"Siegfried" coming together

This is my second go around in the last 5 months with Der Wanderer in Wagner’s “Siegfried”. This production in Seville (the other being in Munich) is very interesting as it uses a great amount of video and other special theatrical tricks to tell the story in ways that haven’t been seen so often in The Ring. The production was first seen and heard in Valencia about 4-5 years ago. I’m glad that Seville has decided to remount it and that I am having this opportunity to be a part of it. Rehearsals this week have been difficult as we are spending most of our time with the orchestra. These are always rehearsals that are looked forward to. However, with the repertoire, the difficult singing, the full orchestra, and the length of the opera itself, it makes for more exhausting hours on stage than when rehearsing “Don Giovanni”, “La Boheme”, or many of my other favorite operas. We will, in a week’s time, have nearly 28 hours of orchestra rehearsal. That’s a lot of time with the band.

Other than that, things are going well in Seville. The sun has been shining spectacularly this week even though things have cooled off to some degree. However, it beats having snow (like they had yesterday back home).