September
Aida and Don Carlo
29/09/09 20:43
Two weeks
after arriving, I got my first job, as extra in
‘Aida’ and ‘Don Carlo’ for Teatro Alla
Scala. Not quite the sort of
occupation I had in mind for our Tokyo stay, but La
Scala? Aida? Don Carlo? Conducted by Daniel
Barenboim?
Huge fun, a motley crew of Albanians, Americans, Brazilians, Russians, Japanese, Koreans, a veritable United Nations, to be soldiers and crowds, trumpet carriers and noblemen. There were students and gaijins, teachers on sabbatical, illegals desperate for noodle money or a fare home, retirees in for a bit of beer money.
With just four rehearsals, a piano and one dress rehearsal, La Scala staff managed to teach the extras, how to march in time, carry the standards, how many steps to take, when to turn, when to bow, or which hand to hold above the other on the spear.
In Aida, I had just forty seconds on stage, dressed up in Egyptian armour and hoping that I didn’t trip over me robe and spear the very large Tenor playing Rhadames. Don Carlo, was longer on stage, but less active. Sitting in a high chair dressed up as an Inquistore. Strict instructions not to move, but to look old and bored. Shouldn’t too difficult says some. Photographs here.
Huge fun, a motley crew of Albanians, Americans, Brazilians, Russians, Japanese, Koreans, a veritable United Nations, to be soldiers and crowds, trumpet carriers and noblemen. There were students and gaijins, teachers on sabbatical, illegals desperate for noodle money or a fare home, retirees in for a bit of beer money.
With just four rehearsals, a piano and one dress rehearsal, La Scala staff managed to teach the extras, how to march in time, carry the standards, how many steps to take, when to turn, when to bow, or which hand to hold above the other on the spear.
In Aida, I had just forty seconds on stage, dressed up in Egyptian armour and hoping that I didn’t trip over me robe and spear the very large Tenor playing Rhadames. Don Carlo, was longer on stage, but less active. Sitting in a high chair dressed up as an Inquistore. Strict instructions not to move, but to look old and bored. Shouldn’t too difficult says some. Photographs here.