Behind the Scenes with Brad Seigal

Amici, the young friends of Opera Birmingham, continue the countdown to the opening night of Hamlet and the celebration of Opera Birmingham's 60th Anniversary season with our 60 Days of Opera countdown! (If you've missed any of the fun, check out the Amici facebook page or find us on twitter by following @AmiciBirmingham or searching the hashtag: #60DaysofOpera.)

Today we bring you a story from Brad Siegal, a seven-season veteran who is known as the Social Chair of the Opera Birmingham Chorus. Putting together a grand stage opera production is a lot of work, but that doesn't mean there's no fun involved:

 Brad Siegal

As a seasoned vet of the Opera Birmingham Chorus, I have had many memorable moments during rehearsals and backstage. One particularly funny moment happened during rehearsals for Aida in 2010. Most of the men have never put on makeup before, so trying to put on eye-liner, blush, etc., for a regular production can be quite daunting. Aida was a whole different level, because we all needed to look Egyptian.

Aida 2010

In Aida, the gentlemen had to do most of their own makeup since it was such a large chorus and the principals needed plenty of makeup to “look the part.” For some of us gentlemen, the transformation-by-makeup was relatively easy. But for those of a "fairer" persuasion, the makeup turned into quite the adventure. 

The men of Aida

One such fellow, Robert Robinson, cracked us all up with his makeup. As we were supposed to look Egyptian under the stage lights, the color of the makeup tended toward a roasted pumpkin shade. And then men's costumes left a lot of skin showing, meaning that we had to cover not just our faces and necks, but also our arms, hands, torsos, and legs with the dark makeup. On the first night of rehearsal in costume, Robert showed up on stage looking like he was auditioning to be an orange in a MinuteMaid commercial.

Brad and Rob, rocking the guy-liner

The director actually had to stop the rehearsal because he was laughing so hard at Orange Boy. Lessons we learned were:  (1) Men who have never put on makeup in the past were NOT allowed to do so alone the first time, (2) the makeup staff for each production are ROCKSTARS and that job is NOT as easy as it may look, and (3) Robert looks much better pale than orange.

Rob, letting the pros handle it now

(By the way: Congratulations to Robert and Katherine Robinson on their new baby girl. We love and miss you in this year’s chorus, Orange Boy.)

The whole Robinson family

Stay tuned for more stories from the Opera Birmingham family! For those of you keeping track, our countdown now stands at just 9 DAYS UNTIL OPENING NIGHT!! Click here for ticket information.