La Vie Boheme

This week's view. Dress rehearsal tonight, performances Friday and Saturday. Been great, but tiring on the first week back at school. (What's worse is that Moray and Aberdeen/shire holidays don't coincide this year, so the rest of the band are still off!) High concentration required too - stop counting and you're dead in the water in this show...

The sheep was one potential mute option - there is no real official bassoon mute as with brass instruments, so generally we have to improvise. Right on the last page, Puccini writes a very long and quiet sustained note, but not one that is particularly subtle, hence the need for calming measures. At college I had a small penguin that fitted nicely into my bell, but that is long gone somewhere in the 13-odd years that have passed. In the end I decided to go for a hair bobble rolled down over the low Bb pad, as when Mimi is dying gracefully on the couch, it might spoil the mood for a small stuffed sheep to suddenly appear over the horizon...