the good gelateria, which is a good walk from home.  I ended up running into many of my cast members who must have had the same idea and we all just sat down together and chatted over our heaping portions of gelato.  This went on for an hour an a half before we all got to thirsty to stay outside anymore.  We dispersed and I headed back to my apt where I stupidly left my water bottle.  Deciding not to go back out I pulled a chair on to my balcony, opened a bottle of chilled white wine, and read my book for the next 2 hours.  I finished my book just as Rachel was getting home and making frozen pizza in our oven.  My evening continued with wine and good conversation until 9 when we headed toward the theater for the opening of Cenerentola, the first of our 3 operas to open.  The opera was supposed to start at nine but in Italian time that means whenever the locals decide to wonder over, which means 9:20-9:30.  The show went off without a hitch and the show was well received.  I sat in the first balcony in a seat with limited view.  It must have been 95 degrees in that theater, and I wasn’t even under the stage lights.  Due to the heat many of us shed as much clothing as we could in public which for me meant sitting with a button down shirt over half way unbuttoned, not typical opera attire but as there was no one who could see anything but my head I didn’t much care.  The opera ended around 12 and I made my way to a shower and bed.  Tomorrow Rigoletto opens in San Marino.

Day 25

I made it to Italian after the break at 10:30 and found that I had quite a busy day ahead of me.  The once early call of 1:30 for costumes and bus had been pushed back due to the heat wave that we are currently in; it got to be over 110 degrees today.  My call was not at 2:30 as the people in charge didn’t want us to be spending too much time stuck in the sun in San Marino.  This gave the schedulers time to put me into an opera scenes rehearsal from immediately after class, 12:00, to 2pm giving me little time to eat and gather myself before I had to leave.  I somehow managed to get a sandwich and gather my things putting me right on time to meet the bus.  It’s a short trip to San Marino, 30 min, which is actually a different country.  San Marino was never conquered and didn’t join the rest of the regions when Italy united under one flag.  It is, therefore, the oldest city state in existence; though there is talk of unification with the rest of Italy due do debt.  As of right now Italy cannot afford to buy it but these performances my be the final ones this program does while it is still separate from Italy.  We were performing in a 4 star Best Western hotel which was, to our great relief, air conditioned. After the stage was set up we blocked through the show ending around 6 and then got on a bus to be taken into the heart of San Marino.  The bus took us up a huge hill and we got off just outside the old city walls.  After a brief scare with a temperamental elevator we walked into the old city and it felt as if you had just walked back in time.  There were modern amenities but the streets were old and every building looked to be joined together.  I felt like I had just entered a giant castle.  We only had an hour here, barely enough time to get food.  We sat down after climbing up the streets, all built up hill I thought how grateful I was not to be trying to invade this town as hot oil would massacre any one forcing entry and then those that would survive would have to fight up hill the whole way in tight streets.  10 of us sat down in a pizzeria and restaurant.  We had 45 min to eat and were told that was enough time by the staff there which turned out to be very close to a lie.  I order the menu of the day which was a pasta dish followed by backed veal with sides of fried potatoes and spinach and ending with a fruit salad.   The pasta dish made it with 30 min left to eat which gave those of us who got this dish plenty of hope for the rest of the time.  5 min passed and turned to 10 and finally 20 min before the second dish came out, we almost left.  Our meal now turned into a Man Vs. Food showdown as we had to quickly scarf down our hot food and fruit salad in the time it would have taken for it to cool off.  That being said the food was delicious and the whole meal was 15 Euros.  We paid and exchanged high fives as we set off for the bus, lucky for us the trip was all down hill because our stomachs were full.  We made it to the bus 1 min early and I received applause for not missing it this time, I took a bow.  We then set off to the hotel to begin dressing for the performance.  This place did not have traditional dressing rooms and so we set up drapes on coat racks and mirrors on tables in a conference room.  It worked well and we were all ready to go by 8:45pm.  Downbeat was around 9:20 and the whole show went off without a hitch.  There were the expected few hiccups but nothing that was too obvious or detrimental.  We were well received and it felt great to open the show, though odd to start in an away venue.  The opera has two “short” intermissions and we ended around 11:45.  We quickly got out of dress and helped strike the stage.  We got on the bus and were in Novafeltria by 1:20.  I got home around 2 and after quickly brushing my teeth I collapsed face first into bed and woke up 8 hours later not having heard my alarm.

Day 26

I was awoken by Rachel asking me if I was going to make it to the meeting, and once I found out it was 9:55 and the meeting was in 5 min I told her no way could I make it.  She kindly told me that she’d take notes and check my schedule for the day and I could just sleep more. (I must have sounded really tired)  I was feeling guilty about missing class so I ended up waking up anyway and I made it to class by 1030.  Today was to be another busy day.  I had my voice lesson, which went badly, and then I had about an hour and a half after that to get lunch and get ready for my second opening night, this time for Don Bucefalo.  I had time to quickly get online but no time to blog.  Today was another HOT day and I am very grateful for my linen button up shirts as they breathe very well.  The bus was air conditioned which was great as this time we were an hour and a half away from Novafeltria.  We got a historical lecture on the bus about the surrounding area as we traveled through the hilly region, the views were breathtaking.  You could see clear across the land and see the ocean, a good 80Kilometers away.  We were told in an absolutely pristine day you could actually see Venice.  The town we were going to has a fortification but had never housed any nobles, a rare occurrence.  This is because so many armies passed through this region the farmers needed to protect their families so they worked together to build this castle like town atop a hill.  During times of siege this could cram over 120 families but would have housed around 60 normally.  This town also has a history of assisting the allies in WWII when it served as a station for artillery.  I had the first family style dinner after I explored the small town.  9 of us sat down and after our music director talked to the owners in Italian they decided to bring us a special meal which included a little of everything.  The first course was 3 types of pasta (linguini, gnocchi, strozzaprezi) with 3 different sauces (2 Ragu one with wild boar meat and the other with normal beef, the other was a white sauce with wild mushrooms, AMAZING!) The second course was presented after the owner came out and glared at 3 people while pointing at the final 3 bites of gnocci indicating that they were to eat it.  This course consisted of 2 platters of meat.  One was chicken and the other was pork chops and sausages.  This came out with salad, French fries, and fresh pita bread.  With this meal we also were brought 4 bottles of water and a liter of coke.  Finally we were brought espresso and given our bill, 22 euros per person(not bad).  We performed in what is now the place where they serve complimentary breakfast in the 4 star hotel.  The lights were set up from the big supporting beams which held the chandeliers (the lights had to be hung low to avoid hitting them talk about lighting nightmare)  To get from stage right to stage left we had to traverse a little ridge that goes around the building  that is no wider then my shoulders.  The drop would be significant with a misstep and the railing had broken off.  We made it through the night without falling and the opera was well received.  Some people were nervous because the Italians weren’t laughing but I had been told that Italians take some time to warm up and often don’t laugh as much as Americans.  All in all it was a great performance any mistake was handled in character and toward the end we received audible laughs from the crowd.  We got out of costume and stuck the set and were back in Novafeltria by 1:30am.  I got home around 2am and took a much needed shower.  Tomorrow is Rigoletto again and Thursday is my first day off.  It’s been a wonderful few days and I look forward to many more.