Opera

I think I am going to see a dress rehearsal of the opera Norma tonight (www.operacolorado.org). I will let you know how it is.

UPDATE: Thanks to my friends, I watched the opera from a seat in the third row. THIRD ROW of the Ellie Caulkins opera house, which seats something like 2,200 these days, according to our usher. (She reminded us to watch what happens to the chandelier at the top of the opera house when the lights go down ... it kinda folds up and flies away into the ceiling. Also, supposedly no seat in there is more than 110 ft. away from the stage. The usher was very chatty) Because it was a working dress rehearsal, some of the singers were saving their voices, most notably Philip Webb as Pollione in his Opera Colorado debut, but it seemed like the women were really singing out strong. Hasmik Papian was impressive as Norma and her duets with Irina Mishura, also strong, were lovely. Both women also were making their Opera Colorado debut. Papian had an incredible range, not just in hitting all the notes , but in volume as well, going from strong and powerful to delicate as if she were just singing to the front row but still with great tone and control.

I have not seen other productions of Norma, but Opera Colorado chose to cast boys (I don't know, they looked like teens or maybe slightly older) as the druids. And in one scene, a parade of them came out in nothing but thongs, butt cheeks exposed. Then they had to bend over and crouch and paint themselves with war paint. Couldn't they have given them loin cloths or something? Third row. Remember.

Anyway, some of you may be disappointed to know that my friends and I gave a standing ovation to Papian since standing ovations seem to be given to everyone these days, but it was one of those things where there wasn't any other way to show our appreciation for a good performance in a vocally demanding part because the audience had given a loud cheer to two kids who didn't sing but had to pretend like they were sleeping on stage and not cry and all that. So how do you go up from there when it's time to clap for people who actually had to sing.

Opening night is Thursday and there will be a couple days in between each performance so the singers can rest their voices.

Also wanted to make a note of Sean Panikkar, tenor, as Flavio.

Read the preview in The Denver Post