On Sun, 29 Sep 2002, Mirko Ruckels wrote:
> It strange- I felt an apprehension about the second night- i don't know why. > Maybe its the second night syndrome- where everything suddenly feels very > flat. Has anybody had a similar experience?
So many singers have had a similar experience that you will observe that the major opera houses NEVER schedule the same cast two nights in a row. Many singers actually have stipulations in their contracts requiring that the opera company with which they are working at the time grant them a certain number of nights/days off between performances. Neil Shicoff, for example, insists on three nights off between each performance, knowing exactly how draining each performance can be.
Unfortunately, small companies don't have the luxury of staggering their performances usually because they don't have the "clout" with their performing venues to reserve space in that way. I'm a big advocate for double- and even triple-casting of operas at the local and regional levels. For one thing, it would enable more singers to be employed and get vital performing experience on their resume; for another, it would alleviate the physical and emotional demands on any given singer by NOT requiring them to sing demanding roles for multiple nights in succession.
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details. - Albert Einstein
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