Blogging The Origin: First Performance

by tristero

I’m a little under the weather so I’ll let this one be short. It’s just a nasty head cold, nothing serious, but I have nearly zero strength to do much more than listen to Parthenia on my computer and zone out in my hotel room.

The first performance of The Origin went extremely well. Eric Johnson’s performance of his solo “Difficulties On Theory” hit the perfect blend of humor and passion and mezzo Jacqueline Horner’s performance of one of the central movements, A Great Tree, was absolutely spectacular. I had rewritten her part for that piece that morning and she performed it as if she had been practicing it for months! KITKA, the female Balkan vocal group which represents the character of Charles Darwin were simply unbelievable. It will be a long time before I can get the incredible animal sounds they came up with for “The Voyage of the Beagle.” Bill Morrison’s films looked great and were loved by all (especially me), Julie Pretzat conducted brilliantly and the orchestra and chorus shone. We got a packed house and a standing ovation. Thanks to all for all the hard work.

There’s another performance tonight so it’s back to the sickbed for me until then. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.