Dody Nash talks about her role as Set and Costume Designer for Swanhunter

It’s 9pm and we are in the final three days of rehearsal before our ‘fit up’ and stage rehearsals in the Howard Assembly Room. My work on the design, which started last February, is nearly finished.

I have been in the Opera North building now for 12 hours. My day starts with a catch up with Clare (the director). Parts of the show are being made on different floors of the building, so I spend the day running between costume and prop makers, stage and production management, to keep an eye on the fabrication of the design and to see that it works in rehearsal. I use a 1:25 scale model and costume drawings to help me communicate the design with everyone. I also observe as much of the rehearsals as I can, to see if there are any improvements I can make to my work. The music is sounding wonderful and the singers are really enjoying themselves with Clare’s clever interpretation of the story -  it has lots of  movement and action! It’s a great atmosphere to work in and there is always lots of laughter to be heard coming from the rehearsal room.

Parcels arrive all the time. Today, fluorescent lights were delivered. Dirk (production manager) is seeing the touring venues this week, and it’s great to hear about the places Swanhunter will be visiting. Yesterday, I sat down with Chris (assistant director) to look at the proportions of the venues and make a few basic design decisions, such as the ‘setting line’ (the position the scenic floor is ‘set’ in relation to the front of the stage floor). On Friday, Simon (lighting designer) arrives and we will have our full creative team. It’s busy for me now, but next week will be even busier once we get into the theatre.

We have some very exciting scenery being made by our prop maker, Johnny. Big curved lumps of polystyrene covered with thick felt will represent snow. It plays an important part in the show. It was difficult to think of a scenic material for snow – felt is a great solution and I think the singers are going to enjoy walking on it in bare feet! Tonight, I am painting the Tower, which is where the Mother lives. It’s based on a photograph Clare found of a church in Arkhangelsk. I changed the shape and colour many times until I thought it looked simple and beautiful. Although main rehearsals ended at 5.30pm, I will wait until 9.30pm for cover rehearsals to end. Chris is rehearsing the singers who will perform if someone falls sick. Then I will paint until the early hours of the morning. I love painting scenery at night time when the theatre is empty. It’s really quiet. A great way to end the day after a long day of listening, thinking and making decisions.

 

Week 2 in Opera North’s Swanhunter series with Becky Walsh, Head of Education…

We’re into week 2 of Swanhunter rehearsals now, and it’s amazing to finally see and hear the team bringing it to life.  This project falls into the part of our education programme which introduces young people to opera for the first time.  Much of our other work takes place out in schools and communities, so for many people, Swanhunter will provide a first taste of opera on stage.  Many of these first-timers are children, and we want them to have a theatre experience which is ‘up-close-and-personal’.  Audiences will see it in small theatres where the singers are only inches away from the front row and where the mechanics of performance are on show.  This way the story-telling can be more intimate and the detail is visually and aurally more immediate.

As there aren’t many operas which can be told by a small cast and orchestra in this way, we decided to commission a new one.  We had the idea of ‘North’ in mind and wanted to find a story which would necessitate a musical retelling and would involve quests and thrilling adventure.  Having seen Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton’s Pinocchio, we knew they’d be the right people for the job!  They’ve unearthed an extraordinary story about the power of song, and their retelling is mind-blowingly brilliant.  And now it’s being playfully drawn off the page and onto the stage and will be a feast of movement and song!  Whilst it’s originally conceived for children and will tap into their imaginations, it’s definitely going to have universal appeal.  So children, bring your adults with you!

So now I can hardly wait for the opening night where we will get to see it for the first time in the Howard Assembly Room for which it has been specially designed.  And then we’re taking it on tour to theatres which seldom receive opera productions. I’m just really looking forward to seeing how audiences, young and old, respond to it.  I think it’s going to be a real hit!

 

First in Opera North’s Swanhunter blog series is Composer, Jonathan Dove….

The past week has been very exciting. Last Tuesday, I heard the cast of Swanhunter sing through the whole opera for the first time. They are all wonderful! It was very liberating to be able just to listen: I compose operas at the piano, singing all the parts, and I perform it quite often – for the director, the conductor, the designer and the opera company, so that everyone knows how the piece goes. It’s a relief to know I never need to sing it again. It sounds so much better with the real cast!

Yesterday, director Clare Whistler and designer Dody Nash showed us their brilliant designs for the production.

And today we heard the orchestra for the first time. It’s very unusual to get the instrumentalists together so early in the rehearsal period. Normally, they start to rehearse when the staging is nearly complete. With a brand new opera, this means that the singers don’t know what the piece will really sound like: all the rehearsals are accompanied only with piano. It’s like looking at a picture in black and white – then the orchestra turn up and play it in colour.  So now, our cast already have the technicolour version in their heads. This will help them in all sorts of ways.

Because Swanhunter is a folk legend, I wanted the six-piece orchestra to sound a bit like a folk-band. Four of them are instruments you might expect to hear at a dance, like a ceilidh – violin, accordion, double bass and drum kit. In addition, there’s a harp, which often plays folk music, although you wouldn’t expect to find it in a dance-band.  The last instrument is a horn – an outdoor instrument, associated with huntsmen. The hero of Swanhunter doesn’t only hunt a swan: he also has to hunt down the Devil’s Elk and ride the Devil’s Horse. Six instruments is a very small orchestra (a big opera can have ninety instrumentalists) but it can make a big range of sounds – from the quietly shimmering beauty of Louhi’s unseen daughter to the loud, thundering hooves of the Devil’s Horse.

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

The Opening Night!

The last in the series of Opera North’s Così fan tutte blog and Richard Mantle, General Director, reflects on the highs and lows of the last seven weeks, the buzz of the first night and why you should not miss Così fan tutte!

It’s all of seven weeks since our cast and creative team arrived in Leeds to begin rehearsals, and last Friday night was the first performance and the culmination of an intense period of preparation and planning.

The final rehearsal week is when everything finally comes together; the set for the production has been built on stage, the singers are now in costume, the lighting is taking shape and the orchestra joins the stage rehearsals, thus all the elements of this complex jigsaw begin to fall into place. But not by accident! This is the moment we have been anticipating for two years and is what creates the real buzz and excitement – Opening Night!

As the General Director, I have been around rehearsals and performances of literally hundreds of operas, but I never fail to marvel at the way in which a great variety of talent is crafted together to realise, in this case, one of the great operatic masterpieces of all time. It is a supreme lesson in collaboration, teamwork and expression and a true testament to the fantastic skills, talents and discipline which exist in Opera North.

What is all the more rewarding is to see how well our young cast have been crafted and enthused into a brilliant ensemble; after this painstaking period of rehearsal, often a rollercoaster ride of high emotion and meticulous attention to detail, we arrived at the great moment of performing for the public.

Before the show it was electric backstage! This production of Così may be a revival and yet it’s all the more important to ensure perfection from everyone involved – singers, musicians, stage management, costume and wigs team and the technical crew. It’s at this point that we, the management, can have no effect on what is about to happen – simply to wish everyone “Toi Toi Toi” and enjoy the performance along with the audience.

Equally, the front-of-house was buzzing and I was entertaining a large number of guests including many of our generous donors who support our work; the critics were in, though I am sometimes disappointed when some of our journalistic colleagues don’t review revivals, particularly when we have fielded a wonderful and talented cast such as this.

What a great night it was! Tim Albery’s production is incisive, emotional, beautiful, yet witty and gritty and if ever there was a case for performing opera in the language of the audience, this is it – pretty much every single word can be understood so no problem even for an opera virgin!

Our cast performed at their peak and all gave performances of such character and clarity, singing some of the most sublime yet challenging music Mozart ever wrote. The beautiful, sensitive, yet vigorous playing from the orchestra gave us an evening to remember. It’s at a first night that I invariably feel very proud of this company and the total dedication of everyone involved. Later that evening we all celebrated with a well deserved glass of wine!

The wonderful thing about opera is that no two productions of a piece are the same, the possibilities of musical and theatrical interpretation are immense, and there is always something fresh to discover. So coming to a live performance enables everyone to join in that emotional rollercoaster ride, and also enjoy some pretty fabulous music and theatre. If you’ve not yet booked to come to Così fan tutte, miss it at your peril! For more information and to book click here.

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

Follow Opera North’s production of Così fan tutte from rehearsals and first fittings to singer’s insights and first night nerves.

Week seven, Justin Doyle, Assistant Conductor, gives an insight into the “sitting” rehearsal.

On Thursday we had the ‘Sitz’ rehearsals for Così. This is literally a “sitting” rehearsal, in which the singers are not on stage, and the focus is purely musical; it is the first opportunity for the cast and chorus to sing the piece with the orchestra. The transition from rehearsing with piano to singing it with the orchestra is always a fascinating one; although it is strange to remove the piece from the stage and sing through it without its dramatic context, it does give everyone a chance to remind themselves of the musical detail.

Most of the players in Opera North’s fantastic orchestra will have played this piece more times than I’ve let my dinner go cold. However, it’s always interesting to see how it can still feel like a brand new piece – for example, the orchestra hears for the first time the text that the cast is singing, which makes it easier for them to accompany a melodic line, and they are getting to know the singers’ voices. Rehearsing in the Howard Assembly Room allows everyone to hear each other’s lines, phrasing and articulation and so on in detail. We have a great cast for Così; it isn’t always that you see singers taking as much interest in the orchestral writing as these guys do. Most of the time. When comedy doesn’t get the better of them.

The singers have been rehearsing for the past four weeks without musical scores. That means everything was memorised before they started to discover the production. Coming back to a rehearsal without a stage on which to run around is often quite a strange experience for singers – they re-open the score they haven’t seen for all that time, and discover all sorts of exciting things in there – and, most amazingly, they get to gaze at the conductor all day! So, today was an opportunity to be relished; tomorrow they’ll be in the theatre and much more excited about their beautiful hoop skirts than anything else.

I have to be an extra pair of ears for Andrew Parrott during his rehearsals. This week, I will be checking that the singers’ text can be heard at the back of the theatre, because what Andrew hears in the pit isn’t always exactly what the audience will hear. When you’re conducting, it’s pretty much impossible to write anything down, so I am also Andrew’s extra memory, taking notes of things he might want to rehearse again. And much of the time I am the ‘bad cop’ to Andrew’s ‘good cop’ – if there’s any bad news to be broken to the singers, I usually have to do it! Sensible delegation on his part. Then, when the show goes on tour, I’m conducting a few performances, so I need to ensure that I know exactly how Andrew is conducting the piece in order to take it over smoothly.

Joanna (Assistant Director), Annette (Repetiteur / Harpsichord) and I have also started to rehearse the covers (understudies) last week. They would need to be able to replace the singers if anyone is ill; rather than blindly copying what the first cast does, we need to be able to help them understand why everything is performed as it is. Actually it’s just a test to see how much Joanna and I have been watching / listening in rehearsals so far!

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

Follow Opera North’s production of Così fan tutte from rehearsals and first fittings to singer’s insights and first night nerves.

Week six, Sophie Higson, Deputy Stage Manager, tells us about the practical aspects of rehearsals, prompt corner, and the ‘Book’.

As Deputy Stage Manager (DSM) on Così fan tutte, I am part of a team of stage managers who organise and supervise the practical aspects of production rehearsals.  We act as the liaison between the creative team and the technical departments (such as costume, lighting, props and production management), passing on notes and queries to the relevant departments, so that we can try to solve as many issues as we can before we get to stage rehearsals.  We are lucky with Così because it is a revival, so we are able to have the whole set built in the rehearsal room.  This is great for the singers, as they are able to rehearse on the set for the entire rehearsal period, so there won’t be any nasty surprises for them when we get on stage this week.

My main job as DSM is to produce the ‘Book’ for the show.  This is a copy of the score in which I write down every detail of the performers movements on stage.  Some pages are so busy that even with my tiny writing it is hard to fit everything in and even harder to read it the next day!  The ‘Book’ also has all the technical cues written in it for lighting, sound, flown scenery and scene changes, and in the case of Così, the door cues.  Nearly all the entrances and exits in this production are made through sliding doors, all of which have to open and close at very precise musical moments and at very precise speeds, which I will be cueing during performances, so I need to make sure I know exactly when they should be happening.

This week we start stage rehearsals after a few weeks of rehearsing in the rehearsal room.  Stage rehearsals are always an exciting time, when you can see the production really start to take shape.  Once we get on stage I am tucked away in ‘prompt corner,’ from where I call the show.  I communicate with my own and other technical departments via radio headsets (cans), and I use cue lights to cue people who are not on headsets.  I also have a microphone which is used to make backstage calls, so that I can call the cast to the stage in time for their entrances, as well as technical staff for stage cues, and wardrobe staff for quick costume changes.

Rehearsals for Così have been fun, and I will miss the friendly atmosphere of the rehearsal room, but I am looking forward to watching the show develop on stage.

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

Follow Opera North’s production of Così fan tutte from rehearsals and first fittings to singer’s insights and first night nerves.

Week Five, Allan Clayton, who will sing Ferrando, shares his tips on keeping up with the football and cricket while rehearsing an opera.

Opera’s a bit funny really. I spent the whole of one morning last week lying on the floor, pretending to receive electric shocks and throwing myself at women’s feet. The afternoon was then an exercise in manoeuvring around the set in trench coat, tricorn hat and sword like some sort of singing, sweaty Napoleon. I wondered what my friends with ‘proper’ jobs might make of it all were they a fly on the wall.

Though I’ve seen Cosi the most of any opera (a grand two and a half times), this is the first time I’ve sung in it and I have to say that it’s a cracking piece. Whilst I enjoyed The Abduction from the Seraglio that I sung here with Opera North last season, I really have noticed the gap in quality between the music of the two pieces. Seraglio has some stunning music, notably Constanze’s two arias, but rehearsing Cosi has been like attending an Opera Pops concert every day. There are so many fantastic arias, duets and ensembles and the pace of the action is relentless, even in the recitative sections. This isn’t always the case in Mozart opera, but our director, Tim Albery, has spent a lot of time with us on these crucial passages, so that they have not become throwaway sections but insights into our deeply messed-up characters. Honestly, it makes Eastenders or Corrie look more like The Darling Buds of May.

I have to admit that I’m writing this whilst listening to Liverpool v Aston Villa on the radio and I’m a bit grumpy as my beloved Liverpool are about to lose 3-1. Whenever I’m away from home, I try and make sure I can follow as much sport as possible. I love watching it anyway, and it’s a good way of staying in touch with ‘normal’ life when things can feel a bit hectic. I also had to find ways of keeping abreast of the Ashes goings on this past week as the final Test hung in the balance. Luckily our conductor, Andrew Parrott, and his assistant, Justin Doyle, were similarly interested and a series of elaborate mimes let me know that Stuart Broad had torn through the Aussies on day two. It took me a while to guess that pointing at shoes meant that Clarke’s wicket had fallen, but Justin’s frankly quite scary actions at the loss of Hussey had me unable to sing for about two pages.

Bit funny, opera…

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

Follow Opera North’s production of Così fan tutte from rehearsals and first fittings to singer’s insights and first night nerves.

Week four, Victoria Simmonds playing Dorabella talks about managing children and costumes.

It’s so great to be back up in Leeds again.  I’ve been looking forward to coming back up, revisiting old haunts, meeting up with old friends, and, of course, working on Cosi!  Must admit the shopping is great here too….

Since doing Pinocchio here (almost two years ago now) there’s been a new addition to the family – Olivia, who is almost 4 months old.  Because I’m still breast-feeding, I decided to bring her and Emily (now 3 and a half) up with me for the 6 week rehearsal period.  Hard work logistically, arranging child-care etc, but worth it.  When I was rehearsing for Pinocchio Emily stayed in London, so this time round life is very different for me in Leeds.  No getting up late (when I say late… any time after 8am) and going for a run along the river in the morning.  No chats around the tea-urn at break time or drinks after work….everybody say ahhh.  Life is a bit baby-centric at the moment.  At least when I’m at work, I really do appreciate it – it’s hard work, but slightly less tiring than the demands of home.  It’s also really great to be singing such a brilliant piece as Cosi again.

The first two weeks of rehearsals seem to have gone by in a flash.  We all met just over a week ago for a chat through the production with the Director, Tim Albery, and since then we’ve been ploughing through the piece musically and scenically at quite a pace.  Just as well really, as we only have another two weeks before we start rehearsals on the stage.  During rehearsals in the studio we have the real set to work on, and rehearsal costumes to wear.  For me that means putting on a long skirt over a hip boulstering undergarment, a shirt and some low heeled shoes.  All this goes on over my normal clothes, so it can all get a bit warm, as well as looking slightly unusual!  It does give us the benefit of knowing how much room we have to manouvre in our big frocks though, which is useful.

I love the concept of the production – it’s as if we’re lab rats in Dr Don Alfonso’s experiment.  I also love the look of the costumes – I get to wear a gorgeous corseted dress made out of the most sumptuous silvery silk.   It’s also nice to look at Dorabella again. I’ve sung the role twice before, but each time it’s been a totally different production, with totally different ideas about the role.   I’m enjoying this reading of it – you’ll have to come to the show to find out more!

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

Follow Opera North’s production of Così fan tutte from rehearsals and first fittings to singer’s insights and first night nerves.

Week three, Tim Albery gives an insight into the first week of rehearsals from a director’s perspective.

With some operas, you want to get the shape of the whole thing done quicklyand then go back and look at the detail. But in Così fan tutte, you need to make your way step by step.  You don’t want to rush through it, because it’s the little details that make up the bigger story – in fact, the bigger story doesn’t exist until you’ve got the little details in place.  So we’re trying to work through the piece slowly and chronologically, because it’s important that the performers know exactly what emotional state they’re playing second by second.

As Opera North has a number of large productions on at the moment, two of our six singers are going to spend most of next week in Bregenz, Austria in another show (Skin Deep).  So our desire to work chronologically will founder but next week we’ll jump into Act II, which becomes more like making a film, where you might shoot your death before you shoot your wedding.

We start each day, and each new scene, around the piano, focussing on the recitatives – the sung conversations that come between the big musical numbers that are accompanied by the orchestra.  In some ways the recitatives are the most interesting parts of Mozart’s operas.  They give us a lot of freedom because at those moments it’s more like doing a play.  We have to decide what the shape of it is, where the pauses are, how each person is feeling, because you don’t have as much musical information to go on as you do in an aria or a duet.  So there are a lot of choices to be made.  We can be around the piano for an hour or so, working through 3 or 4 pages, before we get up and put it on its feet.  And by then the singers have so much information about what they’re thinking or feeling at any particular moment that the moves come naturally.

When we put it on its feet the director tends to be in control, because it’s a production rehearsal – in the same way that a music rehearsal belongs to the conductor and I tend to shut up!  But around the piano, singers, conductor and director very much have equal status – it’s a group of people all pitching in their thoughts and exploring ideas.

We have four weeks in the rehearsal room before we move onto the stage and now, at the end of the first week, we’ve worked through about 85 or 90 pages of the score.  And although numbers of pages mean very little, it’s still a rough marker in a piece which I think is about 360 pages in total, so I guess we’re about where I wanted us to be.

 

From First Rehearsal to First Night

Follow Opera North’s production of Così fan tutte from rehearsals and first fittings to singer’s insights and first night nerves.

During week two, Stephen Rodwell, Head of Costume, gives an insight into the first fittings of the new season.

Così fan tutte opens the Opera North autumn season and so it is the first show to fit. In the last two days we have fitted the entire cast, which is made up of six key characters. Whilst this is a revival and the opera has been performed some years ago, we are making the costumes new for all the singers as there is such disparity in size between the old cast and the new one.

Attention to detail on these costumes is paramount. It’s a small piece and so the audience’s total focus is on those six people; their hair, what shoes they have on, the colour and design of an outfit….it’s all also tied into reflect the psychology of the drama, which is interesting. A key theme is disguise and so as the characters begin quite straight-laced and formal, their costumes are rigid (18th century boned bodices for the girls), then as the story evolves, so do their personalities and clothes. They end more relaxed, more colourful and essentially different people…which ties into the story.

To the technicalities – I have spent two hours with each singer in our costume department. They arrive during ‘music week’ so as not to impact on the production rehearsals and we spend some time talking about the character they will portray and the costumes they will wear. Their measurements have previously been taken and so the costume is ready, but we go through actually fitting it to their body. Finer points like the lacing on the bodices for the girls is left quite flexible, as they won’t know until the stage rehearsals how much movement they will need and so this can be adapted to ensure they can move…and breathe properly.

The fitting is a key stage in the preparation of the singer – we talk about the impact of their costume, how that will make their character appear and feel and it helps the singer to visualise their role and persona for the first time ahead of full rehearsals. I then go through the same discussion process with the director when he arrives in rehearsals to ensure that he is happy with what we have produced. It’s an ongoing process…right through to the first night and beyond.

Così is quite a full on piece costume-wise, the two lead male and female singers have two costumes each, the manipulative Despina has three. The designer specified the shade of grey silk he wanted for the lead female roles, in order to be enhanced by the stage setting and lighting and for three costumes alone we have used over 200ft of material, which sounds immense – the dresses are beautiful.

In contrast to this, costumes for other operas in the autumn repertoire are less elaborate and less rooted in a specific period – Werther for example uses a mixture of vintage garments with carefully constructed costumes, whilst The Adventures of Mr Brouček works with high street clothing which we can adapt to give a contemporary yet retro feel. It does mean hours of pavement pounding though to find exactly what we are looking for….