KC to Mobile

About six months ago, over a couple of beers at Harry's Bar in Westport, the Artistic Director of the Mobile Opera Company, Andy Anderson, asked me if I would be interested in coming down to Mobile in the spring to assist in the preparation of the upcoming production of Wagner's "Der fliegende Holländer". I immediately said I would but wondered how I would manage to take three weeks off in the middle of the semester. In my twenty-five years of service at the Conservatory I have never taken a sabbatical or a leave of absence. Many of my colleagues go off regularly to sing roles or play concerts or teach elsewhere. I decided that my turn had come. Granted, I'm not a tenured faculty member, but let's not quibble over status! It took me hours of work and countless e-mails to line up the crew to cover my work at the Conservatory. I am not indespensible, of course, but there are not that many capable people out there who do what I do. And all the good ones are really busy. But I managed to cover every lesson and every coaching. It may take a village to raise a child but it takes an army of pianists and coaches to cover my duties at the Conservatory.

I have prepared many opera scores in my day and have often played rehearsals for our professional company in town, the Kansas City Lyric Opera, but I have never been hired to be the official pianist for an out-of-town professional opera company. This would be a first for me, and an interesting project as well. We don't do enough Wagner at the Conservatory! Actually, we don't do any. I had a look at the FH score last summer and thought: egads, what have I gotten myself into? I would count FH among the more difficult scores I have ever had to prepare. (In case you're curious, the most demanding scores I have had to play are Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos", Britten's "Midsummer's Night Dream", Adamo's "Little Women", and topping the list "Lysistrata", again by Mark Adamo. That one nearly drove me insane.) FH is doable, it just takes a bit of mental re-writing.

Leading the cast of the opera in the role of Senta is soprano Amanda Mace. I remember Amanda from the time she spent at the Conservatory working on her undergraduate degree. She is one of our greatest success stories. Two years ago she made her début at the Bayreuther Festspiel (singing Eva in "Meistersinger"). She lives in Munich now and has professional engagements all over Europe. When Andy told me that he had cast every role except Senta, and that he would ideally love to have Amanda Mace for it, I suggested he simply ask her. The worst she could say would be no. It turned out that she wanted to learn the role and try it out somewhere, and she happened to have the block of time free in order to come over to the States and do it. Thus, one of Europe's rising stars on the Wagnerian horizon will grace the stage at Mobile Opera.

The remaining members of the cast (and that would be the mezzo Maria, der Holländer, der Steuerman, Daland and Erik) are all seasoned professionals. The opera demands a huge chorus, two men's choruses in fact. I am curious to hear what forces Andy has mustered. All the principals and myself are arriving in Mobile today. We are invited to the maestro's house for an informal get together this evening. Knowing Andy's culinary skills and his excellent taste in wines it should be a very pleasant evening indeed.