Parallel Universes

From Eric Hale:

Aside from a brief makeup tutorial before rehearsal, the rehearsal was all about the orchestra. I may talk about makeup another time, but today’s post is about the orchestra as well.

The orchestra are all professional musicians and do not show up until a couple of days before the show. I never cease to be amazed at their ability to learn the music and play as a group in only a couple of days. That’s a level of skill I cannot imagine.

The cast and orchestra almost dwell in parallel universes. I got a taste of just how different the orchestra experience is during Capital Opera’s performance of Madama Butterfly. We sang the Humming Chorus from the orchestra pit. While I had been in an orchestra pit before, I had never been in one when the musicians were in place and certainly not during a show.

The first shock was discovering how little the musicians can hear the singers. Not only are the singers directing their sound up and out, but there is a thick, sound dampening floor between them and the orchestra. And, of course, there is a lot of sound in the pit itself. This drove home something I had heard conductors say, but never really thought about: The conductor is the link. He’s the only one who hears everything. It’s important to watch him not only because he picks the tempo, not only because we want a consistent interpretation of the music, but literally he’s the only one who knows what’s really going on.

The second shock was how cramped it is in there. As actors, we’re concerned with filling the stage, and the stage can seem vast when there are only a few of are up there. The inside of the pit was like the inside of a mechanical watch. I remember particularly the string players, each so precisely positioned so that they could bow without elbowing someone in the face. For some reason, it’s easy to forget how confined they are when you only see the musicians from above.

Last night’s rehearsal was the orchestra’s first time working as a group and our first time to hear what the music will sound like on opening night. We had monitors on stage, which made it much easier to hear. However, as I said earlier, this rehearsal really wasn’t about us. Wayne’s focus was on the orchestra. We started and stopped a number of times as they worked out the tempo changes, entrances, etc. They were covering a lot of material very rapidly, and seeming to get almost always it after hearing it once. Amazing.

The orchestra rehearsal ended promptly at 10:00. Wayne is very good about not having rehearsals run long, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rehearsal with orchestra run long. Not anywhere, not ever. The cast worked on one entrance after the orchestra left, set the final bow and went home.

Final dress rehearsal is tonight: one last time to get everything right.