On Sun, 29 Sep 2002, Mirko Ruckels wrote:
> It strange- I felt an apprehension about the second night- i don't know why.
> Maybe its the second night syndrome- where everything suddenly feels very
> flat. Has anybody had a similar experience?
So many singers have had a similar experience that you will observe that
the major opera houses NEVER schedule the same cast two nights in a row.
Many singers actually have stipulations in their contracts requiring that
the opera company with which they are working at the time grant them a
certain number of nights/days off between performances. Neil Shicoff, for
example, insists on three nights off between each performance, knowing
exactly how draining each performance can be.
Unfortunately, small companies don't have the luxury of staggering their
performances usually because they don't have the "clout" with their
performing venues to reserve space in that way. I'm a big advocate for
double- and even triple-casting of operas at the local and regional
levels. For one thing, it would enable more singers to be employed and get
vital performing experience on their resume; for another, it would
alleviate the physical and emotional demands on any given singer by NOT
requiring them to sing demanding roles for multiple nights in succession.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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I want to know God's thoughts...
the rest are details.
- Albert Einstein
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