The DMMO Years
The 2005 Season
The 2005 Summer Festival was interesting because it was quite varied. There were three mainstage productions in the summer portion of the season, and one winter production in December of 2005. There was one British opera, one French opera, one Italian opera, and one opera by an Italian American. It was also a season of firsts for me, those being as follows: the first season that I brought out a full set of Yamahas for use at DMMO, and the first season since the demise of the Safari that I traveled out to Indianola in a proper van. If memory serves, Jim assisted ma again by hauling the Yamahas in his company van, while I had a van load of my own household goods, sticks, stands, and other such items.
First, the instruments. I had purchased a pair of Yamaha 6000s (sizes 26″ and 29″) just after my arrival back in the States in 1998. I began using these two with the DMMO in 1999 and did so through the 2001 summer festival. To recap some of the events, both instrumentally and logistically between 2001 and 2004, my Safari gave up the ghost in February of 2002, and was replaced by a car that will remain nameless. My colleague Jim purchased the set of Lights in 2002 which I used for the following three seasons. In February 2004, I drove out to State College, PA to pick up a 32-inch Yamaha 6000 which was being sold by a college in the vicinity of Penn State University. Shortly before the summer 2005 festival, our KIA was T-boned on the way to work (not my fault and thankfully, no one was hurt) and we were fortunate to replace it with a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan. The car had only 35,000 miles on it and was well-kept. It lasted us eight years. It was the color of an eggplant, and that is the nickname that our daughters gave it. It took us a lot of places, me in particular. At the same time, Jim figured we’d need to complete the set of Yamahas, so he was able to get hold of a 23-inch Yamaha 6000, so now the set was complete. It was agreed that we’d repeat the convoy system that worked well for us the previous season. This allowed me to fill the “Egglant” with my musical peripherals and household items. In later seasons, I would be making other arrangements, such as using only three drums in order to carry all I needed in the Caravan, thereby freeing Jim to his own devices that season.
In addition to carrying the Yamahas that season, Jim included a complete set of new Remo Renaissance heads for me to install on the drums during the early days of the first week of the season. Again, I thank again my good friend for his invaluable assistance in assisting me in rebuilding a free-lance career.
The Operas
As I stated at the outset of this blog post, there were four operas during the 2005 season – three mainstage productions in the summer festival proper, and one opera in the winter of 2005. The operas were as follows: Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffman; Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor; Britten: Gloriana, and Menotti: Amahl and The Night Visitors, this last opera was performed in the off-season, in December of 2005. I had performed it back in 2003, but did not take part this time around, as I had other obligations.
Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffman
If memory serves me correctly, this was possibly my second encounter with this opera, as I had apparently played it with (as it was called then) the Lake George Opera back in the day. The funny thing is that while the music was quite familiar to me (it has fun timpani part) when we did it at DMMO, i have no clear recollection of my Lake George encounter. It was more a feeling of “DeJa’Vu”.
This production was staged and conducted by Dr. Robert Larsen, as were all of the DMMO productions back then. This production was sung in French and was performed six times. This was another one of those examples where an opera was sung in its original language, with supertitles in English. If I remember correctly, the supertitles of 2005 were not as technologically as advanced as those that are used today, but they were more than adequate for the job. The cast, as usual, was first rate. It included Scott Wichael, Tony Dillon, Nicholas Larson, Brian Jagde, Elise Quagliata, Drew Slatter, Torrance Blaisdell, Dean Elzinga and Nelli Riemer, among others. The audiences enjoyed it, as did I. While not technically as difficult as other operas, it is an interesting opera with a timpani part that is never boring. I reveled in it, as I supposed I did back in the day at Lake George, although this time around, I had a complete set of timpani to work with. Back in the day at Queensbury High School, the pit was so small, I was only able to use two timpani. It was a great success!
However, the rehearsals had the challenges and not always musical. During one of the pre-dress rehearsals, the orchestra was in the pit, and the cast was onstage, and we were about halfway through one of the acts, when the false wall pf the bit (designed to partially conceal the conductor) began to fall in on Dr. Larsen. Without missing a beat, he held the wall up with his free hand and continued to conduct for as long as possible until a couple of the stage crew relieved him of the wall. He then stopped, and we took a rehearsal break. I don’t know how he did it – it was not small, and it could have caused him injury. Luckily while it happened, he called out for assistance, and they were on it and got it away from him. It seemed like it took forever.
I mentioned earlier the luxury of having a full set of timpani to work with at the DMMO – instead of having to make do and be creative with two (although I was using the two middle Hinger timpani from the Albany Symphony). It was much easier to spread the notes over instruments whose ranges and sizes were much more conducive to producing a better sound. The Yamahas that I was using this season came with new Renaissance heads and had precisely two days to change them and “clear” them before the first run-through rehearsal on the first Monday night of our rehearsal period. Luckily, I was able to arrange to get into the lobby (where we rehearsed) during two low- usage periods, and was able, with the help of my tools, get the old heads off, the Teflon tape replaced, and the new heads on within the allotted time frame. I had to scramble a little, but I got it done. They sounded very good but got even better as I “played them in” during rehearsals and performances.
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
The second mainstage production of the 2005 Festival season was Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
Like The Tales of Hoffman, this was not my first go-around with this opera. I had played this one at the Lake George Opera in the early 1980s and fell in love with it, and I actually got to know it quite well back in the day, as conductor Louis Salemno asked me to re-write much of the timpani part. Needless to say, that required many hours communing with the score, but my efforts bore considerable fruit. This time around, I was left to my own devices when it came to possibly rewriting the parts. Approximately twenty years had passed since I played it with Lake George, and I didn’t think to keep my notes. Playing it as written made me wish that I had kept those notes, although when so much time passes, and one moves frequently, it is sometimes impossible to keep everything. For the 2005 DMMO performances, I decided to borrow the score and rewrite only the most egregious passages – which meant re-doing about half.
The production was another one that Dr. Larsen felt should be sung in the original language, so Italian it was, with supertitles. Dr. Larsen again staged and conducted the production, and it featured Torrence Blaisdell, Gary Martin, Anne Vikre, Mark Risinger, Jessi Baden, Eric Fennell, and Edwin Griffith. The production was one of the best up to that time. The cast was superlative, and the Sextet was out of this world. I was glad that we were able to schedule six performances of this opera. It is a fun opera to play, especially when one makes certain revisions. This was one of those occasions where I reveled in the music.
Britten: Gloriana
Up to this time, I had only participated in a production of one Britten opera: Albert Herring, with the Bronx Opera in 1976 or thereabouts. I had heard about Gloriana, which Britten composed for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. I had heard snippets of the opera – but not enough to gain significant knowledge of the music to make an informed judgement. I had never expected to perform this opera before possibly doing Peter Grimes, but that masterpiece didn’t show up on my performance list for another eight years. Therefore, I was quite excited to learn that Gloriana was scheduled for the 2005 Festival. I spent the pre-season learning about the opera and listening to whatever samples I could get hold of, but there were not meany at the time.
Dr. Larsen was again the producer and conductor, and I must admit he lavished a lot of care to every aspect of the production. The sets were excellent and the acting and singing were true to the period. Th opera is set in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth I, and deals with her relationship with Robert Deveraux, the Earl o Essex. Gwendolyn Jones was first rate in the role of Elizabeth I, and Theodore Green was a memorable Earl of Essex. Also featured were Janara Kellerman, Dennis Jesse, Lisa Lindstrom. Tony Dillon, Mark Risinger and many more. Rehearsals were a bit complex, as the score calls for stage trumpets – and I remember that it took several tries to get their entrance just right. I remember that the trumpets were late getting to where they were supposed to be (both musically and stagewise). That didn’t sit well with Dr. Larsen – and he let out an ear-splitting “TRUMPETS!!” – which could be heard out to C street – and brought the trumpets rushing in, almost breathless. Once he read them the law, we did the scene over, and ever after they were models of punctuality and right on musically. It was a shame that there were only four performances, but I consider myself fortunate to be part of that production.
I mentioned earlier that there was a winter production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors during the month of December. As I had other responsibilities back in Illinois, my colleague Mark Dorr handled the duties for me. I had played the 2003 production and was do it again in 2013. But not this off-season.
Here are the three operas that we played during the 2005 Festival. These are drawn from various sources. Enjoy!
First: The Tales of Hoffman
Next, Lucia di Lammermoor!
And finally, Gloriana!
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