La Musica Lirica
In the third week we begin teching the operas; this is a from a run of Figaro. These were less techs than run throughs with orchestra and very little time to change over between. There were also concerts scheduled in the space in the evenings. This was the first time performers ran through the shows with scenery, costumes, lights, or full orchestra, not to mention that with the compressed schedule scenery had yet to be completed (scenic design by Renee Suprenant).
Here is the crew putting up the walls for Lucia’s tech rehearsal.
A blurry photo of the final scene of Lucia, in tech.
The final moments of Suor Angelica’s tech.
La Cambiale di Matrimonio’s tech.
Since we were working with twelve dimmers and did not know what types of boards were to be expected in other venues, the old fashioned two scene preset cue sheet was the best way to handle notation. Even this turned out to be rather hopeful, as once we went on tour, equipment and positions varied widely, and with darkness not coming until curtain, cueing tended to be improvised live each night.
Our first tour date was Suor and Cambiale in a cloister in Rimini. The technicians were extremely helpful, even cobbling together two extra sets of stairs to the platform for us. In the cinema next to the piazza which served as dressing rooms, there were glassed portions of the floor where you could look down to the medieval crypts and the old Roman road.
A few of the PCs. These units were the type we found everywhere — no Fresnels, no ERSs. These units didn’t have working clamps and were gently wedged into the truss.
Renee watches set up as the local electricians nestle the PCs in the truss.
Here we are waiting for the audience to arrive and speaking with our new friend Nicola, who then walked us down to the Tiberius bridge. The lightboard was the exact same model as what we had in Novefeltria, though we had fewer dimmers. . .
The Bridge of Tiberius, the 2000 year old bridge a short walk from the cloister. That’s the old section of Rimini, across the river.
The string quartet warms up.
The performance of Suor Angelica. A much smaller stage than in Novafeltria, so it’s a little cramped. Since it was also the evening of Rimini’s pink festival, there were LED wash units lighting the apartment building behind the stage. The technicians were kind enough to let me pick the color for the performance.
And finally, La Cambiale in performance.