By: Alicia Waller
I imagine many of us woke up similarly this morning – like it was the first day of classes at a new school that you’d really wanted to go to for a long time. Our backgrounds are similar, give or take a few nuisances. We all have a few solid years of vocal study under our belts, we’ve earned or are pursuing undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in music, we’ve learned our characters and the story for our prospective operas, we’ve studied language and diction, and perhaps most of all… we love to sing. We love it so much in fact, that we’ve blocked out six weeks of our summer schedule to learn more about it, practice and perfect it. As you can imagine, many of us were boiling over today with anticipation for meeting one another for the first time. Well, I was boiling over with anticipation.
I imagine many of us woke up similarly this morning – like it was the first day of classes at a new school that you’d really wanted to go to for a long time. Our backgrounds are similar, give or take a few nuisances. We all have a few solid years of vocal study under our belts, we’ve earned or are pursuing undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in music, we’ve learned our characters and the story for our prospective operas, we’ve studied language and diction, and perhaps most of all… we love to sing. We love it so much in fact, that we’ve blocked out six weeks of our summer schedule to learn more about it, practice and perfect it. As you can imagine, many of us were boiling over today with anticipation for meeting one another for the first time. Well, I was boiling over with anticipation.
Questions raced through my mind of what the other singers
would be like… what would my maestro and director be like? the Prelude staff?
our stage manager? Not to mention, of
course, the flurry of butterflies circling my stomach eager to meet Madame Martina Arroyo. Fortunately, all of my questions
were answered swiftly the moment I walked through into Hunter College this
morning.
I was greeted warmly in the elevator to the fifth floor by
fellow singer Wendy Wang (Rosina Cover - Barbiere), who was kind enough to
direct me to Brecher Hall where we would all meet as a company for the first
time. The next face I recognized, of
course was that of Madame Arroyo whose genuine warmth and operatic wisdom
practically radiated through the entire room and down the hall. Leading the helm of the opera I will be
studying, Il Barbiere di Siviglia,
are none other than Maestro Willie Anthony Waters and Mr. Anthony Laciura, each
of whom revealed himself to be charming, hilarious and razor sharp. I also learned that despite his astonishingly
Verdian and resonate speaking voice, Mr. Mark Rucker (Administrative Director)
is quick to share a laugh and pat a colleague on the back. Additional notes were that Ms. Molly Johnson
(Assistant Administrative Director) holds the key to all, tardiness is never
tolerated, music must be memorized and… oh yes, music must be memorized!
There are many other names and faces I met today which I
hope to introduce to you over the next several weeks – singers and staff
alike. I look forward to sharing my
experience as a Prelude to Performance
participant with you, and invite you to tweet me @aliciaenvivo or
@martinazprelude with any questions.
Thank you so much for reading, and talk to you soon!
P.S. For all of you Boardwalk
Empire fans out there Eddie Kessler is even cooler in person.
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