La vie ozarkienne

Life is good here. As we have passed the mid-point of the program we are in high gear. Three of four shows have already opened, the fourth, "Little Women", opens tonight. I have enjoyed a lull in my activity since we have only started putting the opera scenes program together. Along with that there will also be an evening of chamber music organized by our orchestral players. I have been asked to play in a trio for violin, trumpet and piano by the American composer Eric Ewazen. It is fun to play chamber music again. My colleague Michael and I are also preparing the Schubert Rondo in A Major for piano four-hands, a work I played a few summers ago in Graz. It is wonderful to resurrect it.
I have to admire our two stage directors Linda and Laura, and our artistic director, Tom. The stage director is ultimately responsible for every detail of the production, making sure props are built and painted, lighting is implemented, props are found, costumes are built or procured, not to mention the basic business of moving people around the stage in a meaningful way. Taking care of one production would be a lot, but doing two at the same time is really a big assignment. Likewise with the duties of the artistic director. He conducts all the rehearsals then, for each of the two casts, conducts the Wandelprobe, the tech dress, the dress rehearsal and all the performances. Doing that for one show and one cast would be a lot, but two shows double cast is plenty. Besides that, he also runs the OIO program and takes care of a myriad of details. Believe me, I am not complaining when I don't have enough to do.
I was asked to help out with running super titles. Of course, I agreed. It means following the score carefully and clicking to the next segment on the computer program. Basically a simple (and boring) task, but one that is easy to screw up. The "Little Women" score is particularly complex to follow. As all three main shows have supertitles, it means that a few of us are helping out in this capacity. If I have developed a case of 'tennis elbow' from playing the piano (even though I don't play tennis), I may develop a case of 'mah-jongg index finger' from operating the super titles (I don't play mah-jongg either). It's an occupational hazard, I guess.