Little Patuxent Opera Institute

October 30, 2008 - Hello faithful readers. Sorry to have been out of the blogosphere for so long but let's just say I've been having "technical difficulties" up here in the Granite State. La traviata is now completely staged and entering its "polishing" stage. If any of my readers are in the area, please come check out the performances. The show is going to be great.

The purpose of this blog post, however, is to let singers know about a great new Young Artist Training Program: The Little Patuxent Opera Institute. This is an intensive four week program that will take place July 2009. Representatives from LPOI will be at the Opera Vivente auditions, so if you're already auditioning for Opera Vivente, you will also be considered for LPOI, if you are interested in a training program. If you are only interested in LPOI, you can apply via the same method as is outlined regarding the Opera Vivente auditions. Just indicate that you are only interested in the training program and not in the mainstage OV season.

Opening Night Receives Standing Ovation

May 10, 2008 - Just a quick post to say that last night's opening of Granite State Opera's Cosi fan tutte at the Music Hall in Portsmouth couldn't have gone better and received a thunderous standing ovation from the audience. Kudos to all the wonderful hardworking people at Granite State Opera who made this production so rewarding to work on. There's still one more performance to catch at the Capitol Center in Concord tomorrow at 2pm so if you're in the area and want to give Mom a great afternoon of opera check it out.

See you at the opera! - John Bowen

Final Dress as a Birthday Present

May 7, 2008 - So tonight is final dress rehearsal for Granite State Opera's Cosi fan tutte. Since it's also my birthday (a day I'm proud to share with Tchaikovsky and Brahms) I'm hoping for a smooth, relatively stress-free run of the show. And after the marathon day we put in yesterday, I have every confidence that it will be. Everyone seems to be rising to the challenges of this masterpiece and I was really excited to see all the elements come together at last night's piano tech rehearsal. Special kudos to Quentin Stockwell for his absolutely stunning lighting.

Many thanks to all my friends who have contacted me via mail, email, or phone with birthday blessings and especial thanks and love to my partner Bill who not only called and sent a funny e-card but sent me a dozen beautiful yellow roses. I don't care if the experts say this isn't the sort of thing that should be in a blog. It's my birthday and I'll blog what I want to, blog what I want to. . .Okay just to in some way tie this into opera, how about a trivia question: Post comments regarding any operas in which birthdays figure prominently. There's no prize or anything, so you'll have to just be one of those people for whom a lot of trivial knowledge is its own reward.

See you at the opera! - John Bowen

Time

October 2, 2007 - Well, well, well, time certainly does fly when you're doing a dozen different things simultaneously. So as you've probably figured out, in spite of my stated good intentions of posting more frequent, but shorter blogs, more than a week has elapsed since my last one. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men. So, here's a quick update on where everything is right now.

The piano/vocal scores of Orpheus in the Underworld have been completed and most of the singers have either picked them up or sent instructions where to send them. Can't for the life of me figure out what's going on with the ones that haven't responded in any way, shape, or form, STILL, but haven't had time to really worry about them. As Scarlett O'Hara once said, "I'll that about that tomorrow, after all, tomorrow is another day".

Everything is pretty much on schedule for the frame of the Alcina set to be loaded in this coming Saturday. Many thanks in advance to the volunteers who are generously giving of their time to help "tote that barge and lift that bale" (oh sorry, that's another show).

Audition packets continue to come in, although the spate of perfectly completed packets that followed on the heals of my audition post seems to have come to an end. Note to prospective auditioners: Please take the time to read the listing completely and to make sure that your packet is complete.

I took a brief jaunt to New Hampshire last week to meet the production team at Granite State Opera where I will be directing Cosi fan tutte next May. They are a great group of people, and I had a very enjoyable and productive time.

Time has been running out for ads and other items to make it into our season program, and so much of my week has been spent chasing down facts, personnel, ad copy, etc. As you can probably guess, not my favorite activity to be engaged in the week before the deluge which is the Alcina rehearsal schedule begins. But it has to be done, and I must say that our program looks absolutely fantastic. Kudos to graphic designer par excellence Dave Cooper.

The board has had a great deal of difficulty picking a date and time for our big celebratory fundraiser gala bashapalooza, but it looks like May 10, 2008 will be the date. Center Stage is having theirs the same night but hey, I think there's enough party spirit to support two parties in Baltimore on the same night. Call me crazy.

Let's see, there must be more otherwise I'm in a quandry as to why the past ten days seems to be just one big blur. Oh yes, I've begun preliminary design/concept discussions for The Pirates of Penzance that I'm directing at Opera AACC, trained a wonderful office temp named Emily Tobias, run an OV board meeting while simultaneously supervising an Alcina chorus rehearsal, and have been getting up around 6:30am every other morning to give my garden a good watering during this dry time of year. You're welcome, chrysanthemums.

Time for bed. If you have time, I hope to see you at the opera, and I hope you have the time of your life. - John Bowen

PS. I'm still looking for a stage manager who has the time to run Alcina. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact me.