So we’ve reached the end of our first week of the touring school show. We’ve had no problems except at that awful school in Akron. So overall the first week was pretty good. Week 2, look out, because I’m ready for ya!
The morning show in Cleveland Heights was darn near perfect — the kids were enthusiastic, the teachers kept them under control, and our performance was spot on.
The afternoon show, at St. Vincent Depaul in Akron, was just plain not fun. The kids were way too rowdy, and the teachers just sat back and didn’t bother to exert any control. It was like they were taking a break while sitting there in the room, watching us struggle to quiet the little brats down. We performed well, but I never want to have to deal with that type of situation again. I’m even linking to their school just in case anyone from the school happens to read this blog, or in case any parents are considering sending their kids there. Those “teachers” deserve to have their licenses revoked.
Yesterday, our morning show at St. Mary Immaculate Conception School in Avon was a little bit rough. Thank goodness our pianist has the script right in front of her and was able to give us some hints as to what we were supposed to be doing. The kids were very responsive and into it, so I guess it went pretty well overall. The afternoon show at St. Anthony of Padua in Lorain was much better, with no problems to speak of.
Today was more of the same. We did two morning shows St. Barnabas Elementary in Northfield. No problems, but 2 shows back to back were a bit tiring.The afternoon show at St. Nicholas Academy in Lorain went fine, but Greg (the tenor) and I missed our exit and were almost late.
Tomorrow we perform in Cleveland Heights in the morning and in Akron in the afternoon.
I am in this year’s Lyric Opera Cleveland touring school show, called Overture!
We’ve been rehearsing since Monday at a church in the Tremont area of Cleveland. This morning, we had our first live performance for the kids in the Head-Start program at the church. It actually went really well.
The show is set up as a game show. We invite kids from the audience up to try to answer questions about opera. The singers also perform excerpts from different operas to illustrate the answers. It’s pretty cool!
Starting this Monday, we’ll be going to 2 schools a day doing the 45-minute show. It looks to be a lot of fun.
Howdy, Y’all!
In these pages, I intend to describe my experiences in the world of Opera. If you like it, please register and leave me a comment. If you don’t like it, shove off! To clarify, I enjoy constructive criticism and lively, civil debate. But I have no desire to deal with annoying crap. Hey, it’s my website. If you want to flame me, get your own!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!