Orlando Philharmonic presents Puccini’s Tosca at the Bob Carr.

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Opera is very much alive in Orlando. I went to a rehearsal of the A fully-staged performance presented by Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bob Carr Theater. This was the first time the singers got to block their scenes using the set, which was still under construction. Actors walked the stage, getting used to the many steps that hadn’t been present in prior rehearsals.

Mario Cavaradossi, (Adam Diegel) worked on a large portrait of the Madonna that he based on a woman in the churches congregation that he never met. As he paints, he compares the Madonna’s blonde beauty to the beauty of his dark haired lover, Tosca (Keri Alkema). Tosca is a full figured fiery Prima Donna who loves the artist, but she suspects his love of art. She recognizes the face in the painting as the beauty in the congregation and accuses the artist of being unfaithful. He assures her of his love but jealousy still tears at her. Since I was sketching, I seldom had time to look up at the sub titles projected above the stage. I discovered the emotional context of every scene by watching Keri’s facial expressions. Her performance acted as my translator.

The artist gives refuge to a political prisoner essentially making him an enemy of the state. Baron Scarpia, (Todd Thomas) chief of the secret police, is searching for the political prisoner. His investigation leads him to the artist’s studio. There he finds Tosca and he is smitten. He shows her a red fan he found which she realizes as belonging to the beautiful woman in the painting. Her worst fears seem confirmed and she bursts into tears. She becomes trapped between her allegiance
to her rebel artist lover and the scheming of Scarpia, who
will stop at nothing in his unquenchable lust for her. The artist is imprisoned and Scarpia claims he will free him if Tosca surrenders to his sexual advances. The explosive
triangle comes to a hair-raising conclusion in one of opera’s bloodiest,
most intense dramas.

Joel Revzen is the guest conductor for the Philharmonic although at this rehearsal only the piano was on stage. Henry Akida is the stage director. He worked diligently during the rehearsal to keep the staging clear. At one point, the whole chorus came on stage in a processional with candles and one large red banner. Henry realized that the banner blocked some audience members view of Scarpia who stood elevated on the platform. To resolve the issue, the banner holder was moved far to stage right. These are the kind of issues that are only discovered as staging and props come into use. Lisa Buck created the stunning projections that depicted huge domed ceilings. The images lap dissolved between scenes giving the story an added depth. So many elements have to work together to make such a big production a reality. Amazing productions are truly miracles.
 

This is Central Florida’s biggest opera event of the
season. Don’t miss it.

Friday, May 1, 2015 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 3, 2015 at 2:00 PM
Bob Carr Theater 401 W Livingston St, Orlando, Florida 3280

Tickets starting at $22

Madama Butterfly

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 Terry got two tickets to see Madama Butterfly‘s final performance at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. Our seats were in the third row which gave me plenty of ambient light to sketch by. From this seat I had a good view of the projections behind the orchestra created by Lisa Buck. The images lap dissolved gently together working as backdrops and symbolic visual cues. It was often like a slow gentle animation. By the time Butterfly began her all night vigil hoping for her lover to return, I had finished my sketch and tucked it away.

At 15 year of age, Butterfly marries an American Naval Lieutenant named B.F. Pinkerton. He abandons her and she later gives birth to his son, whom she names Sorrow. The final act is heart wrenching and beautiful as the Lieutenant, returned with his American Bride. This scene of abandonment and betrayal had Terry wiping tears from her eyes. I looked around to see utter sadness on the faces of audience members around me. This was Terry’s review…  “Congratulations to director Robert Swedberg, the Orlando Philharmonic and a fine cast (including Erik Branch and Sarah Purser Bojorquez) on an outstanding performance of Madame Butterfly. The amazing thing is that it didn’t feel like concert opera. The simpleness of the setting and the direction made the story and music more powerful for me in a way that it has never been before. The soprano was outstanding with a good range and musicality and acting that drove me (and just about everyone I could see around me) to tears. Seriously, I’ve seen the opera so many times and I never heard so much in the score before. The music told me more the story and the characters than the words in the super titles did. WOW!!!!!!!!! GREAT JOB!!!!!!!”

Robert Swedberg was the Opera director when Orlando still had an Opera Company. The Opera went bankrupt several years ago. Since then Robert has been directing operas in Michigan and all over the country. He returned to direct this one production and he had to fly back to Michigan immediately after he took a final bow with the cast. His next project is directing an original Opera by Orlando composer Stella Sung called The Red Silk Thread, about Marco Polo.

Madama Butterfly

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There are just two performances of the Orlando Philharmonic‘s production of Giacomo Puccini‘s, Madama Butterfly. One performance is tonight (April 5th) at 8pm and the other performance is Sunday (April 7th) at 2PM. You can get tickets at orlandophil.org, or at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center box office two hours before each show.

I went to a dress rehearsal. I entered via the stage door at the same time as the set designer Lisa Buck. This was a semi-staged production, so the set was kept pretty simple. A really nice touch was that Lisa projected images on a large screen behind the orchestra. The images would change between each emotional shift in the opera.  Over 100 of the gorgeous images added much to the production.

Since I was sketching, I didn’t have time to look up at the closed caption translations above the stage. Since I was seated in the front rows I would have had to crane my neck. I’ve seen Madama Butterfly before however so I knew the story. If you have never seen an opera before, then I would encourage you to see butterfly. It could very well make you a convert.

Before the opera began, a gardener shuffled out and raked the gravel in the rock garden. He might not be a major character in the plot but I had to catch him. In the first act, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, played by Brian Jagde, fell in love with Cio-Cio San, Madam Butterfly played by Shu-Ying Li and there is a glorious marriage ceremony. Butterfly converts to Pinkerton’s christian faith to be closer to him and she is renounced by her uncle a Buddhist priest. Pinkerton leaves Japan and three years later Butterfly is penniless with his son who she named sorrow.

Butterfly hears the sound of a cannon from the harbor and she is sure that Pinkerton’s ship has returned. She stands vigil overnight, waiting and ever hopeful. Pinkerton does finally return, but with his American wife. Love lost leads to tragic consequences.

Mrs. Warren’s Profession

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The Mad Cow Theatre is staging George Bernard Shaw’s scorching tour de force, “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” which tells the story of Kitty Warren, a mother who makes a terrible sacrifice for her daughter Vivie’s independence. The clash of these two strong-willed but culturally constrained women is the spark that ignites the ironic wit of one of Shaw’s greatest plays. The show runs from February 8 to March 3, 2013.

Sarah Lockard is starring as Vivie and she asked me to come to a rehearsal to sketch the assistant director Melissa Cooper.  I went to the Mad Cow Theatre an hour before the rehearsal was to start so I could get the sketch done before the dress rehearsal. I walked into the theatre and started walking back stage. From behind me I heard “Can I help you?” I explained that I was looking for Melissa. I watched a tech adjusting a stage light from high atop a ladder as I waited. Melissa greeted me and when I mentioned the sketch she lit up. She tried to ask director Eric Zivot where we should do the sketch but he was heading out to get dinner.

Sarah was bringing in a Victorian lace blouse but she hadn’t arrived yet. Melissa sat in a stern hard back wooden chair and I started sketching her portrait as we waited for the blouse. Melissa was posing as Honoria Fraser a character who doesn’t appear in the play, but the final act is staged in her office. Melissa was wearing a black Nike “Just Do It T-shirt and it was hard to resist sketching it. Sarah arrived in a flurry with the blouse. Melissa slipped it on right over her T-shirt and I sketched it in.

The rehearsal was about to start so I lost Melissa as she had to get the stage props set. She returned later and I started adding color. Sketching seems eternally slow when there is so much commotion back stage. Actors started appearing in their period costumes speaking their lines out loud to themselves. The priest seemed quite pleased with the sketch. Eric, the director, however felt she should look more formal. I had enjoyed sketching Melissa’s thin chiseled features so much that I had her smiling. Melissa posed one more time looking stern as she pursed her lips.

The dress rehearsal was a full run through of the play. Sarah was impressive with her haughty high society airs. The set, designed by Lisa Buck functioned as both an exterior and an interior. Between acts furniture was moved and panels added to change the look. I will not revel any story points other than the fact that Kitty Warren’s voice breaks into a crisp street urchin rogue when she discusses her profession with her daughter. It is like watching a high society female Jekyll and Hyde.

Tickets are $34. Seniors and students with ID receive a $2 discount.

Opening Night is February 8, 2012.  Join us for a champagne toast after the performance.

Pay What You Wish Performance is Wednesday February 27 at 8pm.
Tickets are $15.00 in advance and Pay What You Wish at the door. The Pay
What You Wish tickets will be sold only in person at the Box Office
starting at 7pm. Two tickets per transaction only. Tickets are limited
until sold out.

Road To Mecca

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After returning from France, I quickly tried to arrange to sketch a rehearsal of Road to Mecca. That night was a final dress rehearsal and performance preview of the show. Unfortunately I was already scheduled to sketch a fundraiser that night. The director, Aradhana Tiwari, suggested I get there early to sketch last minute touches being done to the set in the new Mad Cow Theater (54 West Church Street, second floor)

When I got to the theater, I met Lisa Buck, the set designer. She explained that the lights that had been ordered for the new black box theater hadn’t arrived yet. A company had agreed to lend the Mad Cow their lights.  There was a last minute rush to get these lights hung and aimed properly. A stage hand would climb a ladder and then shout out to the person in the lighting booth to get the light turned on. Lisa briefly explained to me that the show was about an elderly English South African woman who sculpted owls and filled her home with candles and bottles. Her home had a quirky folk artists feel. Lisa told me that when the set was properly lit, it would sparkle magically. All the candles would be lit and the light would reflect off of all the bottles. Bottles hung from the ceiling forming a dense chandelier. Lisa knew that a neighbor had an old weathered door in his back yard. She borrowed it to use as the headboard to the bed. Characters in the play tried to convince the old woman to leave the home and go into assisted living because she was living outside their idea of the norm.

Aradhana arrived when I was half finished with my sketch. She quickly started working on the music and lighting cues for the show. There were only a few hours left before an audience would enter the theaters. One scene which had already been worked out was much brighter than Aradhana remembered. A stage hand was cutting gels for the lights and those gels would change the color and intensity of the lights.  They had to go on faith that everything would be in place on time. I finished my sketch as the frantic work continued.

The show runs through November 11th. Get your tickets now.

Sunday in the Park With George.

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I had too step out of an artist talk back with United Arts President and CEO, Floria Maria Garcia, at Urban ReThink about the state of the arts in Orlando. It was a hot topic on which I have plenty of opinions but little time to express them. I rushed over to Church Street and sat in the very back row of the brand new Harriet Theater to see the Mad Cow Theater production of Sunday in the Park With George.  The lobby is magnificent with a large plate glass window view overlooking Church Street. The new theater offers roomier seating but the low office building ceilings offer a challenge since it limits the height of the stage sets. The stage was a blank canvas. White panels were arranged accordion style across the back of the stage. Executive Director, Mitzi Maxwell, introduced the play which she called Stephen Sondheim‘s tribute to creativity. I first saw the play in 1983 in New York City, and I fell in love with it. I would often play the cassette tape soundtrack as I painted until the audio tape eventually stretched and broke. Change is inevitable as we move on.

When George Seurat, played by Matt Horohoe, started sketching, Dot, played by Hannah Laird, the white panels were removed by actors in period costume to uncover Lisa Bucks wonderful painted rendition of the Island of La Grande Jatte. The play follows George’s life and creative process as he creates a huge canvas celebrating a Sunday in the park. His relationship wit Dot becomes strained as he looses himself in his work. This stage production brought back all the joy and emotions from the show I first experienced in New York City. Now that I am older and obsessed with capturing life, I better understand George Seurat.

In my sketch, I tried to assemble the cast in a fair approximation of where they were in George’s final composition.  Since the composition was finalized for only a short moment, I didn’t catch every character. Like any urban sketch done on location, I placed figures where they best balanced out the composition I was assembling. I placed George Seurat where the monkey would be found in his painting. The second act isn’t as strong as the first, but it features my favorite song, Art isn’t Easy! I absolutely loved this show, and the cast did an astounding job of keeping up with Sondheim’s fast paced lyrics. The show continues through October 28th. Performances are selling out so get your tickets now! As I got up to leave my pencil sharpener fell out of my lap and crashed to the floor. It popped open spilling pencil shavings everywhere. Embarrassed, I picked up a few with my fingers but decided a vacuum would hopefully pick up the delicate curled shavings with little effort.

“White: a blank page or canvas. His favorite – so many possibilities.”

– George Seurat

Sunday in the Park with George

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I went to the new Mad Cow, Blackbox Theater (54 West Church Street) where Lisa (pronounced Li-za) Buck was working on a huge set painting for Sunday in the Park with George. The painting was based on the large pointillist canvas now hanging in the Chicago Institute of Art in Chicago. The painting leaves out all the figures which will have the cast stepping in to fill the roles.

Lisa used long bamboo poles to hold her paint brushes. Painting was like an act of ballet with Lisa in constant motion. She had slated two hours to paint in the water. She was using old scenic paint which was chalkier than she was used to. This meant her brush dried out quickly with each brush stroke. This kind of forced her to work in s semi-pointillist manner. Overall she takes about 22 hours to finish a piece be it this large, or small. Lisa will be doing the set design for an upcoming Mad Cow production called The Road to Mecca.