I Don’t Envy Them

22. February 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Musical Theatre, Read Online

I’m so thankful to have positions in both Opera San José and Symphony Silicon Valley. Should my playing falter, there are ways they can go about getting rid of me, but they can’t, on a whim, require me to re-apply for my positions.

It is a confrontation as passionate as anything seen between Javert and Jean Valjean, pitting Cameron Mackintosh against the orchestra of Les Misérables, one of the theatre impresario’s biggest successes.

Mackintosh confirmed yesterday that the members of the show’s current orchestra – some of whom have played with Les Misérables since it opened 25 years ago – were being forced to reapply for their jobs. The move follows plans for an expanded orchestra with three additional members to accommodate new arrangements for the musical’s score.

“This does require us to look again at the make-up of the orchestra to ensure we do credit to the score,” said Mackintosh. “I hope that as many of them as possible will be able to remain with us for the next stage of the show’s life. However, should personnel changes be required I must continue, as always, to put the show and audience first.”

Mackintosh’s assurance that he wanted to keep the Les Misérables’ London show “the world’s premiere production” have done little to appease its musicians. “I don’t think what they’ve done is the right thing to do,” said the oboist Adrian Rowlands, when contacted by The Independent. A flautist who has played on a Les Misérables national tour also confirmed the news, but declined to go on the record as he intended to apply for one of the jobs.

RTWT

Send In The Clowns

23. August 2010 · 3 comments · Categories: Musical Theatre, Videos

We did “Send in the Clowns” yesterday with Lisa Vroman.

Well, okay … really we are doing it today, but by the time you read this it will be tomorrow, since I only post Sunday music clips on Sunday. So I can’t tell you how Lisa Vroman did it, nor can I tell you what I think will be the case … but several have indicated it’ll be great fun for me to play the English horn solo.

Nope.

First off, I have been told by management that I am playing second oboe rather than English horn. And I’ve been told that the English horn only plays one number: Sleeping Beauty Waltz. So even IF Send in the Clowns used EH I wouldn’t be playing.

But …

The solo in Send in the Clowns was not originally written for English horn!

How crazy is that? It became popular via the Judy Collins rendition, which switched the solo from clarinet to EH, but I’ll bet you a good amount of money that it will be on clarinet today (yesterday to you!). That’s the way Stephen Sondheim’s arranger wrote it. Trust me; I’ve played the show.

Here’s the version I’m guessing many of you know:

Barbra must have decided it should be on English horn too:

And here is the way it was originally written:

Here’s Mr. Sondheim (no clarinet OR English horn) coaching a student on the song:

And then … this is wonderful! … you get a variety of interpretations, all done by one singer (actress/impersonator Carly Sakolove)!:

All The Things You Are

14. May 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Links, Musical Theatre

Last week I attended a production of a very wacky musical called “Very Warm for May”. It’s not done often. Heck, it’s not done at all. But a company called 42nd Street Moon puts on rarely performed, usually older musicals. And our son’s girlfriend, Megan Hopp, was in this production as the lead character, May. (Go here and check out the fabulous poster! That’s Megan. You can see more photos here.) Now we all know how preposterous opera plots are. Musicals can be that way too. (Besides, how many people burst into song every time the mood hits them?) But I’m a sucker for a musical, and as crazy as this one was, I still cried. Really. The song “All the Things You Are” is in the musical, and it just causes me to cry. I can’t help it. Something at the beginning of that song … the interval up, interval down … lack of resolution …. Then, at the end, when Megan came out to take her bow, I teared up again. This time it was just because I love seeing friends and family doing something they love and succeeding so well.

The funny thing is, I rarely cry in “real life”.

Isn’t that odd? I mean … horrible things might be happening and I hold it together. But i read a poem, hear a piece of music, or go to a show, and doggone it, tears start flowing.

The company that does these productions uses minimal props and, at least in this musical (but I’m guessing in all), a pianist rather than a full pit orchestra (there’s no pit in the lovely, intimate hall). I was impressed with it all … just great fun. But yeah, I laughed about the plot. I think I’m allowed that, yes? Especially since I cried too? So I truly can say, “I laughed … I cried …!”

I was really impressed with the singing voices in this production. Robbie Cowan has a super voice, to be sure, as do some of those women! And the guy who plays the crazy director, Bill Fahrner, is pretty darn hysterical. Megan, of course, was my fave! :-)

Cats

31. August 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Links, Musical Theatre, Other People's Words

I played for my son’s high school’s production of Cats some years ago. It’s a musical I’ve never cared for. Playing it didn’t help. But I just read a blogger’s comments about her experience and I’m thinking, “Hey, this just might work!”:

I feel that Cats is best understood as a ballet on a poem by T.S. Eliot. After all, all sorts of nonsense goes on in ballets. If swans are OK, why not cats?

Gee … that might do it! Think of it as ballet. Yes. I like that idea. (Of course I still might not like it; there’s a lot of ballet I don’t like either, due to the lame music.)

She ended the blog with a choice comment, too:

There were a couple of older performers, at least I presume they are older, who sang virtually without reference to any particular pitch. I pretended they were cats.

:-)

Sorry … gotta put this up. Doesn’t mean you gotta listen, though:

Yes, Sometimes It’s This Exciting

13. August 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Musical Theatre, Videos

Someone has posted the reed 2 book (which is oboe & English horn) to the musical Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”.

Imagine playing a run of this and playing that oboe part over and over, day in, day out.

(And that is why you want to hear a good blend of the band and not single out one exciting part like the oboe, yes?)

For Tim (and your daughter)

23. July 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Musical Theatre, Videos

Lego Les Miserables ;-)

Bono, The Edge, and Spiderman, The Musical?

11. June 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Musical Theatre, Videos

Um. Okay, then.

David Henry Hwang

04. December 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Another One Bites the Dust, Links, Musical Theatre, Other People's Words

On the demise of AMTSJ:

Well, your email was the first I’d heard of this development. I’ve since read the sad news online, and, at this point, can only say that I’m shocked.

You can read the whole thing here

I talked to a few musicians last night who always played for AMTSJ. They found out about the death of the organization through the newspaper. They had no clue this was possible, and the only recently finished up with Flower Drum Song. I heard one player talking, and he sounded so fearful of what he would do to make up for all that he lost. And he was fairly new to the organization. I feel especially for those who always play and have been doing so for a much longer period of time.

Don Quixote

21. November 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Announcements, Links, Musical Theatre

TNG fans will remember the struggles of Data, the oh-so-human android, to experience what it means to be a fallible member of the homo sapiens species. It’ll be interesting to see Brent Spiner, who played Data, tackling one of theater’s most delightfully fallible characters: Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha.”

Well, Spiner did appear in Sunday in the Park with George years ago, so he’s not new to musical theatre. But I’m having a difficult time seeing him ad Don Q. Maybe just my problem …? And he’ll have to sing To Dream the Impossible Dream … sigh … not my fave, I confess.

I read it here.

Peril of the Pit

10. August 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Links, Musical Theatre

There was a moment with the pyrotechnics — there’s a flash when Phantom disappears, and a spark from the explosion went and landed in the hair of the oboist. She was uninjured, but there was some damage to her hair, which the hair department took care of. They’re experts in that field.

I had heard this story. Frightening, eh?

Life in the pit can be quite dull, but then again, moments like these might make one wish again for dullness. Ya think?

I read the story here.

Dr. Horrible

15. July 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Links, Musical Theatre, Recommendations

Update & Alert
Looks like the Dr. Horrible site is awfully busy … I can manage to get in now. So I guess not sleeping was good for my viewing pleasure, eh? Perhaps the birds will wake me again tonight and I can watch parts 2 and 3. (I’m sorry now that I didn’t watch them right away. Oh well.)

As some readers know, I’m one of those odd oboists (Okay, okay … you think all oboists are odd? So. Well then. I’m odderer.) who likes musicals. So when I checked out Episode One of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog by Josh Whedon I was hooked.

Hooked, though, means only three episodes from what I’ve read. Currently it’s free online. I guess in a short while it’ll be on iTunes for legal download.

So … check it out if you are odderer like I.

And yes, I’m writing this at 2:39 AM. There’s a very insistent bird chirping outside and the darn thing is keeping me awake.

Interpretation?

28. May 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Musical Theatre, Oboe, Other People's Words, Ouch!, Ramble

I received an email yesterday from a former student. The person had attended a Beauty and the Beast performance and had wondered if I’d be playing. BUT … the oboe “didn’t sound like you”. Seeing my name in the program the student decided I must have played English horn.

Well, I played both, of course.

Now how to interpret that?

Either I sounded so bad on oboe the student couldn’t believe it was me, or the oboe sounded better than the student thinks I sound …?

I, of course, go with the former.

It’s sort of like a person saying, “Hey, I thought you were in front of me at the mall yesterday, only the person was too fat to be you!” … and you were at the mall. You know?

Yes, I tend to take things in the negative. I’m an oboist, after all!

But anyway, it was a weird email to get, and I did write back to say, “Hmmm. What does that mean?” or some such thing.

Finished With Beauty

25. May 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: Musical Theatre, Ramble

This was a fun run, even being the reed eater that it was. I think the audiences enjoyed it, for the most part. (I did read one negative review at All That Chat, but oh well!

One thing that I found annoying after a while were the words for the sake of rhyme or filler. They were so unnecessary for what they said. They were merely there.

Here’s a simple example:

Oh, isn’t this amazing?
It’s my fav’rite part because you’ll see
Here’s where she meets Prince Charming
But she won’t discover that it’s him ’til chapter three

In line two the “you’ll see” is entirely unnecessary except for the music and rhyme.

I guess that’s not unusual. I just kept thinking, “Surely they could have thought of something that had more reason to be there?” But yes, I’m silly to even complain about that. Right?

So … the show was fun. I had some enjoyable solos. I think I’ll even miss it a bit.

When Will I Learn?

23. May 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Musical Theatre, Ramble

I went to the pizza party after the show tonight. They have one of these for every show, inviting cast and crew. I go. I eat one slice of pizza. I find one or two other musicians and stand in some corner of the room and yak for a while. It’s noisy, so I have to talk loudly, and my throat always hurts. Then I leave before nearly anyone else. And I always wonder, “Why did I go to that?!”

And I have no answer.

I’m not good at parties. And I’m exhausted after a show. I don’t know any of the cast, I’m not one who wants to connect with the “stars”, and they certainly aren’t interested in talking to orchestra members. We have nothing in common, aside from a show. With this show I don’t even recognize most of the cast, since I only saw them in our first “singers included” rehearsal (do they call that a sitzprobe for musicals too, or just opera?) and then the first few staged rehearsals. Then they covered the pit and we became disconnected from them.

So now I’m home, and I’m even more tired than I normally am. Wouldn’t you know?

Ooh. I’m whining. Sorry! I think it’s the smoke. We have some fires in our Santa Cruz Mountains and I’m very weary of inhaling this smoke.

So good news: the main reed was a happy camper. The second reed—used for louder parts that don’t matter quite so much—was being a bit rebellious. Maybe its just angry about being second. I wonder. But since it doesn’t matter so much (sorry, second!) I really don’t care. As long as I get the solos and don’t make any errors that the audience would notice I’m just fine and dandy.

Noise Today & Other Ramblings

12. May 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Musical Theatre, Ramble, Symphony · Tags:

The neighbors are getting a new roof today. I thought it was noisy on Friday, when they were doing some prep work. Compared to today, Friday was nothing. So I suppose I can be extremely grateful that I have two rehearsals for “Beauty and the Beast” today. Even though the thing is a chop buster and a reed eater. (Quick! Send reeds!)

Yesterday was the killer day, and by 10:50 PM I was dead. Alas, the conductor did want to use up all our time. They are paying us, after all, so I do understand. I just was rather out of it. And so were my reeds.

At the symphony concert they had roses and chocolates for all the moms. In the audience. Seems to me the orchestra moms could be given these things as well. Yeah, we are paid, so I suppose I should shut up … but I think, too, that the audience would love seeing how many mothers are on that stage (although this concert featured a smaller orchestra than last year’s, so it would look quite as MomFull™). I thought, too, that at Thursday’s concert, which was celebrating SJSU in some sort of way, those of us who attended SJSU could have been asked to stand; it seems to me that the SJSU folks would love to take credit for that. Or something.

But heck, I’m still exhausted from yesterday and I’m sure I’m not thinking clearly … what do I know?