I got a call one otherwise boring Friday afternoon to see if I could jump in the following evening in the Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden’s production of Elektra. I sang the role of the fifth maid five years ago in Cologne and Uwe Eric Laufenberg, the then Intendant, has since moved to Wiesbaden to shake things up around there.
How exciting! I jumped on a plane early the next morning and arrived just in the nick of time for a super quick costume check. 90 minutes before the curtain went up, I got 5-10 minutes on stage with the other maids… it’s a small role but the fifth maid gets her own mini-aria, so it’s a great little showcase. The other gals were super friendly and the staging was pretty easy to get under my belt, so that whole process took 7 minutes.
The next step was a quick musical rehearsal with the conductor, Vassilis Christopoulos – just to be sure we didn’t meet each other on stage for the first time. That rehearsal took all of 3 minutes, and then it was already time to get my face on.
It went like a dream and then it was all over! Thrilled to meet old friends from Cologne (Stella An, Young Doo Park, Wolf Mathias Friedrich, Dalia Schächter, Catherine Foster and of course, Uwe Eric Laufenberg). I was also particularly happy to meet fellow Aussie singer, Celeste Haworth. Celeste showed me around and we had a ball backstage.
Gerne wieder, sag ich nur!