The rehearsal

I went to my first "Probe" at the theater in Rudolstadt in middle of December 1991, realizing that I had lost my chance to go back to the States with my plane ticket on the 15th of that month. I was on my own in Europe after a whirlwind audition tour that took me to agents and opera houses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in around 6 weeks. I had a credit card and my daughter stationed at that time in the Army in Germany had staked me to some money to help tide me over during the audition time.

The morning was gray and overcast and I had stayed that night with a family in a temporary lodging as I was to get a more permanent rehearsal apartment this day after the rehearsal. The smell of brown coal hung over the city as I was driven in a mad fashion by the conductor, Herr Bach doing a Monte Carlo race in a Trabi. (Trabante, a DDR car that was driven by something like a lawnmower motor and exhuming plumes of smoke out the tailpipe). I began to notice that mornings after one awoke, the need to blow my nose and the black colored mucus on my handkerchief a result of the coal and probably exhaust fumes from Trabis. I was to find out that Rudolstadt is in a valley that contains smoke something like a bowl and there was serious lung problems in this area particularly with children who suffered various lung ailments causing them to be sent to clinics or a relative who lived in a healthier area.

Standing high over the city was Heidecksburg Castle, the former home of the German Prince Friedrich Anton von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, who ruled the place in former times. This lovely castle is pictured in many ways throughout Thuringia including on milk cartons from the company of the same name.

I went through the artists entrance at the side of the theater which was a communist inspired, ugly functional architecture, that replaced the lovely former baroque theater that Richard Wagner for one had conducted performances which was torn down probably because it reflected the bourgeoisie . It complimented the then gray unpainted buildings and houses of the town and the then depressing non-colors of the DDR State.

I walked into the rehearsal room to greet for the first time Herr M. and my new colleague Beth J. who was luckily an American and my translator. Herr M. immediately fired stage instructions and ideas at me so that within a half and hour my head began to ache. Herr Bach was on the piano and correcting my German pronunciation as I spoke or sang with repeated interruptions making me exasperated. Beth translated as much as possible and after 4 hours or so I was let go to now schlep my suitcase to my new quarters about a mile or so from the theater.