Method Singing
van-magazine.com
van-magazine.com
> giving chorus members individual personalities with their own miniature dramas
I was in the chorus for six operas (community theater, never got paid). We in the chorus might make up our own stories about the characters and even tell them to each other. The director never has time to tell you anything about your own character.
(Of course, in big-time professional opera, it might be different. I kinda doubt it, though.)
>the children’s chorus in “La Bohème.” He gives “La Bohème” modern sets and costumes rather than picturesque 19th-century ones.
Funny. I was in "La Bohème." The little kids were a PITA. Good riddance to them.
My costume, though, was the only one I ever had that I'd be happy to wear out on the street.
> the fact that some emotional states are directly antithetical to effective singing—think of throat-closing sadness, or the shallow breathing of terror—is a problem he simply wasn’t interested in addressing.
Um, yeah. Singing does put some demands on your body.
Last story: I was in "Tosca" and my parents were in the front row for one show. Although you usually can't see the audience with the lights in your face, you can see the front rows. It was an effort to ignore them.
My dad noticed that in one romantic scene, "she had her hand on his penis." I guess they were after verisimilitude :)
Old opera trick - it helps hitting the higher notes.