What Are Opera Rehearsals For?

Horn players Bruce Hembd and Shawn Campbell

Organizing and fine-tuning an opera production is a huge undertaking to say the least. Of course this is something that is not accomplished overnight. The unique combination of drama, theater and music that comprises opera requires a great deal of preparation and planning.

A major element in this preparation is rehearsal time. This is time set aside for practicing, polishing and putting together all the pieces that make up a great night at the opera.

How long does it take?

Stage preparation begins as separate technical rehearsals – for staging and lighting, the chorus, orchestra and the soloists. Because hundreds of people might be involved in a production, schedules are worked out many months in advance. This alone takes a lot of planning and organizing.

For the Arizona Opera Orchestra musicians, the process for learning the music is in four stages:

• Individual practice
• Reading rehearsals
• Sitzprobe
  
• Dress rehearsals

These stages build upon each other throughout the weeks prior to opening night.

Reading rehearsals

In reading rehearsals the orchestra practices the entire score together for the first time.  For the Arizona Opera Orchestra, these readings happen on the weekend prior to opening night. They take place not in the pit under the stage, but in a separate rehearsal space big enough to accommodate an entire 50-piece orchestra comfortably.

In order to make the best of that time, the musicians arrive with their parts thoroughly prepared. The music director – familiar with the score and having already rehearsed with the soloists – will have knowledge of each singer’s approach and will convey this to the orchestra.

All this individual and group practice saves time and it prepares the orchestra quickly for the next stage, the sitzprobe.

The sitzprobe

Sitzprobe is a German term used in opera and musical theater to describe a seated rehearsal with the vocalists and orchestra.

The chorus and soloists will rehearse with the orchestra in a large space, with the music director at the helm focusing attention on integrating and coordinating these groups.

There is no costuming or staging in a sitzprobe. The focus is on assembling the various parts of music score.

The hours of work so far…

The time and effort is very concentrated in opera rehearsals.

For musicians, it starts weeks before with individual practice sessions at home – upwards of 8 hours or more. The group readings and sitzprobe will typically add up to between 12 and 15 hours.

Opera productions can last upwards to 4 or 5 hours, so it is important to have enough rehearsal time to fine-tune all of the music. Longer operas such as those by Richard Wagner or Richard Strauss for example, can take a considerable amount of time to rehearse and coordinate.

A complicated act might need an entire reading rehearsal or sitzprobe all by itself!

Too much of a good thing

On the other hand rehearsing too much in a 24-hour period can be very taxing on musicians, especially string players who without breaks, can be easily injured from repetitive stress on their joints and muscles.

For this reason, Arizona Opera Orchestra rehearsals are maintained at three hours.

On weekends when the orchestra normally has double-rehearsals (6 hours per day), there is always a 90 minute break in-between. This is done in order to give arms, fingers, reeds and lips some much-needed time to rest.

For this reason too, the lead roles on stage typically have two different casts that can alternate performances and rehearsals.

Nobody likes to hear an over-worked tenor!

To be continued: Into the Pit and On the Road