I know, sounds like a nasty alien abduction story. But for those of you opera performers in ‘da house, you’ll know the term refers to the first orchestra run-through with the singers, minus blocking. It’s basically a chance to get accustomed to the orchestrations without being encumbered by blocking, costumes or annoying directors yelling at you. In some instances, it’s also a chance for the conductor to say, “Count, you friggin’ &%$*# singer! There are 20 other musicians here and I can’t read your mind. Watch me!” Except it comes out like, “It’s OK, we’ll try to follow you.”
Yesterday’s sitz was actually pretty tame compared to some past seasons. We’ve finally got a core set of musicians that play with us on a regular basis as well as some veteran Pineda Lyric performers. For this show, I’m playing the piano in the pit to supplement a smaller chamber group. We’re trying to save some bucks so we can splurge on a larger orchestra for Carmen next spring. I was worried that I’d be laying clunkers all over the place, but since I’m not doubling any other orchestral parts most of the time, the score is way simpler to play. I won’t actually have to practice. Don’t tell Mark.
Thankfully, tonight is a day off. But the hell of tech week begins again on Wednesday with the first dress rehearsal. Yippee! I just have to keep telling myself to make it through Sunday evening’s load out. Then it’s time to start stressing out over the opening of High School Musical in December. And then Carmen, and then Beauty and The Beast, and then Summer Conservatory and then…it never ends, does it?
1 comment:
you have to blog about the nyc marathon!
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