Michael's Meanderings...
"The Opera House: Sarasota, Florida"
Saturday, December 13, 2008
This is it... The Big One as we say in the biz. Our biggest bestest show of the whole year! Our 9th annual Christmas Gala, in our home town at the Sarasota Opera House! This year we increased to 3 performances from 2 the previous year. For the first few years, our Opera House show was a bit of a stressful and terrifying event that loomed over us for months because of the complexity of the show being so much greater than that of our other shows. Now, because we perform in much larger venues than when we first started, and work extremely busy Christmas schedules, our Opera House show really feels a lot like our other shows from a performance standpoint. For the audience it is obviously different because of the countless hours we spend on lights, sound, sets and decorations. We don't really get to see how everything looked until we get a video of the show :) Anyway, I hope this blog will reveal some perspectives and interesting things that you weren't aware of, sitting in the audience. First off- I had full blown bronchitis for all three shows. As a performer, I have had to perform while under the weather, but a two day marathon at the Opera House was, by far, the hardest performing conditions I have ever experienced. In fact, on Saturday morning before our matinee show, I was at the doctor's getting two shots in my hips and prescriptions for the strongest antibiotics available. Thank you, Dr. Mayers for seeing me on such short notice. I can't even imagine what I would have done without your help. Amazingly, I didn't have one person ask me if I was sick, and that is the goal for every sick performer.
Here's another one. The song which received the most applause in the show was almost cut an hour before the show started. The insert in our program this year was to determine which songs were favorites that you, the audience member, wanted to see again. The overwhelming number one song request was... O Holy Night. It's a duet that my father and I had been planning on doing for a long time, but did not have the time to rehearse. This rendition of the song features an absolutely stunning orchestral track that is very complicated due to the rhythmical ebb and flow, and the number of modulations and key changes. Here's the thing. The very first time we ever sang the song all the way through was in practice an hour before our Friday night show. :) We want to thank all of you for your incredible response to our program insert, but especially in your comments about O Holy Night. It is a very special song to us and we are so blessed that it was meaningful to you as well.
There are so many things I could write about a massive weekend like this was, but I thought I'd just pick two things and go with those. Hope you enjoyed it... Stay happy and healthy
Michael