Tonight is the dress rehearsal of Peter Grimes at the Norwegian National Opera –and my last day of work there for the time being. When it opens on Saturday, I shall be there as a member of the audience, and will be looking forward to seeing the opera –up until now I have primarily been listening to it, or "seeing with my ears" as I like to call it –and primarily the text. Having had the opportunity to work as language coach for the soloists has been a hugely rewarding experience, and I have felt extremely priveleged every time I have stepped into the magical world of this great opera house. I have learned as much as I have taught, both about opera, theatre, Britten, the human voice and the English language. There have been many challenges and some turbulence along the way, but I have heaps and heaps of respect for the people I have been lucky enough to work with and alongside. Opera is a demanding enterprise; a huge collaboration of musical, technical and artistic talents, all working towards the goal of making it as good as it possibly can be. I have played a very small part in this –text in opera will always be subservient to the music, but I would like to think my contribution has helped achieve that goal. Each performer has had different journeys to make in terms of their English –some have hardly needed any work whereas others have had to endure countless adjustments and notes from me -poor things. All have come up good. I am particularly happy to have been able to apply some of the princlples of diction and articulation I learned at drama school –my notes from that time have come in very handy. And the general conclusion we have all come to is that English is a very tricky language to sing!
Peter Grimes will be playing in the autumn too, with quite a few new performers, so somehow I feel I will return...
The website for Peter Grimes at the Norwegian National Opera: Peter Grimes
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