Boris Godunov Dress Rehearsal: San Francisco Opera October 19, 2008
An official looking ticket to the dress rehearsal of Boris Godunov- my first full length opera at the SF Opera.
Updated: Many thanks for Mike for the ticket! I saw you in the first scene (holding the picture of the Virgin Mary) and you’re the best Bible holder ever. With the funkiest hat. (I can’t wait to see backstage photos.) How different is the dress rehearsal from the first performance usually?? I just got the feeling that Samuel Ramey didn’t pull out all the stops for this performance – his character goes through such a psychological journey and has to have the power to pull the audience with him… but maybe it was because it was a rehearsal and not full performance. The funniest part was after he dies in the final moments of the opera and the music ended, Ramey came back to life and got up before the curtain came down.
Did you enjoy it? I don’t know that music at all, and I’m really looking forward to the opera (Nov. 12). We first have Idomeneo, though, at the end of this month.
I am really enjoying our season at the opera.
PS I see “Walking on Water” on an Amazon list to the right of your blog entries. Are you reading it, or does Amazon just put those up? I really appreciated that book when I read it (eons ago). I always enjoyed L’Engle.
Hi Patty! Hm… I just don’t know how much of it was because it was a dress rehearsal or if it’s the opera itself… not sure if it’s entirely my cup of tea. I just felt that Ramey could have given a lot more, but again, maybe he’ll be worlds better on opening night. Another standout was the Andrew Bidlack as the simpleton. Ji Young Yang gave a very sweetly affecting performance as well.
I was just updating my entry when you commented so hopefully you’ll read the updated version.
I actually post the “In Rotation” items myself – I love L’Engle as well!
Hi again!
I’m going to guess Ramey was holding back, but who knows for sure? I’ve never heard him live … and I’ll have to wait a bit longer. But I’ll let you know what I think.
I used to own nearly everything L’Engle wrote. Maybe I still do somewhere in my boxes of books. She made me think quite a bit. Sometimes I disagreed a bit with her, but I am a person of faith and I really appreciate so much of what she wrote. I used to use some of her poetry in a contemplative Christmas program I used to put together. (I dabbled in poetry, although I have never come up with anything truly good. Sigh.)
I wish I could have met the woman. My mom heard her speak here years ago, but I never managed. Ah well.
Here I go … rambling as usual. I think I’d better go read a book or something, and leave you in peace!
Oh, dear, that was your first full-length opera at the San Francisco Opera? I had no idea. It’s certainly a weird one to be seeing as your “first” since there’s no love story and it’s the strangest mixture of the grand and the intimate. As for Samuel Ramey, I’m afraid that what you heard is what you get at this point in his career (the man is 67). I’ve been in productions with him as “Mefistofole” and “Don Giovanni” where he was flat-out awesome but that was close to 15 years ago.
As for Madeline L’Engle, I am not a person of faith, I only play one on opera stages, but “A Wrinkle in Time” is just about my favorite book.
I thought it was fascinating that there was no love story involved, and still felt like a complete opera. You put it well when it was the mix between the grand and the intimate – the sets symbolized it best with the contrast between the opulent and the minimal. But Godunov really needed to have the pull the audience into his psychological downward spiral of guilt to make us believe that it could cause his death, but I felt like he didn’t achieve that. The “rising after death” was hilarious though, especially with his children still frozen in the horrified “omg he’s dead” facial expression even after he scrambled to his feet. This is what I love about rehearsals! Anyways, thanks again Mike, the atmosphere was comfortably casual, and I enjoyed searching for you onstage.
Mike, usually how different is the production from the final dress rehearsal to its opening night performance?
The final dress rehearsal is usually not that different from opening night except when there’s a killer role and a star has decided (probably wisely) not to sing out. You actually got to see a funny dress rehearsal moment, with Sam Ramey going “to hell with it, if stage management can’t bother to bring the curtain down, I’m going to get up off the floor anyway.”
It was a great moment.