Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Wishes from La Toya

Wishing the Happiest Thanksgiving Wishes to all who celebrate!
Very Musically Yours,

Monday, November 22, 2010

Night at the opera



It is very rare that a struggling artist like myself gets to indulge in an opera at the Met (sad but true!) So when a friend called me hours before curtain, I jumped at the chance!

I was lucky enough to see the opening night of Don Carlo! I didn't get a chance to see who was playing whom so I was presently surprised to see Marina Poplavskaya as Elisabeth!

I had previously seen Poplavskaya's Liu and I remember being so incredibly inspired by her choices for the role! Seeing her in a completely different role was a treat. I also got to witness the sheer power and force of her brilliant voice. At times, she appeared to sing directly into the wings and I could still hear her.

All in all, it was a very cool night. My first viewing of Don Carlo! The only thing I wished was that there were more younger people there.

Very Musically Yours,


Thursday, November 4, 2010

And now for something completely different...


What's up everyone??

My most recent perf was "The Desert Song" with Light Opera of New York [or LOONY which always makes me giggle!]. I played Clementina, the very spicy Spanish girl that opens the 2nd act with song and dance. I also did some stuff in the first act ensemble [including marching in as a solider]

We worked in CAP21, a space with which I was previously unfamiliar. There were a lot of musical theater and straight play actors that used the space. So it was really cool to get to be around that again.

Since this is "Light" opera, there's LOTS of dancing and dialogue. The prospect of dialogue was thrilling because I got to recycle my West Side Story Spanish accent. How often do I get to use that?? I told them they're gonna be sorry if they give me too many complex dance steps, however. I like to get down on the dance floor like any girl but as soon as you start counting step, I grow two left feet! Fortunately the director Gary was brilliant enough to keep everything simple to do but interesting to watch.

The rehearsals were spaced out until "Hell week" which consisted of 3-4 hour rehearsals Mon-Wed and a quick run through the day of the show. We didn't get to walk in the space until the day of! This isn't uncommon but, we had to dance!!! Haha! Luckily the process wasn't stressful or tedious. I think that everyone was so happy to be singing that there wasn't time to worry about anything.

We performed in the lovely church Landmark on the Park at 76th and Broadway to a full house! I had a great time doing something a little different for a change. I also felt like I learned a lot more about acting and how your acting can serve the music. An eternal student, I am!




Check out LOONY's site to check out the rest of their season: http://lightoperaofnewyork.org/

Very Musically Yours,