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• "It is all about sleep. That is number one, really and truly," says Daniel Okulitch, who plays Don Giovanni.  If you're well rested, he says, you can handle situations that could leave you prone to sickness, like riding the subway or touching props that may have been coughed on...kissing your costars in rehearsal doesn't help, either.  His castmates all put being well-rested near the tops of their lists.



• When Gregory Turay, who's singing Don Ottavio, says to "eat right," he has very specific ideas of what it means.  Only fruit in the mornings, sushi, veggies, no dairy, starches, sugars, or carbs.  "You want to make your body as alkaline as possible," Turay says, "so the viruses don't have an opportunity to thrive." He also recommends tea with lemon, honey and cayenne pepper when you're feeling under the weather.



• "I've used three things to keep me healthy: sleep, Zicam, and chocolate" says Joélle Harvey, who's playing Zerlina.  "Definitely chocolate.  I don't know about health benefits, but it makes everything feel better."



• Amanda Pabyan, who's covering the role of Donna Anna, has to be the one left standing when everyone gets sick.  What's her secret? "Swish with pineapple extract and water when you feel that scratch on your throat.  You can also buy it in pill form.  The extract is a homeopathic anti-inflammatory and the juice takes the sting away from a sore throat." 

Last weekend NYCO held its Tenth Annual VOX Showcase, with a wide array of contemporary American works. New York City Opera interns Kristina, Dimitri, and Alex give their take on VOX 2009.

All three of us really liked Ted Hearne’s Katrina Ballads, which expressed the harsh realities surrounding the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. This piece was Kristina’s favorite because of its unique use of lyrics pulled verbatim from the media. The words really speak to the audience because they are from that moment in history and show the political and social tension during the event. One of the highlights of this piece was the vignette entitled “You’re doing a great job Brownie,” in which the vocal styling resembled those of a DJ’s mix.

Kristina and Dimitri pose with the "Voxy-y Mama" poster

Dimitri, who’s a huge opera fan, really enjoyed Gordon Beeferman’s The Rat Land. Mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin stole the show as the isolated daughter of a dysfunctional family. Her acting perfectly portrayed the role of a little girl trapped in the midst of an embarrassing birthday party. Singing the role of her autistic brother, Jonathan Makepeace performed an eccentric duet with a Speak-And-Spell toy. Now we see why the VOX programmers revisited the work, which premiered in 2007, and we are all eagerly awaiting a full-length production somewhere in the near future.

Alex loved Car Crash Opera by Michaela Eremiášová and Jairo Duarte-López. It is an eight-minute piece where the music is set to an animated film by Skip Battaglia depicting a car crash. The film wasn’t shown on Saturday, but we could definitely understand how the music would fit. We could easily identify the different characters--from the truck driver, to the impassioned couple, to the mother and child--just by listening to the piece. The singers’ ability to identify with these characters transported the audience into the passenger’s seat.

Alex, Kristina, and Dimitri

What did you think?

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
DON GIOVANNI (1787)