The opera continues

We've now finished both dress rehearsals and premieres at the TOR.  Tonight we premiered THE BARBER OF SEVILLE. (Coincidentally, I was just reading the part in WORKING where Studs Terkel interviews a barber!) We got what looked like a hundred people, which is better than usual for this early in the season:  the TALES OF HOFFMANN premiere was more typical with something like fifty people.  On a really good day we can get as many as 300 people, still barely half the auditorium's capacity.

For some reason I don't feel I have as much energy as in previous years.  I would have helped out with moving the scenery, but I'm not completely sure I can make every performance and if I start doing that they'll need me to be there every time.

Yesterday I was talking with Giuseppe about the Met production of A MASKED BALL.  He also mentioned the scene where the king was supposed to be hiding but was in full view. Remember when I compared it to a FRENCH CONNECTION scene with Gene Hackman?  That night I dreamed about Hackman.  To be precise, I recalled reading Candice Bergen's fine memoir KNOCK WOOD back in the '80s, where she wrote about filming the 1975 western BITE THE BULLET with Hackman. (Its title coincided with the slogan of President Ford's anti-inflation initiative, which didn't help the movie any at the box office.) When Bergen griped that she'd been given a stupid role to play, Hackman said, "Look, when I agreed to make this movie I made a commitment to do all I could to make it a success!" She found it a useful lesson, and it was that incident that I dreamed about.