After Reading Week, rehearsals for the opera really picked up, so they have been consuming my time - but it's all good fun. Doing this production has been my favorite part of being at UCL so far; I'll post pictures of costumes and things when we have them, but in the meantime, I thought I'd at least give a rough idea. It's Weber/Mahler's Die Drei Pintos except we're singing it in English, so in this case it's The Three Pintos. Like all operas, it's about love and the massive mis-communication attendant upon it, and it's quite funny. It's being staged in 1960's Spain, so we will have sweet retro 60's costumes. We learned how to do the twist last night, which is quite a workout when you do it for three hours! Some of us also have to hold these ridiculous 60's modeling poses for long periods of time - it's like doing yoga or something, I don't know how Twiggy managed it. These are picture of the set models, to give you some idea of the style of the show:
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| The first act is in a pub; when the bull flies in, it's pretty exciting. |
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| The second act is a pool party - we're hoping we don't have to wear swimsuits on stage... |
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| The third act involves a wedding, and the giant sparkly heart is the coolest set piece I've ever seen! |
Also, in act two most of the cast becomes maids, housekeepers, valets and the like. The director made an allusion to Downton Abbey, my new favorite BBC production, and everyone laughed because they'd all seen it! It was so bizarre because I'm used to being one of the few nerds who watches Masterpiece Theater, whereas here, Downton Abbey currently has the largest viewing of any TV show, except Dr. Who. And while I'm on this digression, another fun difference is that we take a tea break in the middle of rehearsal. Which not only involves a plethora of tea, sugar, milk, biscuits - a proper meal - but lasts above a half hour. It's so different than my music rehearsals in the States. But like I said, lots of fun.
On a different note, the other night UCL hosted a dance party that was held in "the world's best nightclub," so a bunch of Pomona students went because we figured we should check it out if it's really that famous. Its best attribute is it's name, Ministry of Sound, and the clever logo that goes along with it:
The purpose of this story, however, is not to tell you about London's clubbing scene, but to describe The Incredible Journey we experienced trying to get back home. See, we were on the South Bank, which is a famously not great place to be at night. The Tube, which I love with my heart and soul, disappointingly stops at midnight. So, while we left reasonably early, it took us at least two hours to get back home because the night bus system was so convoluted. Every time we figured out which bus might get us close, we'd go to the stop only to find the stop was out of service. Some buses just wouldn't stop at all, either. It was a nightmare. So, we had the joy of finding out what it was like to be out late, on the South Bank, with no way to get home. London in the winter at night is also quite chilly, I might add. But we were all together, and as Anjali pointed out, sometime next year when we're taking in the sunshine in snug little Claremont we'll probably say to each other, Remember that time we were stuck on the South Bank in the middle of the night and would have done anything to be safe and warm?
A more fun person than I would advise, if you plan to come to London, learn the night bus routes. But I say, take the Tube and don't stay out past midnight. Lesson learned.
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