Confess Your Sins

Maybe I can get this over with before the Sunday news shows come on.

A few friends of mine tell me that I need to write more. My Mom says that I need to not put ammunition into any fire in blog form that will haunt me in the future, in a manner of speaking. So, my dilemma is that I have so little time to write these days, YET I have actually been writing more recently than in the past year. It has all been pretty personal stuff, however and maybe not fit for mass consumption. But then, this is what an operatic tenor's life is like.

It's all for a good reason though. I am working hard. In fact, I am working extremely hard. I am also trying to work economically and reasonably... as well as trying to keep my head on straight.

Things are going well and there is a good deal of momentum here. I know things are starting to get good when things just seem to go haywire - indiscriminately. There is a lot of planning involved in what I do. Juggling and balancing (see the multi-tasking post from last week) have been part of the game for a long time. Some people's brains are filled with trivia, but mine is filled with appointments, conversations, ideas and snippets of other todo's. Even so, even with calendars and emails and reminders and the best of intentions, SNAFU's happen. Apologies are made and the emotion of regret is there, but we are all busy people. And we must keep moving. Apologize, be contrite and move on.

So Messiah is today at 3pm at MNU. There are not a lot of songs I am responsible for on this particular performance, but the tenor always starts off with the sweet 'Comfort Ye'.  Some Messiah's are curtailed and others are the whole shebangy. This one is more of a partial shebangy. We are using the Schirmer score, which I have trouble changing to, due to my Oxford University Press version of Messiah has David Gergen's autograph and a lengthy note in it.

Confession no. 1) I haven't looked for or even attempted to find my Schirmer score.

I digress. A Christmas Carol opened last Friday, which seemed like last year, frankly, as so much had to be done to get the show and the building opened.

I cannot tell you how valiantly six people, all walking their own paths got that place open. Two builders, one seventy six and the other my age, a chef, a pregnant manager and me, as well as the photo artist showing on the first floor. Not to mention the fact that KC Codes Commission didn't pass the building because the fire-proof ceiling wasn't fire-proof?

RU Kidding? This is foam, that when you take a TORCH to it, sits there and says to you, ZZZZZZZ.

Hour upon hour, load upon load, phone call after phone call, all came to a screeching halt on Wednesday afternoon. No pass.

Those of you who know, or have been a part of the grist mill with the building owner should not be surprised that this would happen. The foam, that passed code a scant two years ago, that cost tens of thousands of dollars to install was rendered not workable. Nice to know that.

We thought of where to take the Show. Next door across the street to Mildred's Coffee? Down 19th street to JavaPort? Around the corner to T2? A crazy elegant after-hours breakfast joint called Icons? Even Town Topic on Baltimore?

All the stories and interest, plus the fact that the performance is a fundraiser for Gospel of Judas the new opera, I was shell-shocked. There was never a thought to cancel, but what to do. rather, where to go?

In fact, I was slated to do an interview with a hot KC Star writer AND get a picture, AND I bought a new suit (costume) and hat.

When they arrived at the building, I was still completely disoriented and my stress level was through the roof when the Star arrived.

I had forgotten my hat. I had left my script at home. I was wondering how much money I was going to have to blow to keep the show going if I needed to rent a place...The heat wasn't on in the building yet.

So when asked to do part of the show for the Star writer and photog, I confidently said "sure." I turned around to the setting sun, walked back to the ramshackle office, found a file folder with some bills and other things that would pass as notes and a script and tried like hell to do some parts of the show that had somehow stayed in my brain. Some different characters came through, which was cool, but it was, for me, the worst debacle I could have imagined. The writer was amazingly gracious and positive and seemed genuinely excited to do the story and bring the kids. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated the slack.

By the end of the day, a total washout, we were all sitting there at Grinders. Not saying much, wondering if we had enough time to tear the acoustic flame-proof foam out before the show on Friday, but being rather defeated about the whole thing, actually, we mostly stared at our beers.

Suddenly, I was like, we have a compressor at my folks house that will blow up Garfield at a Macy's T-day parade. Why not just sandblast the ceiling? Take a few hours and boom Foam gone. building passes muster! That was Solution no. 1.

Solution no. 2 was, well, since this was a private party and if we didn't sell liquor or anything, AND my event and the Photographer's were art openings  - IN the Crossroads, Kansas CIty's burgeoning and amazing arts district, I was like, We can DO this.

We all perked up. If we could get the Bathroom stalls done, the gas lines welded so there could be heat, tables moved, chairs delivered, staging, lights and sound picked up and set up, we could actually open the Hemingway Gallery... at least for a private event.

This was my "comfort me" day, where I prayed to The (music of) Handel's Messiah, and through which, I was granted solace.

A day behind, we were at work "all the earlier the next morning." We did the bathrooms, the pipe was welded, we turned ON the heat, we picked up the staging and lights etc. and we began the task of doing tech. By Friday 12am, we had set everything up. Still,  needing to conserve energy for the Friday evening performances AND for Messiah, I quit, leaving for home without having focused lights or getting sound ready etc.

Friday, up early. Coffee? no! No time! Picked up a bunch of kick butt trees meant to elicit the transformation of the Gallery into a theater/art space and carried the six 75 pound things down the street and hauled them up stairs. Then Coffee? Yes.

Somehow it all came together. My assistant, Gavin showed up, and we made a show of it, giving him the fastest light and sound effect cue run down ever.

All I forgot was my boots (I didn't notice the lack of shoe apparel, even though I had Gavin run and get some black socks, as I had forgotten them too).

... and a way to light the back of the stage, or more critically, how was I supposed to read a script with no backlight and bright par lights shining in my eyes from the front?

Commmmfort Meeee.

All we had was an oil lamp, meant as decoration, not as an actual crucial tool... and after soaking the wick for 15 minutes in oil... 15 minutes before the show started, Gavin lit the lamp and after a brief introduction by my awesome Laurie, I went out for the first time and we opened the first show at the Hemingway Gallery.

The first performance was fine, a bit shaky in parts where I could just make out the heiroglyphics, and strong in other parts. I turned on the airconditioner during intermission, in the 12 degree weather and we all had a pleasant chill going in the unmarked Hemingway Gallery for a little of the second act.

Second performance went better. Pedals worked better, more understandible lines and aside from a moment where the pressures of the week caught up with me, just for a brief moment before my reserve reserves kicked in... It remained warmer throughout.

I was up early on Saturday having to take care of carrying the trees back and all set for Messiah rehearsal at 5pm... which was actually at 1pm.

Comfort Ye!

NG