BIOS (and Where's Aubrey) in an opera

2. July 2, 2022 - Travel to Villa Emma

OK, I trust this won't be the most interesting post of this blog, but, I don't want to forget the crazy adventure of getting to our home-base for this project.



Music gear and luggage.



My seat with music gear and luggage



My knee. But also — way more interesting and important —
Bea, the most amazing van driver ever!







Stevie, Dani, Shooka, and April at our
"break from the airport" spot while waiting for luggage.



Shooka singing in an Iranian dialect for the proprietors
of the rice farm where we bought some supplies



Shot from the van on the way to the villa.



Arriving at the villa.



Some views from the villa.

3. July 4, 2022 - First Performance

For our second full day in Italy, Shooka (opera singer, director of this project) and Mikelle (director of the art residency program) setup a performance in the nearby village of Miagliano. Initially, it was going to be a sequence of three stages located along an old winding tree-shaded canal and a fourth in an amphitheater featuring Shooka, movement artists, and Gary (violin) and Sogol (piano).

To make a very long story somewhat shorter, Shooka wokeup sick (food poisoning we think) and throughout the morning the plan seemed to change by the hour, including such extremes as complete cancellation to me doing a solo set on dobro (something I've never done before). To complicate matters, Gary would barely make it on time to the performance if his flight had no delays, and, he had checked-on my Martin guitar (the one I actually know how to play) — given all of the luggage snafus the group had already experienced, we had very little confidence the guitar would make it to the airport on time.

Despite these fairly consequential unknowns, at the last minute, (literally just a couple hours before the performance), we reinvisioned the plan, including a multi-modal art segment where April would guide audience participation gesture drawings based on movement art inspired by dobro and violin.

In short, it actually worked!

Set 1 - Sogol on classical piano, including a delightful composition by Alkan, Le Festin d'Esope. The performance was amazingly virtuosic and playful. Major highlight.

Set 2 - Gesture drawings based on movement artists responding to improvisations on dobro and violin. We were all performing so it may take a while to track down some photos of the actual performance. The movement artists (Stevie and Sogol) were amazing.

Set 3 - Where's Aubrey set.

The audience was appreciative and a pleasure to play for, though the performance was a far cry from the headline that was advertised, Shooka singing soprano opera!

4. July 6, 2022 - The Villa

Below are a video and some photos of the villa where we're staying. The space is setup to host artists in residence.

Unfortunately Covid is upon us. Three of the performers have it (including Shooka), but so far, April, Gary, Sogol, and I are testing negative and feeling great. Fortunately there's plenty of space here and we keep the huge windows and doors open, and, mainly stay outside. Fingers crossed...

This afternoon the four healthy ones will prep for a performance scheduled for this coming Sunday (7/10). And, later this afternoon, Matt (keyboards) will arrive. Time will tell whether we'll actually be able to do the opera on the 13th as scheduled. I'll post an update in a day or two... (For those of you wondering, our party in NH on the 16th will happen. Even if April and I get stranded here, we have a sound guy coming this year and the show will go on, with our without us! And, we'll do everything possible to be there!)


~3 minute video that gives a sense of the villa and surroundings


Some shots outside the villa:














Some interior spaces:











Some views:








The insane clock tower that announces the time two times every hour,
separated by about two minutes,
neither actually on the hour!




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5. July 9, 2022 - Rehearsing

The last few days we've finally had some time to collaborate and rehearse — not the opera yet (Shooka is still recovering, but, feeling much better!), but in preparation for our performance on Sunday.

Matt (keyboards), April (visual art), Sogol (keyboards, movement), Gary (violin, mandolin), and I (guitar, dobro) are figuring out ways to weave our modes of art together in order to create interactively rather than just perform what we already know how to do.

The most interesting sessions have been round robins of improvisation during which we "pass the torch" — someone begins by improvising for anywhere from a few seconds to about a minute, then chooses the next voice by looking at one of the other artists, and so on. Ideally, each artist responds to the previous. Super-fun and very challenging! A few pictures and video clips below might give a sense of this exploration.

What a gift to be surrouned by such creative and talented people willing to give weeks of their lives to explore art — into the unknown...


























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6. July 12, 2022 - Second Performance

On Sunday, July 10th, five of us performed for an audience of about fifty people in the courtyard of the priest in a small village about ten minutes up the river valley from Rialmoso. Pictures and compilation video below. Super-fun collaboration!







The text we prepared to describe our performance:




The Italian translation:





























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