Hello from beautiful and sunny Santa Barbara California! I’m currently at Music Academy of the West where I’m in the middle of an eight-week opera/vocal directing fellowship. We’re moving at lighting speed, and I’m trying to soak up all the good learnings. Opera is like a deliciously layered cake, you have to savor each element while having an advanced palette to appreciate the whole. Theatre and music combined is truly such a dynamic medium, it’s every director’s dream!

I’ve already directed a program of 8 Opera Scenes, which was delightful, rigorous, and successful!

Things I’ve learned so far:

• The music and score is the other director in the room, and don’t you ever forget. Numero uno lesson, I learned the hard way.
• When the music is super intricate, simple and slow gestures are the most gorgeous contrasts.
• I still like musical theatre for the dance numbers. Opera really needs more waltzes, more contras! A party scene needs to feel like a party!
• Just circle all the fortes in the score, put movement there. It works!
• Theatre should trust storytelling more — plays don’t need a clesr thesis. Just tell me a good story with some wild antics, I’ll pick it all up in the thrust of the action. Opera could stand to let a little more specific and deal less with big, broad, mythic archetypes. Name names. Set operas in real places. Don’t hide in fantasy, lest you be more irrelevant.

Up next is assistant directing our mainstage production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, while directing the concert version on July 17th! If you’re in the area, come by! I’d love to see you!

Caio!

xoxo
Vanessa