S3/E4 A new video

Today I finished engraving the last scene of my opera’s first act. That leaves just one to do, but it’s the whopping Scene 2 from the same act. It’s 36 minutes long; that is to say, longer than Scenes 3 and 4 combined!

I am doing this close work in terms of both engraving the music and preparing the NotePerformer mock audio for use by those studying the opera for performance. In this day and age I will be eschewing the traditional piano reduction (except possibly in the few scenes that feature chorus) in favor of scrolling score videos. I frankly admit that the ability to also share these resources with family and friends, while heartening, is essentially a by-product of my ongoing promotional activities.

Eventually, everything will be on video in both of two forms. Individual scenes will be of greatest interest to performers and certain opera company personnel. Those have detailed synopses with corresponding timings to help facilitate musical and dramatic preparation. Most of my followers, though, just want to hear the music, see the lyrics as they scroll by, and possibly pause the video to take in the stage directions in the score from time to time. For them there will be three more substantial chunks.

Working backward, the third chunk is the second act (of two) complete:

https://vimeo.com/824503657

As of today I can offer the middle chunk, the final Scenes 3 and 4 from Act I:

https://vimeo.com/851718762

The individual videos for the scenes from Act II are up on Vimeo, q.v. Scene 3 from Act I is already out as well, but a separate video for Scene 4 will take a bit more work before it could be of use to cast, crew and directors. (Ultimately, only Vimeo will be housing the individual scene videos. It has a Chapter index feature I have been exploiting to abet preparations for the opera, particularly the synchronization of events in the libretto with specific moments in my score.)

A strand like this one, on the coast of Akhtamar Island, is the setting for Scene 4 in Act I as well as Scene 2 in Act II.

(The first chunk has to wait until I engrave Scene 2 of Act I. Gulp!)

Enjoy.