new music, new friends

[chelidon]

I am loving this winter production I'm in -- the cast and crew are brilliant, the artistic director is one of the brightest spirits I've met in a long time, and the music he and the musical directors selected is incredibly gorgeous, and quite an unusual set of pieces. Learning and memorizing 30 pieces in 10 weeks, 2/3 of which are in Russian, Georgian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian, etc, is rather a challenge (and we're all supposed to be completely off-music within about 2 weeks, yikes), but it's a really good stretch for me as well. Some of the pieces are sweet and purely beautiful, like delicate snowflakes, and others are extremely...virile. Some of the harmonies are so exquisitely non-western, fiercely powerful and go right to your heart. And in the rehearsal process, I get more fun hang-out time with housemates -- one of my Lovely Housemates is a singer (soprano, natch), and another is doing set design and production. It's also been a good way to integrate more fully with the local performing arts crowd, and this production company is special -- many of them have been active in it for 5, 10, 20 years, very much a family atmosphere, real fun, camaraderie and loyalty there.

The directors are sticklers for accuracy, but thankfully, we have native speakers in most cases for coaches. Georgian pronunciation, in particular, is...a challenge. [Edit: last night was the first makeup test, and I was one of the guinea pigs (as was one of my Lovely Housemates)-- the head of the makeup team is a real pro, is using a palette of browns and earth-tones livened with Russian-doll-like highlights and strong lines to make us look like characters in a wood-block print. The overall effect was so cool I had them powder it so I could wear the makeup home to show it off ;>]

This is one of the pieces we learned last night -- a transition piece, kind of a throw-away, very short, but lovely all the same. The words translate roughly as, "Our host is happy and blessed, because he has beloved guests..." I may have to use this for the next bardic circle here, maybe as a duet with my housemate. You can see what I mean about the language...whee.

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Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa (Georgan table song, Imereti, western Georgia)

Maspindzelsa mkhriarulsa hqavs st'um rebi saqvarlebi, delo ranina
Ghmerto ghmerto gagviravde chven st'umrebi saqvarlebi delo ranine nanina.

Ghmerto nu ras nu moushli, rats rom hqavdes saqvarlebi, delo ranina
Ghmerto ghmerto gagviravde chven st'umrebi saqvarlebi delo ranine nanina.

Comments

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

sure thing: http://www.revelsnorth.org/ (scroll down the homepage)

The Casa will be going to one or the other afternoon performances, so Forest will get full enjoyment of it. It would be so great to see you there!

Also, looks like no bardic in November (just too busy), but a big New Year's party, if you'd like to come out and participate in the mayhem!