Greetings
I was not planning to take an overly active part in any programme at the convention.
Nevertheless, I ended up taking part in two.
I have already told you how I took part in one item, playing 'Just A Minute.@
The second item was entirely due to some people finding out that I am a filker and, thus, can sing and that I have also sung Mozart, Gilbert & Sullivan and other operatic arias.
It transpired that, as the theme was Masquarade, one of the other attendees had written a libreto for a short comic opera. He had basically filked several classical composers- and some of the filks were in Italian.
The work was called "Le Conte De Gribeau" and the story seemed to be a sort of contest between Gribo and Count Cassanuda as to who was the greatest lover.
As this involved both dwarves and cats, I quickly decided not to examine this concept too closely...
He even painted and produced a poster to advertise the opera.
My bass baritone was the lowest pitch, so I was assigned the bass line in the chorus for three songs, as well as first voice in a duet.
My part was Sergeant Colon of the Ankhmorpork City Watch and the tune was Offenbach's 'The Bold Gendarrmes' with appropriately filked words.
I opted to wear my scarlet Guards tunic with the waist belt, but without epaulettes or medals. I wore the officer's sash crosswise over my left shoulder, to idicate my NCO rank and wore shorts, long socks and crocks.
It was decided that this was sufficiently silly.
We had two rehersals, one, mostly, for blocking entrances, exits etc and the second for singing. Neither was on the actual stage.
Despite this, the perforamnce went off without a hitch and were very well received by the audience.
I was particularly pleased with the duet, as I had practiced it only twice with the complete stranger I had been paired with. We even achieved a very pleasant harmony on the joint parts of the chorus.
I still find it something of a mystery that these things go so well with so little preparation.
But, a famous rabbit once said,...
That's Opera, Doc!
Until next ime
Adieu
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