Let the Festivities Begin!

The 72nd Carmel Bach Festival has begun! All the out of town musicians and crew have gathered to get ready to produce nearly 100 events between July 9 and August 1.

I spent an hour with Bruno Weil this morning going over the script for the Tuesday night concert "Haydn Seek". He conducts, I narrate. We delve into the comic, romantic, and idealistic Haydn in this concert.

The stage is mostly set up, the acoustic shell is in place. Most of the stage lighting is in place but still needs to be focussed.

Rehearsals started this afternoon and continued until 9:30 this evening. The company had a great welcoming party 5-7pm, at Sunset Center. Chorale and Chorus rehearsed with Andrew Megill for the Friday and Sunday concert programs. The orchestra's first rehearsal with Bruno is tomorrow.

While Andrew Arthur led a rehearsal of Vivaldi's Four Seasons onstage this evening, Doug Mueller and I discussed our plans for creatively lighting the concert. We're hoping to create some subtle eye candy that will enhance the tone painting in the music.

More details from other contributors and from me as life becomes more interesting and we enter into the fulness of the event.

David
david@classicalmusicmatters.com
David Gordon is Dramaturge of the Carmel Bach Festival. This is his 21st season with the Festival. For the first nine of those years he was principal tenor soloist.