Goodness me! The whirlwind of wedding excitement has certainly kept my energies high, enabling me to jump straight back into the rehearsals for Scottish Opera’s third tour of their Pop-Up Opera season.
On Sunday 29th August 2021 I drove to my parent’s home in Cheshire with my trusty travel partner, my Great Auntie Val. Together we relived special moments from my wedding weekend, in the hope to add some order to the preparations and flashes of excitement from my wedding day, so that I could seal them into my memory. We tried to dictate a diary entry of the past few days onto Val’s iPad – but the details and names jumped around in our recounting, followed by many fits of giggles. In the end we decided to just reminisce through the art of good old-fashioned conversation and soon enough we were back home. Despite the distance between our locations, George and I were able to enjoy some newlywed traditions. Thanks to the help of technology, we called each other via Facetime and opened the presents and cards together that we each had with us. We also enjoyed slipping in the new vocabulary of Husband and Wife into our regular conversations as often as possible.
On Monday afternoon, the 30th August 2021, I drove back up to Glasgow listening to a recording of me singing the vocal score of Bubble McBea – the new show I would be rehearsing with Scottish Opera. I find that repeatedly listening to the music that I am trying to memorise is a fantastic way to solidify it into my memory. I often create for myself learning tracks. They can vary from me singing the part with a metronome, to George playing the accompaniment whilst highlighting my vocal part clearly on the piano, or George and I together: I sing my part whilst George accompanies. I find that these tracks really help me to use my time well whilst I am traveling, walking, cooking or if I do not have access to a practise room with a piano.
The company came together on Tuesday 31st August 2021 at Silvercloud studios to rehearse. I worked alongside:
Chris Alexander – Narrator
Allan Dunn – Narrator
Aidan Edwards – Baritone – Pirates of Penzance
Alan Penman – Composer of Bubble McBea
Andrew Drummond Huggan – Cello
Sasha Savaloni – Guitar
Ali Biggs – Stage Manager
Emma Skaer – Assistant Stage Manger
Everyone was in good spirits and the hard work commenced. We began working through the musical scores of both Bubble McBea and Pirates of Penzance. Once we felt comfortable and there was synergy amongst our ensemble, we worked together to lift the story off the page with actions, pictures and dancing. We finished the week by running both shows (from start to finish without stopping), with the focus of making the transitions between song and narration run smoothly. The musical score for Bubble McBea is fantastic because it is like a film score. Each moment of the narration is underscored, when a large crashing wave is described Andrew (on the cello) plays an extremely loud and fast chromatic scale, sailing down the strings from very high to dramatically low. It was our challenge as a team to make sure that these moments align with the script to emphasise elements of the story and to really capture the magic for our younger audiences. With a “Flip, Flap, Flop” we finished our week and I look forward to sea-ing you next week to tell you more about the next stage in our voyage.
For those of you able to attend you can buy tickets for the shows on Scottish Opera’s website:
Monday 13th September, 18:00 – Pirates of Penzance – The Buttery, Glasgow
Saturday 18th September, 11:00 – Bubble McBea, 13:00 Pirates of Penzance, 15:00 Bubble McBea – Rotterdam Wharf (Glasgow Canal Festival)
Thursday 23rd September, 18:00 – Pirates of Penzance – Kirkcudbright Primary School
Saturday 25th September, 12:00 Bubble McBea, 14:00 Pirates of Penzance, 16:00 Pirates of Penzance – The Wigtown Showfield, (Wigtown Book Festival)
Bubble… that’s a great name for YOU! Have more fun than humans should be allowed to have and of course, all connected to the performances will have fun too. Cheers!!
Haha, I loved the name too. I can’t tell you how much fun I have singing and dancing around for children they were doing all the dances Bubble did and the actions in the Pirates, just brilliant.
Best wishes
Charlotte
This is wonderful, Charlotte, I wish I could attend! Best wishes on your tour and congrats again on your marriage! I love the photo, you have such a beautiful smile! ☺️❤️🇬🇧
I wish you could all see it, such a happy show with a serious message for the children I’ll tell you more about it next week.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Thanks. Me too! ❤️
YOUR LIFE SOUNDS BUSY AND HAPPY. . MAY IT CONTINUE TO BE SO. SENDING LOVING THOUGHTS.
Thank you Patricia, I hope you are well and happy too. I have another booking in October the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute so I’m working memorising the changes in the libretto in that, glad to be busy.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Thanks for the updates, Charlotte. Best wishes for the coming week.
Thank you John, it’s certainly a busy six days from tomorrow.
All my best wishes
Charlotte
😁
Here is your last message. Sorry about any problems you are having. 😁
Sounds like a lot of fun. It’s nice to see you are out and about again. I love that “screen saver” dress.
Thank you Timothy, I’m with a great crew of people and I love this show I wish you could all see it 😀. Isn’t the tunic dress brilliant, Trisha in costume makes me great clothes I’d like to take this one home can you imagine the people on the Tube in London they’d think I was on CBeebies (that’s the BBC’s children program dept) and I’d be just going to teach haha.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Charlotte, how exciting it seems like the busier you are the more you love it.. Bubble Mcbea looks such fun.
Have a lovely weekxxx
I wish you could both see the show it would make you smile. I was showing Mum one of my dance routines on FaceTime and nearly knocked my head against the wall lol.
All my best wishes
Charlotte
Yahoo! Sounds like you’re having the time of your life!
Busy bees make lots of honey.
Your singing work/practice ethic is of great importance. You are going to be in amazing shape when the tour is over.
I enjoyed your visit to my blog this morning; big time!
I’ll be drawing lots of Lala’s to surprise you, when you are back home.
Sending massive best wishes! – Resa ❦xo
I really miss reading all my blog friends posts at the moment but you know how wrapped up you get in preparation and I’ve had a lot to memorise and improvise, I’m just having my best life at the moment, missing George but thank goodness for FaceTime and he did pop up for our minimoon last weekend. He’s busy too thank goodness he is recording next week at Abbey Road Studios I’d love to do that so I hope he has an amazing time.
Can’t wait to see your new drawings.
All my best
Charlotte
Super !!!!! Bravo et très bonne continuation!!!! Meilleurs pensées !!
Merci beaucoup Pascal. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it continues at the end of this run of bookings. We all need a little luck that things start getting back to normal next year.
Best wishes
Charlotte
Since I have known you I always have my fingers crossed for your success dear Lady Rainbow voice xx
Good morning my dear friend 🌺
Good morning, 🙋🏼♀️ have a lovely day.
Best wishes
Charlotte
What a great name – Bubble MacBea – perfect for you! And the Pirates of Penzance is one of my favorite productions. I am so sorry I am on the other side of the pond. Good fortune to you and George. You are on your way to working out how two professionals can manage a marriage!
Exciting update, Charlotte! Wishing you all the best! Such a cute photo of you too!
~Lauren 💗
Congratulations 👏 all the best 👍😊
WONDERFUL! Marriage and music – a great combo!! 🙂
We’d just arrived in Scotland on the 30th August. We got to Loch Venachar at 3pm, so you weren’t too far behind I guess? x
I hope you enjoyed your holiday Christine.
Best wishes
Charlotte