David and Jonathan

 

November 9, 2021

Blazing morning. Gin in cut glass. 

Rehearsal last night reminded me why I got out of the business (as minimally as I was in it) of producing theater. Heard in almost its entirety now, DFL sounds way more Broadway than I thought at first. This is good. But the rehearsal was a disaster the likes of which, had I any responsibility for it, would have kept me sleepless, and I am never sleepless. As far as I could tell, the orchestra was fine. Though David, Jonathan, and the Witch of Endor sounded quite good, none of the soloists was confident. The chorus was a disaster. My excuse is that, though I listened through the midi files and got a general flavor, I’d rehearsed about 1/5 of the music in the one rehearsal since I was invited aboard, and was literally sight-reading the rest. The print is small, most of the tempi are very fast, and I kept blowing steam on my glasses over the top of my mask. Plus, all of the baritones were absent and I was the only functioning bass. Fuzzy grandpa never makes a peep that I can hear, and the big Hispanic (whose speaking voice is glorious as Solomon) moved next to me so he could follow me. I wasn’t bad at pulling pitches from the air, and he usually (though not always) joined me a measure or so into a phrase. A consequence of this is that I blew my voice out trying to bellow. Drew scolded Young David right at the beginning for not knowing his music. He should have saved up for a more general diatribe, for though as a soloist Young David stood naked in disgrace, the rest of us foundered repeatedly. Nor did we actually get any help from the conductor/composer, who might have given us an entrance now and then. I realized eventually he would look hopefully in your direction when it came time to come in. The long baton beat the air like a threshing machine. 

The libretto is fixated on an issue which, so far as I can tell, never comes up in the bible. Jonathan ties himself in knots–in at least three arias that come to mind-- wondering if his and David’s love is unnatural or needing to be hidden. Samuel doesn’t mention this, so far as I can tell. Love between warriors probably wasn’t noticed in a warrior society, or if noticed, commended. 

In an email, the director informs me I have a speaking role, along with instructions as to how to extricate myself from the chorus to get downstage.