Hi everyone :) I'm back!
Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth there. On the day of the Ektor premiere, a couple hours before the concert, I found out the place I was set to move to (in 5 days) had fallen through and that one of my roommates was bailing. Then I found (or rather, was offered) a new situation, but because it was all so last minute it took us the better part of a month to get our internet going . . . so . . .yeah . . . that was an adventure, but now I'm back online.
Needless to say, I was a bit distracted during the concert. I was also convinced that my sound wasn't carrying because I couldn't hear myself at all. But I did have fun and am looking forward to staging the show in the spring. In the meantime, clips from the concert premiere are on YouTube and here are some of me! YAY! I think the mic distorted some of the high notes a bit, but you'll get the idea (and most of my music is middle-sitting anyhow).
The first link is to the part where Hector goes off on Paris for being an idiot and stealing another man's wife:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Hr5S1EsRE
In this aria Hector comforts his wife and prays that his son may surpass him in greatness before leaving to lead the Trojans against the Greeks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bi_molRJl4
This is Hector tough-talking Patroclos' dead body (oh yes ;))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL_1_2vdfvI
In this piece Hector asks Achilles to agree that the victor of their fight will treat the loser's body with respect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx20nHPGqNg
And here is Hector's death scene. In the beginning he realizes that his is going to loose the fight, then gets stabbed in the neck and still manages to sing his last words (go opera!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xRWixeNyCI
The opera will be presented this spring in a fully staged version with chamber orchestra. The performance will be on May 15th at the Wings Theatre (154 Christopher St.) in New York City. We are hoping to add another performance on May 14th, but that kinda depends on how much money we can raise (if you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please let me know and I'll send you more information! YAY!). I will post more information on the opera closer to the performance date for those of you interested in attending :)
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Comments
I wish I could come see the performances in May.
I'm glad you are moving forward sweety.
And yes, the libretto is taken directly from the Iliad so it's in Ancient Greek (oo, ah ;)).
Yeah, the ancient greek is a trip . . . fun, but difficult!
As far as having male roles sung by women: it is not uncommon for women to sing the roles of young men in opera (Cherubino in Marriage of Figaro, Hansel in Hansel und Gretel, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, etc.). I think that roles such as Patroclos, Apollo, and Paris could have easily been written for women. Also, in Baroque opera many leading male roles were written for castrati, and since we don't have them anymore those roles are usually sung by mezzo-sopranos or counter-tenors. However, in this case I believe that the composer couldn't find enough men and decided that it would be better to simply have an all-female cast. There are, I believe, 4 female roles in the opera, and every singer but me sings multiple parts, so most of the singers were singing both male and female roles. It will be interesting to see how we work that out in the staging :)