Boston Garden Take Two I know it has been a while since the last update. Rigoletto rehearsals absorbed my life and I was unable to get a minute to breath. I also came down with a cold, due to the late nights of driving back from rehearsal no doubt. Even with the cold, opening night went really well and I am looking forward to singing again tonight and Sunday. The only thing about the Rigoletto that concerns me is how one of the chorus members has taken a dressing room for his own (all the principles share rooms and the chorus has 2 rooms for the lot of them). Whatever is in his head that makes him think he has the right to yell at people (chorus or principle) who go near his dressing room is beyond me.

On a totally separate note, the organizer from the Celtics called me again today. Apparently I did a good enough job with the National Anthem before Thanksgiving that they want me back tomorrow. There is a Hall of Fame college basketball game going on tomorrow that they want me to sing for. The game starts at 3:30 and will be broadcast on ESPN, so I am hoping that this time they play the National Anthem instead of commercials.

- Gregory - ¶ 11:54 AM 0 comments

Celtics Basketball Back in October I went and did an open audition with the Boston Celtics for the National Anthem. From the type of people that I heard auditioning, I thought opera might not be included in their tastes. However, I just received word that they would like me to sing this Wednesday evening for the Celtics vs. Golden State Warriors game. It should be pretty interesting. If you would like to watch, I believe the game will be on CSN at 7:30, so tune in early if you get that channel! I will do my best to get a copy of the video to post. Things just never settle down for me.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

- Gregory - ¶ 2:40 PM 1 comments

In the News! Just a quick update of note. I had a nice e-mail from a website visitor who heard the Opera Idol contest on the radio. They also informed me about this short article in the Concord Monitor. It is just a small article about the competition and it mentions me as the winner. Thanks to you anonymous e-mailer!

- Gregory - ¶ 8:40 AM 0 comments

Last Boheme for a While Things certainly have not slowed down for me even though the Boheme / Fritz shows are done. I picked right up with rehearsals for Borsa from Rigoletto last night and we open in just a couple weeks.

The final show of the Boheme / Fritz went very well. We had the best turnout yet and we all sounded great. I have uploaded a couple of videos from the Boheme portion of last Sunday for your enjoyment. I have a feeling I will not be singing a Boheme again for a little while, but I will keep holding on that someone else might be doing one next fall.

I also just signed a contract with the Lakes Region Opera to sing in a Puccini concert they are having in February. I will be singing my first place achievement aria, Che Gelida Manina, as well as a duet and one other aria. An entire concert of Puccini arias is something I am looking forward to singing in just as much as I am looking forward to hearing the other singers. It will definitely be something worth making the drive to NH to see.

- Gregory - ¶ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Opera Idol Finals After a long weekend of traveling back and forth from NH I have great news to report. I won both the audience favorite prize and first place from the Opera Idol competition.

The finals round was setup like a concert with the 15 finalists each performing one song selected from their list by the judges. I lucked out and they wanted me to sing Che Gelida Manina, of which I have had plenty of practice recently. Unfortunately however, I was set to go 13th of the 15 singers. Without any warm up space, I was forced to walk a few blocks away an warm out outside. When it was my turn I sang as well as I could and that was just enough to win. I had enough audience votes + text messages in to win the audience favorite prize and the judges decided my performance was worth 1st place.

It was very exciting for me and I feel truly amazed that I was able to win when up against the other singers. Everyone in the competition sounded great and I know it had to be very difficult to choose. Bravo to all of the performers, I look forward to singing with you all again.

Thank you to all who voted for me and listened on the radio and online. I hope to have the news broadcast and/or the radio broadcast available soon so that you can listen if you missed it.

- Gregory -

One last note. This coming Sunday the 11th is the closing night of the La Boheme / L'amico Fritz. I hope you are able to make it! ¶ 8:56 AM 0 comments

Opera Idol? Yesterday marked the preliminary auditions for the first annual Opera Idol competition run by the Lakes Region Opera Company. It was quite an experience. There was no Simon telling me that my Italian was horrible or that I should never sing again, just a normal panel of judges.

We had to send in a list of 4 arias that we would be singing from in the competition and when I got there, I thought the judges were going to pick the one aria I would sing from that list. Apparently that was a misprint on the website and I was allowed to choose. I decided to sing "Che Gelida Manina" since I have had quite a bit of practice with that lately. The other 3 I had are "Addio Fiorito Asil" from Madama Butterfly, "Una Furtiva Lagrima" from L'Elisir d'Amore and the 131st Psalm from Hine's I Am The Way.

I sang and it went well. It went so well in fact that later, when the news team showed up, the judges came and found me so that I could sing again for the news. So last night I was on the New Hampshire news channel 9 singing a nice high C.

Overall it was a very good day. One of the judges gave me something to really think about over the next year and all of the judges were very complimentary about my singing. Just as I was about to leave, one of the people staffing the event came and told me that I sang really well and she enjoyed it. She enjoyed it so much that she decided to tell me that I had made it into the semi-finals. So, I have to go warm up for them because at 3:25 today I will be trying to get into the finals tomorrow.

- Gregory - ¶ 8:54 AM 1 comments