This Opera Genesis project played a significant part in my June holiday, when a considerable amount of time was spent sitting on my hotel balcony checking through vocal scores. Much of this time could have been spent in the pool if only Ben would learn to use Finale! (or at least get someone to do it for him). It's very difficult to get cross with Ben because he's such a lovely bloke - kind, sweet, sincere and unpretentious about his music - but I will keep nagging him because his vocal scores are a nightmare!

Rehearsing in the Jerwood Space was fun (enhanced by all the beautiful people rehearsing Carmen Jones in the same building). Ben had put together an ace ensemble - great players and equally affable people. Having been a bassoonist in my previous life, I was particularly impressed by Connie Tanner's virtuosic playing. She's my new favourite bassoonist. Singing and directing the ensemble at the same time was something of a challenge (waving one's arms around doesn't do much for breath control), but I think we got away with it. Steve Gibson (percussionist) helped enormously by taking over whenever he wasn't playing.

The piece we were working on, Solitude, is a "work in progress" - the result of a collaboration between Ben and Dominique le Gendre. They met in 2004 on a residency in Scotland and decided to exchange books that had been important to them as teenagers. The book that Dominique gave to Ben was "The Member of the Wedding", and the section that Ben focuses on in Solitude tells of an adolescent girl with no friends, whose younger cousin idolises her (she doesn't notice), and who wrecks her elder brother's wedding in her desperation to leave with him.

Ben doesn't warm to the conventional produced operatic sound. His music seems to demand a more "raw" approach to singing - direct, rhythmic and sometimes even childish. All well and good but there we were in the Royal Opera House's Crush Room performing to an audience (we presumed) of opera aficionados and big-wigs. It was great to see a packed room, but especially pleasing to hear all the positive feedback.

Ben's wife, Fin (who was extremely pregnant at the time), came to the Opera House to support Ben and to witness our efforts. Only 2 days later, she gave birth to Rufus - and here he is:

     

Many congratulations to Fin and Ben. I can't wait to meet this little man. I wonder if he listens to Solitude each night to get him to sleep. He probably knows the piece better than any of us......

Micaela