Six down three to go

We are two thirds of the way through our run of Faust and although the audiences are appreciative the critics haven't been impressed. Some of them could spend some time reading the program notes first before getting all distressed about the staging.

Wednesday's performance was notable for a sudden change of conductors after intermission. It seems the TSO had scheduled a program of Debussy/Stravinsky that same evening to be conducted by Valery Gergiev. But Gergiev was delayed because of weather. Because he is familiar with the Debussy pieces, our conductor for Faust, Yannick Nézet-Séguin became the replacement for Gergiev in the second half of that program. He also just happens to be replacing Gergiev as music director for the Rotterdam Philharmonic later this year. All at the ripe old age of 31.

His replacement for the second half was the COC's assistant conductor Steven Philcox who prefers a noticeably uptempo pace. Making my brief moment onstage even shorter. The scene I'm referring to is shown here. All that's visible of me is the upper left portion of my head and legs. I'm one of the four soldiers carrying Wagner (Peter McGillivray). Unfortunately there are no pictures of the Kermese scene available so you'll have make do with what I have.

My Comedia costume

The view from the mask

My battered visage