Where does the energy come from

Not many posts this week. I tried my hand at my first Sarastro last night and then had an audition today.

The Sarastro was interesting in that it's the first opera that I've done since February that didn't have me running around the stage like a madman and it made it a bit of a challenge to find the energy needed to give a a really engaged performance. I've found, in the past, that you can either take the energy for the character from the physicality of the role (say Bartolo or Don Magnifico,) or from an engaging character that has a lot going on with him and build energy from the character depth and involvment in the levels that exist within that character (for example a Bluebeard or Commendatoreor even a smaller role like Grenville in Traviata.) In Flute, there's not a lot to go on as Sarastro is a fairly uni-dimensional character. He's in charge. He sets up tasks for Tamino, although he doesn't have anything to do with administering them (he has people for that.) He talks about friendship and love and then hands over the reins of the temple after the Speaker and the priests have guided Tamino and Papageno through. There's no internal conflict. There's no showdown with the Queen. There's nothing really at stake for him. Of course I've not discounted the possibility that there is more going on with him and I just didn't find it (or haven't found it yet.) Fortunately, when show time came around I found the energy in my fellow performers who were fantastic, each and every one, and who's energy was available for me to feed off of. It made the night go a lot easier. Thanks folks! Well done all.