Blog

It has been an interesting few weeks since Ike hit Houston. Lauren's apartment is still an electricity free zone. (Not quite what one was hoping for 11 days after the hurricane, but a good portion of Houston was powerless after Ike). What's impressive is that Lauren's parents, who live in rural Louisiana, had power 4 days after the storm, but all that being said - one's pioneering spirit does come out at times like these.

So on the Monday after Ike, I received a number of phone calls from the singers wondering whether we were going forward with the rehearsals. Not having power and not receiving a newspaper can sometimes be a mixed blessing. Evidently there was a long article detailing how much damage Bayou Bend sustained in the storm. It is going to take about 5 months of work in the gardens for them to be restored. So, that was the beginning of the real-life opera. We were quite fortunate that even with the damage that Bayou Bend sustained because of Ike, they want to make sure that the show will go on!

This has lead to the wonderful opera within an opera of putting a production together while facing the problem of post-hurricane clean-up and a serious lack of power in our rehearsal venue, the Hillel Student Center. (We were thankful to have Bethany Christian Church for one night of rehearsal, which prompted our bass player to remark, "Hillel Student Center, Bethany Christian Church, what next? The Islamic Student Center?" Frankly, if they had power, I would be begging them to let us in).

But, back to our current opera (both the real opera and the operatic situation we find ourselves in)... The Hillel Student Center still has no power, so we have been on a daily hunt to find a rehearsal space big enough to stage this opera. (I feel like a football coach - practice venues are a game-time decision). Thankfully, Jaemi Loeb, our assistant conductor was able to commandeer some space at U of H each night. The only draw back to this is that we don't have access to the electric piano that we will use during the concert... It's under lock and key at Hillel! We now have the fun task of checking Hillel each morning to see if it has power then trying to requisition a room at U of H, so we will have space to rehearse. At some point we might want to think about moving the piano.

Procuring props and costumes also became a last-minute deal since most or our contacts in those areas didn't have power and didn't have easy access to our phone messages. (At this point -the Opera Vista phone can't receive messages because the answering machine doesn't have power!) Luckily everything seems to be moving forward, though I suddenly have a rescheduled commitment on Saturday before the performance. (It was to have been last Saturday, but that was when Ike was at its strongest). Let's hope that we can cruise into the performance from here!

I can say this - Trouble in Tahiti looks and sounds wonderful. No matter what, it's going to be a great show.