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Friday, October 2, 2009

Eh-hem: How Opera Singers Warm Up

Hannah and I spent last night at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House to get a behind-the-scenes look at a preview of their production of Puccini’s La Boheme. Hannah will have a full feature on Monday, but here’s a teaser video of the chorus warming up between the first and second acts.

Even shot with an iPhone, it is lovely.

Make sure to watch through the end, when the performers are called to take their spots on stage, and they all rush off the screen.

The show opens tomorrow, and you really ought to go. I won’t go into too much detail to as not to steal Hannah’s thunder on Monday, but we couldn’t have enjoyed it more. The sets are great, the singing (all done without mics) can bring tears to your eyes, and even the Italian is translated into English on a screen above the stage, so the story is easy to follow.

And you liked Rent, right? Well, it’s based on La Boheme. So you’ll get the story. In fact, if you’re an artist, were or are poor, or have ever been in love, I might dare say you’ll relate to it.

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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such. I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
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