Saturday, July 21, 2012

Die Blume von Hawaii

Besides being in the chorus of Nabucco this summer, the American singers are also cast in a German operetta called Die Blume von Hawaii. This was written by an Hungarian Jewish, German speaking, man in 1930 while he lived in New York City. Talk about confusing. Half of the text we sing is in German....half is in English. Same with some of the spoken dialogue of the main characters. And it is a very strange complicated story...so complicated that I'm not going to tell you the synopsis (you can find it on Wikipedia if you are curious) the chorus has been divided into two different groups: the Americans and the Hawaiians. I'm an American for the whole show, which is fine, but the Hawaiians get to do "Der Hulatanz" and I don't :(

The show is set in the time that it was written so 1920's ish...but we haven't had costume fittings yet...so I will be sure to post pictures when we do!

I believe the whole show has been staged, which is great news because we don't open until August 4 (open dress rehearsal on Aug. 1) so we have lots of time to tidy up our dance moves. The show is an operetta, which means that it is more like a musical than an opera (sung by classically trained singers) so there are dance numbers and dialogue as well as musical numbers. The most difficult part so far has been the language barrier .(once again) Not so much because of the stage directions, the director and most of the cast members speak very good English, but because the spoken dialogue is in German and full of jokes and things that we are supposed to react to. It's hard to react to someone when you have no idea what they are saying. So what we have been doing so far is plotting a scene and then the director will stop and explain to the chorus or one person in particular what he wants them to do and then we go forward. It's worked quite well so far, because when he gives me a key idea to focus on or a key word to listen for I can usually pick it out.

Our director is Hardy Rudolz and he is THE Phantom of the Opera in Germany. It says so in his bio, except it says DER Phantom.....haha he has been a lot of fun to work with and also it's a great experience to work with some one who has done so much in the musical worald in Germany. He has also talked about being in the original Cats on broadway in Germany, and Les Miserables (I think)

Blume is also great fun because we get props for our dances. (a Seaholm high school specialty, which would also be the last time I was in a musical) The three american girls get to do our dance number with a fan and then later on we all get to use an umbrella to sing about how there is too much rain in Monte Carlo (slash Eutin) and how we miss Hawaii.

Great fun and I can't wait to tell you all about "Der Hulatanz" ...maybe even a video will find it's way on here :)

 

No comments:

Post a Comment