Final Dress...

Last night was our final dress and we had a friendly, and familiar, audience full of the casts from the other shows and various Opera New Jersey employees.  Thank you to all for the laughs at all the correct spots!  My friend, and fellow blogger, I'd Rather Be Sleeping was able to come to the show and was a delight to talk to afterwords.  She even made me a beautiful pair of earrings (because she is talented like that) and we got to discuss the perils of being an opera blogger.  She was also able to score tickets to Lucia (which I couldn't help her with, since I got out of that chorus) and I know she will enjoy it.  In fact, if any of you are in the New Jersey area, I strongly suggest you check out Lucia di Lammermor (after you see The Mikado, natch) because everyone is brilliant.  Hell, just see The Abduction from the Seraglio while you are at it because the cast is so damn talented.  I don't usually get all excited like this about opera, but it is pretty cool to be amongst such talented (and regularly employed!) opera singers.

However, I did not sing as well as I would have liked, because I would get so caught up in the moment that I would forget proper technique.  One of my voice teachers used to tell me to PLEASE keep at least 20% of my brain focused on vocal technique while on stage, but the lure of the audience's laughter was too much to resist.  Perhaps a brain washing is needed before we open?  And the flop sweat generated by the beautiful kimonos we wear is getting to be a problem.  By the time we took our curtain calls, I could smell myself, and that is never good. Not to mention the fact that these beautiful kimonos have trains that make it difficult to dance in and, if I did not worry about living out my life, I would take scissors to the damn things.

Too bad you would never find my body after the costume women got done with me.