October 5 - Berkeley Heroes Sandwich

,

The days are full, and this one will eventually lead to the University of California at Davis, where last Monday I caught up with the prospect of Bette's disability (via cellphone in the redwoods) and reviewed the score of Aaron Copland's Music for the Theatre for orchestrational advice.



Today begins finding the old transposition (beginning down a third on Bb from the original D) of Antigone: XII. The Pride of Oedipus for Micah (who has now joined our rehearsals as of today, above). Also, a new shifting -- m3 south -- for XX. I've Had Them Laid, plus email all the midi files to William Loney for choreography.


And, yes, the Berkeley Chamber Arts rehearsal, with our assembled forces for Antigone, including Meghan Dibble (Eurydice / Nurse), Eliza O'Malley (Antigone), Kimberley Anderman (Ismene),


directed by Harriet March Page, with Erin Lahm (Guard), Adam Broner (Chairman), Michael Desnoyers (Haemon / Guard / Messenger), Micah Epps (Creon), Terrence Bennan (Puppetmaster), Lisa McHenry (Page), and Alix Jerenic (Handmaid). Re-arriving next week are Maria Mikheyenko (Guard), Dalyte Kodzis (Handmaid), and William Loney (Guard). Perhaps I'll jump in as Guard at some point, too -- among one of our largest casts!


And Keisuke Nakagoshi at the piano, of course. John Bilata's Quantum Mechanic goes well, too, with both composer and librettist in attendance and a burgeoning subtext romance for Mrs. Schrodinger and the Mechanic. John takes the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra scores to Martha Stoddard after rehearsal, as she has agreed to conduct in my stead during this scheduling times of collisions with Opera Apocalypse performances.



Afterwards, another fine singer from San Francisco Conservatory auditions for us,


then Harriet's off to Melinda's while I head home, past the Claremont Hotel,


through the Caldecott Tunnel,



to the Orinda side,


aside the Shakespeare Festival Hills,



and eventually to Davis, again, to receive instrumentation advices from the Igor Stravinsky Threni (filling tank on way back [at the least expensive price in these times and places -- $4.46 / gal] by dark, derelict trucks),



for Amazing Joseph: VI. Why Don't You Do Something?, first page of which is orchestrated upon return.

September 26 - Life with the Fast and Slow Ducks

Ah, how we alternate. First a bit of 21st-Century Music Journal and San Francisco Cabaret Opea work, then off to UC Berkeley to track down the Andrew Lloyd Webber Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (for advice while orchestrating Amazing Joseph) but halfway there realize that it's Native American /Indigenous Peoples / Columbus Day and so the Music Library is likely to be closed, so go to the next item on the to-do list today and head to Briones Reservoir on this beautiful day to walk half of the Oursan Trail between the Briones Overlook and Hampton Staging Areas (c. 2 miles -- 4-mile round trip).



Back roads to the lab at Diablo Valley College to record Cubase versions of The Passion According to St. Matthew: V-VIII, then home beginning the orchestration of XI (which will be mapped on the Paul Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses after Themes of Carl Maria von Weber -- an idea hit upon during the day's walk -- all that's left to make the day complete is a little economic theory from Thorstein Veblen, and, OK, more music by the Anton Webern duckies...).


And, oh yes, somewhere in there, drop an Antigone score off to Micah Epps (who I'm happy to find is home in Concord with his lovely family and delighted to have play Creon once more by popular demand -- the tallest in the photo from the 2001 production)....

August 9 - Adventuresome Antigones

Print up ten piano-vocal scores to Antigone (John Thorne [Page], Micah Epps [Creon], Laeticia C. Page [Antigone], and chamber orchestra members from the 2001 production, above) for tomorrow's composer/performer event (we're still having a Mice and Men abreviated rehearsal, too),



then off past an eccentric display on Rockville Road,



before Eden, to the Lab to record instrumental versions of Anti 6, 6a, 7, 8, and 9 --



followed (via the basic same route as yesterday) by a wonderful rendezvous with Crystal and Kristina, which happens to coincide with a bike race, with a parallelogram raceway through the heart of town.