Category: music

Eugene Onegin – Sitzprobe

One of my fellow chorus members kindly explained what sitzprobe actually means. I assumed it was some kind of abbreviation that was lost in the mists of time, but it turns out it’s German and means ‘sitting rehearsal’ not terribly accurate, but at any rate standing still rehearsal. Back in the Halls (hurrah) and I’m…

July 4, 2011
Eugene Onegin – Fourth Production Rehearsal

Well! The marketing of the Opera is in full swing, I’ve been handing out fliers and putting up posters and getting it listed on referral sites like Bachtrack, and the Halls team have been putting up interviews on Youtube with Harry & Nick so if you still need convincing you should be inviting ALL your friends to come…

July 2, 2011
Eugene Onegin – third production rehearsal – arrival of the principals!

A swelteringly hot Sunday and I’m very glad that the rehearsal has been moved to the morning, and to Brooklands school, where the doors of the hall are flung wide onto a very pleasant square shaded by a vast tree – Thank you Brooklands! The Principals have arrived, and so has the poster. We’ve worked with Nick…

June 27, 2011
Open Door Opera – Iphigenia

A hot summer saturday evening by the river, the ideal moment for a bit of opera. I’d spent the day at a workshop on writing for young adults, and A, slogging over her book, so we were glad to be going out, and even more glad to be in the open air. We planned to come…

June 27, 2011
Rats in the Shadows

Our second night out in a row. I recall saying about a month ago that we would have no social life while rehearsing Onegin, it has turned out not to be true – tired, yes; frantically busy, yes; but going all sorts of places. This is where being part of the community opera pays off,…

June 26, 2011
midsummer music… and dancing

We’ve had a busy few days celebrating midsummer with music of all kinds. Thursday night Jon Boden celebrated the end of a year of folk songs in his A Folk Song a Day project with a gig at Cecil Sharp House. I have listened to every one of the songs, though not every day, tending to gorge…

June 26, 2011
Eugene Onegin 2nd Production Rehearsal

So we are upstairs and don’t have enough doors for our entrances and exits, and have to crunch against walls and pretend we aren’t there. It’s hot and it’s raining, and there isn’t enough light for photographs; good job I took loads last time. This is one of those rehearsals where there is a lot…

June 21, 2011
Eugene Onegin- 1st rehearsal

So! First rehearsal: musical director Nick Jenkins is jetting in from Brussells or somewhere, and not expected until midday, so we collect our hired scores and amuse ourselves updating them with word changes from Director Harry Fehr; in pencil of course! Then Harry introduces us to the designer Tom Oldham and costumer Briony. Harry has…

May 29, 2011
Early Music part 2

Early music is a passion I share with my partner A, and a chance discovery led to the inspiration for an historical novel, The Cold Time. Sometime in 1993 , arriving early for a film at the Odeon at Marble Arch, we headed into HMV to browse, and I picked up a new release in…

March 20, 2011
What’s folk got to do with it?

I was brought up on a diet of Beatles, Blues and Ballads. (I once had a cat who loved to be sung to, and the sadder the song the better: he was very partial to John Dowland, but his favourites were Bruton Town and Waly, Waly . Morph used to scream in terror on the way…

February 25, 2011