I’ve Fall-en and I Can Get [You] Up(dates)
It’s fall (booooooo), and if you’re too young to get the above reference, here it is.
First, Sketchbook for Ollie is now up and touring to schools around Kansas City! It was a joyous week of final preparations, taking in LOKC’s excellent Carmen at the majestic Kauffman Center, a building designed by Frank Gehry, and a joyous reunion with Bill Folman, my college pal responsible for the source material. We saw the first few performances, and the kids are eating it up. Honestly, it’s been healing to see them blown away by the opera singers’ powerful voices and, occasionally, by my jokes. Here are some hilarious post-show audience questions so far:
How old are you? (Since Bill and I are the oldest in the group, when we shared our ages, the whole place went “WHOOOOOOA!” as if we’d just said we were around to witness the signing of the Declaration of Independence.)
How tall are you? (Similar responses to the tallest among us.)
Does it hurt when you sing?
How do you turn the lights on?
How many glasses have you broken with your high voice?
And some of the sweetest responses:
How do composers do THIS?!
You guys are the best opera guys I’ve ever seen, and I’m amazed at all you did!
One girl shared that she had recently lost her grandparents, and the opera made her feel brave.
You can now find some beautiful photos from Sketchbook for Ollie on my Gallery page as well as (drumroll) a playlist of excerpts from our invited dress rehearsal below!
Shortly before leaving NYC for the premiere, I also turned in a significant rewrite of the libretto to Welcome to the Madness for Opera Steamboat as well as a complete draft of the vocal score for Good Shabbos.
As previously described, I’ve spent some intense months writing, traveling, rehearsing, rewriting, more rewriting, and eventually seeing it all come to fruition. Here's some of what’s up next:
The Public Access team was awarded a residency at the Millay Arts Colony beginning late next month to reconvene and forge ahead with our opera-adjacent video miniseries about the infamous Mari Lyn. We’re excited to resume our deep dive into her 1980s cable access TV studio…and her singular psyche.
Lisa DeSpain and I will head to Vanderbilt University in January to tinker with Staggerwing some more.
Fargo-Moorhead Opera will give the first live performance of Everything Comes to a Head, which was originally conceived for a digital production in 2020, next February.
Until then, I’m taking some down time to stepup my skills in everything from playwriting and orchestration to audio and video editing.
Most importantly, I am preparing a lot of material, from the brand new to the decades-old, to offer in a one-stop sheet music shop on this site. I’ve got shelves and boxes and hard drives full of stuff that deserves TLC and sprucing up; progress is steady, but there’s always more to be done! I aim to be up and running by the end of the year, if not before. Please let me know if you have any specific requests for me to prioritize; I’m always happy to fulfill one-off orders via email as usual.