A Night at the Opera, Part One

Recently I attended the Metropolitan Opera’s HD version of Verdi’s Aïda, in the new production by Michael Myers, and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The title role was sung by Angel Blue, pictured on the left.  The story is powerful, and watching the performances taught me a great deal.

First of all, I noticed that singers are not just always watching the conductor because they are acting while they are singing, which means that many times they don’t see what he needs them to do—they feel it.  They get a sense of the tempo, the pauses, the dynamics and the emotion of the moment, and they use that to make their vocal entrances on time, hold their notes, and also pair with their partners when they are singing duets and trios.

By the same token, the conductor feels the singers.  He knows when they are coming to the end of a breath, or about to sing the next phrase, and then directs the orchestra to do everything they should do at the exact right moment.

From the very beginning I decided to watch the performance as a pianist, which gave me a wonderful perspective on what the singers must do in order to follow the conductor.  I thought about the times I have played with an orchestra, and how important it is not just to perform the right notes at the right time, but for everyone to perform them with the same emotions and to create the ensemble, or the performing together, by anticipating everything that is going to happen next.

In watching the singers, I was able to get a first-hand view of how all of this works.  Whether it is an aria, a duet, or a chorus with dozens of people on the stage, it is really like a watch, where every coil and every spring works with all of the others to keep the hands of the watch moving.

I also found watching with pianist’s perspective helpful because I will be performing with singers later this year.  In an opera, long before singers start rehearsing with the orchestra there are hours of piano rehearsals with the conductor so that goals can be set for the music and what the conductor wants to achieve.  Also, there always needs to be a discussion of how both the pianist and the singer see and understand the music, so that nothing is mechanical, and everything feels natural and spontaneous, never forced.

 To paraphrase the great comedian Jimmy Durante: “We work for months to make everything look unrehearsed!”