On the Road & Into the Pit; Dress Rehearsals

In the first part of this two-part overview about opera rehearsals from the musicians’ perspective, three stages were covered:

• Individual practice
• Reading rehearsals
• Sitzprobe

Continuing onward with the fourth and final part – the dress rehearsal – the Arizona Opera Orchestra takes a deep plunge into the bowels of the opera, that area of the stage otherwise known as the pit.

Dress rehearsals

In 2 or 3 dress rehearsals all (or most of) the production elements are brought together:

• staging,
• sets,
• lighting,
• costumes,
• and the pit.

Put in very simple terms, the singers put on their “dress” and practice the show on stage while the orchestra re-locates to the pit and accompanies. These rehearsals lead up to opening night and are the time when everything is put together.

The music director, located at center stage on a high platform in the pit, is completely in charge. The singers onstage have extra monitors to watch for important cues in case they cannot see the Maestro directly.

If you look carefully in the iPhone picture below, you can actually see them glowing on the pit wall.

A peek into the pit - taken with an iPhone during a break.

The pit and the road

Performing in a small stage pit is significantly different than performing in a large rehearsal room. There is a period of adjustment for fine-tuning balances with the singers on stage and for adjusting chair placement and sight-lines. Every pit musician needs to see the conductor and his baton in order to keep in line with the action onstage.

• See “Life in the Pit“

Because Arizona Opera presents shows in both Phoenix and Tucson, there are many long evening hours driving back and forth for dress rehearsals. The musicians in the orchestra commute from throughout Arizona – Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff.

Late night trips on Arizona’s I-10 or I-17 interstate freeways are many times necessary.  The musicians in the Arizona Opera Orchestra are people and professionals who work and have families. Most need to work multiple jobs in order to make a living.

The gears that drive the operatic engine

The final product on opening night looks polished and professional to an audience due in large part to the quality time spent in rehearsals behind-the-scenes. This two-part overview is only the tip of the iceberg.

At the root of it, each opera production actually begins long before the first rehearsal. For the orchestra musicians it begins two weeks beforehand, when the orchestra librarian makes the parts available to pick up and practice at home.

This is the place where a musician’s technical and artistic skills are molded and fine-tuned – in an isolated room alone with an instrument, a metronome and a pencil, woodshedding for many hours.

Questions? Ask!

If you are curious, please feel free to ask something in the comments section below. One of our musicians will drop by and give you an answer!

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