Friday, August 2, 2013

In Buxton: August 1, loitering with the intent to rehearse

If I recall correctly, the last time we spoke was in the middle of the afternoon tea break of rehearsal yesterday. So you haven't heard about the show last night.

It was Princess Ida, done by Peak Opera, directed by Ian Henderson who did both Patience and Yeomen with GSOV. It had Ian's fingerprints all over it - the girls at Castle Adamant didn't want a bar of Ida's women-only rule and were in on the secret about the three newbies being men in disguise, practically from the start. Even Ida showed signs of weakening early, which I thought very effective because the way it's usually played it's like Jeeves has waved his magic wand to fix all the problems right at the end of the show.

In the club afterwards we had more community singing, without (as it happens) all that many altered lines. We did manage a visual gag which those of you who inhabit Facebook will have seen by now - a drinking straw plugged into Traal's power pack. Why? Well because Stephen Turnbull always introduces the night's entertainment by saying "Ladies and gentlemen, charge your glasses, we welcome the Peak Opera Company in five minutes!"

Three phones immediately took photos. My Android smoked an iPhone 3 and an iPhone 5 in the race to pick up WiFi and post it.

We farewelled the Pinels as they had to get back to jobs and lives and all those mundane things that fund our trips to Buxton. It's only the first week!

This morning we weren't called for rehearsal immediately, so I had a late start. As it turned out I should have been up promptly, because Chris had a dud 3G modem and I had a broken USB cable which meant a flat phone battery. Both were solved during lunch, but it meant hardly any time video chatting with Someone Special before rehearsal started up again.

We actually made ourselves quite useful today. Phoebe's spinning wheel had a loose nut behind the wheel (sic) which was catching on the structural shaft and stopping it from turning. Two minutes, a test spin and Phoebe was off and running. Then we were standing in for chorus members when they had been dismissed while the principals did some work. It's amazing what a bond it makes when you work with someone, compared to the vague acquaintanceship that comes from just socialising.

Tonight we saw South Anglia do The Sorcerer. Now we know some people from that company (neither of whom are here this year unfortunately), we know they've won first prize on occasion, and we know they're one of the few companies who have brought a show to every single festival. So we expected a good show. But they did that new retail industry buzzword thing - they exceeded our expectations! If either Chris or I mention the costumes in a show, they had to be good. If both of us say that to each other at the same time they have to be amazing. I don't know what was amazing about them, that's why I don't normally mention them, but they just looked perfectly right. The chorus, which was big enough to really fill the stage (not a common thing) was full of good people who know how to act as well as deliver words. As far as ideas and brilliant direction go it was nowhere (I didn't realise that until Deebee mentioned it - she disliked it for that reason) but it was perfectly executed in every way.

The cabaret was South Anglia's farewell to Buxton before the festival moves to Harrogate next year, so of course they closed with Hail Poetry, with the audience joining in.

And now I'm going to make it an early night (1am is early in Buxton) because we're due to help the costume ladies bump Iolanthe into the Opera House tomorrow at 9. Talk soon!

2 comments:

Talldad said...

"but it was perfectly executed in every way."

Oh, so does that mean it was "practically perfect in every way" like a certain Edwardian nanny in the Banks home?

Talldad said...

"but it was perfectly executed in every way."

Oh, so does that mean it was "practically perfect in every way" like a certain Edwardian nanny in the Banks home?