Opening Night

Figaro is opening tonight. The third act has just started. I'm listening to a beautiful Count/Susanna duet. Their voices are so resplendent -- full, spinning, gorgeous. I love it! All of the leads in the show are super talented. My only regret about being in the chorus is that I never get to see the full production from the house. I'm always listening from the dressing rooms since the chorus performs with both casts. (We double cast here partly to give more folks a chance to sing the roles, partly as an insurance policy in case someone becomes ill, and partly because singing four performances of a major opera is a significant undertaking. You have to space them out since opera fatigues voices. By double casting, we can do the four performances all in a row over a weekend, which also cuts costs in terms of lighting/costumes/set rentals, etc.)

In any case, there is a heightened energy here tonight. It makes such a difference to have a live audience in the house as opposed to empty seats and ghosts of past patrons soaking up the sounds. If you sing in the shower or your car, just imagine what it would be like to have someone who happens to be outside your bathroom door or in your passenger seat listening to you. You'd have a heightened sense of performance. Perhaps you'd be super nervous. Perhaps you'd secretly love it and want to step it up to impress them. That's sort of like the difference it makes here.

There is also a dialogue that happens between the people onstage and the audience. The singers are always conscious that the people in the audience must be able to see and hear them, so they "cheat out", angling slightly outwards onstage, as though inviting the audience members in to hear what's going on. This is different than film where actors will face each other directly, creating a more "realistic portrayal." Onstage, if you face your compadre directly, you block the audience from seeing your full expression, and it's much harder to get them to hear you, especially in a large hall like this one.

The dialogue bounces back from the audience to the stage as well. The audience laughs, groans, applauds, and gives feedback to the performers. Having an audience with "good energy" is like walking into a lively party. A difficult audience is like walking into a room with an awkward silence. You know what that feels like; you may not be able to point to something palpably as evidence, but you can feel the discomfort in the air. Our audience here tonight seems warm, although perhaps a bit over-polite or small. It is a Thursday night, after all.

Know that when you go to see an opera, it's perfectly acceptable to laugh out loud, to clap, to shout "bravo" when you particularly like something, to make noise. Performers like to know that they're garnering a response from the audience, that they're having an effect and being appreciated. Just because it's "opera" doesn't mean it's on some sort of pedestal, like a library environment. Opera is all about human emotion. Express away in the audience!

Back to swinging my huge dress around. It's a lot of fun having an extra foot of width across my hips. :)

~Hope