Premiere I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Last Sunday we had premiere of “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” from Bellini where I interpreted the role of Tebaldo. It was a great success. All my colleagues Anna Pennisi (Romeo), Akiho Tsujii (Giulietta), Igor Tsarkov (Capellio) and Hinrich Horn (Lorenzo) gave their best and we all did pretty well under the baton of Enrico Calesso.
During the morning leading to our first performance the first thing I did was to grind some coffee beans and prepare my much needed black coffee (which I take everyday), I do not only like coffee but it's smell, perhaps I love equaly the taste and smell, although I am pretty sure sometimes is more one than the other... anyways then, I prepared somethings regarding my very last minute quick trip to Viena on the next day. Later after having breakfast and some organizing I went to the theater to warm up a bit the voice just to check it. Then I had a vegetarian lunch and my dessert was some muesli with frozen fruits and some almonds.
I really enjoy reading and at this time I am reading a book from Tim Ferris called "The four-hour work week", I was reading previeously the book called "Earthlings" from Sayaka Murata but just before I finished the latter I remembered I bought this Tim Ferris book which I really wanted to read but somehow I forgot about it. I must mentioned that during the first lock down because of Covid 19 I started reading books about entrepeneurship and bussiness but the reading of it faded away as soon as we returned to the theater to work on some productions plus I also love reading Murakami and I decided to focus my attention to this japanese author.
Going back to my day... sorry for turning left, i tend to do that...often... Finally once at the theatre around one hour and a half before the beginning of the performance, I warmed up the voice starting with very kind excersices for the voice and then integrating more complex ones, and specially combining excercises with long legato and short or quick excercises to keep the elasticity of the voice. One hour before the show I went to the make up department where they put like 6 tattoos on my arms and chest and that takes some time. If you go to my instagram you can see a photo of how more or less I look with them, it is funny I feel like a character of Narcos Mexico (Neftlix series).
During the whole performance I focused a lot just on my breathing and that allowed me to be aswell very focus and calm but with the adrenaline and body very active. All the high notes were there and the passaggio worked well, in general I found a very good balance throuout all the performance and that made my happy. In premieres there is always a very exciting factor yet for me sometimes terrifying, although everything is really prepared and long rehearsed there is nothing to prepare you for what your body feels during the first performance of any work being opera or concert or whatever. There is this inner excitement but also scary feeling of uncertenty, how is it going to go, the adrenaline kicks in and sort of you have to trust that everything you worked for must be and will happen on the opening night and nothing bad will happen. The reassurance one must have is very important in order not to panic on stage. With the years and many performances I have gotten better dealing with it but it is always there and it will be always there.
Ah, now to the end of this blog, the reason why I was packing for my little trip to Viena was thanks to Rodrigo Porras Garulo (Rodrigo if you are reading these lines, thank you again for it) a tenor and a colleague which recommended me to contact the tenor and teacher Antonio Carangelo . A tenor which studied with incredible italian tenorMario del Monaco before he passed away and also studied repertoire with the famous Ettore Campogalliani. It was a very interesting class and I really enjoyed and I loved the italian way of singing that he teaches. I could elaborate on it but it would take me pages and the whole evening writing about it.
Ok, this concludes my blog of the week. Last news is that we are now rehearsing musicaly the Magic flute here in Würzburg and I will sing the role of Tamino, this will be my second production of it and I am really looking forward to it.
Until next time,
