I'm fortunate to have a decent amateur bass-baritone voice, and I've also been fortunate to have performed in a number of opera productions with a small but professional company. Most of my work has been chorus, a couple of roles, plus some supernumerary stuff.

If you have questions about actual stagework -- makeup, costumes, props, backstage fun, onstage goofs, and the general wonderful experience of opera, ask me. Or if you've had onstage experience yourself, let's share some of the stories.

I'll be honest about myself and very cautious about telling bad stories regarding colleagues, but I'll otherwise be candid.

Well, I can imagine there being some bitchy behaviour and petty jealousies among opera singers at the top or among those who try to get there - it's (unfortunately) human nature.

Having said that, when I read posts at opera forums or comments at youtube I find many fans much worse - annoyingly so in fact. I've noticed it when it comes to discussions about instrumentalists also, but opera fans are the worst by far. They truly adore their faves (nothing wrong with that of course), but they also have a tendency to try to convince everyone else that compared to their personal fave(s) everyone else sucks. They only go watch a youtube from some singer to comment that it's no good and that their own God or Goddess does it so much better for example. The biggest prima donnas in opera are often not on stage but among the fans.

I was active in another opera forum, one that was unsupervised, a few years ago, and several of us were viciously attacked personally, NOT about our opera faves or dislikes, but attacked about our racial or cultural links and other things. And anything we said about opera was sneered at and jumped on by these trolls, it was awful and I eventually quit posting.

For example -- and this was NOT one of the real events -- let's say that I like Renee Fleming and I said that I enjoyed her recent CD. Immediately there would be a dozen posts saying that Renee was an addict, a horrible person, a slut, etc. (realize that this did NOT occur related to Ms. Fleming, but this is only an example of the attacks we recieved).

That being said -- in my personal experience, the vast majority of the singers and musicans I worked with were great folks. I found zero jealousy, and everybody worked to help one another. Our maestro and our managing director were both in agreement -- if you thought you were "so much better" than a colleague, you could simply find another place to sing.

So with our small company, thankfully, we didn't have any big personal snitty disputes. We did have arguments regarding staging and direction, but all these were music related and didn't appear personally biased.

We worked hard. Aside from the lead roles, others of us, including me, were singing as a 2nd vocation. I worked full time and spent every spare moment studying my part. I would practically live with that red-covered Schirmer vocal score, reading it during breaks, lunchtime, and all evenings. I'd play the CD of the opera in my car and on headphones at work, listening to the places where I sang over and over.

During my voice lessons, my teacher and I would go thru the music. And there were rehearsals Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday for several weeks before performance week.

Staging and music were split. We'd go through piano rehearsals with our rehearsal conductor over and over, working on the pronunciation and the notes. Then we'd meet separately with the stage director to work thru the blocking. Nobody would actually sing, we would instead just walk thru the movements while the pianist sketched out the framework of the notes as intro and exit segments. Finally, the 2 portions would be blended, with our first full stage rehearsal. We'd still be "marking" and only singing the entrance and exit of each musical piece, but we'd at least be singing onstage. Little by little things would come into focus until our final week, when we'd have 3 total rehearsal performances, 2 with piano, 1 with actual orchestra, before opening night. Whew!

You always get that sort of behaviour on any forum that isn't moderated. Youtube is also a perfect example of a place where jerks can post the most tasteless crap imaginable. On the opera forums of which I've been a member I almost never posted anything, but I read the posts from others sometimes. Although there are many reasonable people there - there were also those who went so far over the top with the negativity about some singers that I found it impossible to take them seriously.

Sounds like a lot of hard work, but also a labour of love if you can do it with people who get along with each other.

As with anything, we had a bit of tension and dispute now and then, but most of it wasn't music related, but personality. For example, one of our chorus regulars considered himself God's gift to women, and he regularly hit on every pretty woman in the company. Naturally he was married, and whenever his wife showed up, he instantly changed his spots and became Mr. Married Guy.

He was so blatant that all the gals joked about him behind his back, and shared "Alan jokes" (not his real name). "Alan" was always manuvering during rehearsals and backstage to get up close and personal with the girls. He got slapped a couple of times, too. Not that it dissuaded him. Of course there could have been a formal complaint and he'd have been fired in a second, but the women regarded him as essentially more of a joke than a threat. Oh, and he was always looking for excuses to take off his shirt. A joke.

Interestingly enough, at the time I was dating one of the lead sopranos. She told me one evening that he'd confronted her. "Tell me," he asked. "I tried to go out with you for nearly a year and you turned me down. But now you're dating "katdad". Why?"

She said, "Well, for one thing, he's single!" (duh)

What a neat conversation. There's such an opportunity for interesting anecdotes when one has the chance to talk with opera professionals. If anyone has a chance to hear from a stage artist and not hear about some of their more fascinating-sounding events in performance, then it's kind of like cheating yourself out of a smile (or a chuckle). I know it seems like such a "stock-interview-question," but I'm entertained by the responses, all the same.

Here's one that's probably new to you. It comes by way of soprano Margaret Jane Wray. At a MET performance of "Götterdämmerung," she was slated to sing Gutrune (Gunter's sister, who becomes the 'artificial' love-interest of Siegfried). Well anyway (so the story goes), preparations are under way for the opening of the opera, and a rather indispensible character for the very moment of the curtain-part, 3rd Norn, is unaccounted for. (I believe that the first option was somehow physically indisposed, and the 'cover' was on the wrong side of the George Washington Bridge, stuck in brutal traffic.) So... running out of options, someone approaches Margaret.... can you do 3rd Norn?! It turns out that she had sung that role in the past- but (I believe) she admitted to making clear that she might need more than the usual assistance from the prompter's box. So, after one of the MET's patented last-minute costume alterations, she took the stage for the prologue. Ms. Wray said that her biggest concern was actually a physical mechanic of the drama, as she's the Norn who has to pull on the rope of fate and do so firmly enough to make it sever (Es riß!). So, happily, she sang, the rope snapped, she scrambled back-stage to get into her 'Gutrune' costume, and also earned some extra fees for a noteworthy 'double,' and hopefully a story that'll be interesting to her grandkids one day, as well as many of the rest of us.

__________________
The hardest knife ill us'd doth lose his edge. Shakespeare- Sonnet 95

Good story. We were performing Hoffmann and our most complex set was the Grand Canal in Venice. We were a small company and on a tight budget. The "Canal" was simply a section of the stage floor at the far upstage, running stage right to left, with a lot of plastic shrubbery along the edge of the "water". The "gondola" was a flat plywood board with wheels and a fake shell where Oscar sat, gondola pulled by a rope. The gondolier pretended to be pushing the boat. At the business end of the rope were a couple of healthy teenage boys offstage, sons of one of the company staff.

When the orchestra began the entrance, the gondola would appear from audience left, move across the rear of the stage, and stop midway to let Oscar step off. At least that's how it worked in rehearsal. Opening night, for some reason, the wheels became jammed sideways just as the gondola came into view. The "canal" was lined along the sides by wooden boards, but the wheels got stuck against the side.

Oscar (the soprano whom I was dating) sat proudly in "his" seat while the 2 boys pulled harder and harder on the rope offstage. The chorus singer playing the gondolier used his pole to try to unstick the wheels, but nothing budged. The gondola just stayed in one spot.

Finally Oscar and the gondolier gave up, Oscar stood up and the gondolier help her off the wooden platform onto the stage itself. Right behind Oscar the gondolier stepped off, taking all the weight off the gondola.

Offstage, nobody had a chance to warn the boys pulling the rope, and the instant that the weight was released, the little "gondola" shot up into the air and sailed halfway across the stage, crashing to a halt on its side, wheels spinning in full view of the audience. The noise was terrific but thankfully none of the chorus was in the way.

All this is while the delightful opening theme is playing and the chorus is singing about the beauty of Venice and how love is wonderful.

Naturally the audience began to laugh, some of the chorus even joining in despite their stage presence, and yet Oscar and "his" gondolier kept their calm demeanor and stayed in character. I wasn't onstage at the time but I saw it all from the wings.

The audience was very kind, however. They stopped laughing quickly and then gave everyone a rousing burst of applause for a job "not well done but well attempted" as someone remarked.

Our "God's gift to women" baritone had an excellent voice and sang the occasional comprimario role as well as chorus, but he was lazy and simply refused to learn his lyrics.

Because he did have a good voice and was a tall handsome guy, the company put up with his stumbling through lyrics at times, but it all came to a head during our dress rehearsal for Rigoletto.

"Alan" was singing Count Ceprano and he muffed his part during the Duke's party scene in Act 1. As you know, Ceprano's part isn't large but it's important to set the plot in motion.

Maestro stopped the rehearsal piano and started again, twice, but the 3rd time that Alan forgot his lines and simply stood there, maestro threw a tantrum. He was conducting right at the front of the stage and he yelled at the top of his lungs at Alan "I'm damn tired of your screwups! You're costing the company time. Everyone else here has learned the part and you're costing these people dearly!"

Maestro then threw his baton across the room, picked up the score from his stand, threw it, and then threw the stand, too.

Our company manager stepped up and told everyone to "take ten". Alan's face was red and he was humiliated (and perhaps he deserved it). But it was a difficult moment for the whole company while the anger in the air cooled off.

Thanks Katdad,

Some interesting and amusing stories there.


Margaret

Another funny incident... During a performance of Marriage of Figaro, I was singing Antonio.

In the Act 4 finale, the Count discovers Figaro wooing whom he thinks is the Countess, and cries out for Figaro's "arrest", "Arme Arme" and all his cronies rush onstage to grab Figaro. I was standing in the wings during the entire Act 4 because I enjoyed the music, and so when the Count called for help, I was ready for my part. However, ALL the other men were in the dressing room engrossed in a game of blackjack, and forgot the time.

So I was alone in my arresting Figaro. That was okay, but in the first part of that sequence, the Count's cronies sing their alarm and concern. But Dr. Bartolo, Curzio, and others were absent. So my one voice was there, singing a lone part that would otherwise would have been harmony.

A few moments later, the other cast joined me, but they did miss the first part. Maestro was NOT pleased and called a special rehearsal the next day, during which all the missing cast were given plenty of extra rehearsal time.

Great stories, thanks for sharing.

Sounds bit like the Piano World forums.. especially if you post in the Technicians area, and then you have the piano Dealers who want to influence a poster who is in the piano finding market.

In the world of opera, I have seen the same cattiness you refer to. First off, you have to keep your opinions to yourself or risk being attacked.

I like Renee Fleming and Cecilia Bartoli because of their divine phrasing, etc..
Fleming came here to Fresno and gave a Benefit for the Grand Opera..Her performance was flawlessly beautiful, and how she has grown and matured as an artist over the years..

Speaking of Performances and surprises..

Here's an anecdote about the late Zara Nelsova who was performing at the Oberlin Conservatory Artist Series--She opened with a Corelli selection and mid point in the composition, one of her cello strings popped. The galant women she was, she gracefully departed the stage with a colorful scarf breezing along with her. (Her accompanist trailing her)
About ten minutes later she returned with the same swirling scarf and resumed her performance precisely at the measure at which she left off.

Decades later, when I went back stage following her performance of the Saint Saens Cello concerto with the Fresno Philharmonic, I reminded her that I was in the audience when her string popped in Oberlin.

With a dead pan smile, she replied: "Do you remember what I said."
I felt a bit embarrassed by my ignorance. I probably was sitting too far away from the stage.

She reminded me, "I broke my g string."

And of course I laughed 20 or more years after the fact.

Since many of you are from the UK, I have a batch of Murray Perahia stories that I'll save for another time. He was a classmate at the NYC HS of Performing Arts and was a year ahead.. You are lucky to have his artistic presence.

But here is another anecdote involving the late, great Isaac Stern. As a teenager, I attended the Merrywood Music Camp in Lenox Mass. that was a stone's throw from the Tanglewood Music Festival. One morning we were bussed over to listen to a rehearsal of the Beethoven violin concerto performed by Stern, under Charles Munch.
Well, everything was going smoothly until the latter part of the first movement. Suddenly, Stern's E string popped. (He was supposedly playing a Strad, or perhaps a Guarneri del Jesus)
Immediately, almost on cue, the concert master, Richard Burgin, surrendered his fiddle to Stern who continued, barely missing a beat.

The most noticeable consequence of the loaner, was that Stern's tone dwindled down
to a shadow of itself, which elicited my own chuckle. Made me wonder what Burgin was thinking about the acoustic impression his violin was making.

Well, we all can't have strads. I own a Joseph Hornstainer violin, 1799 der Mittenwald and that suffices.

speaking of a game of black jack. I was shocked to find members of the Boston symphony playing poker with chips, money, visors during an intermission.. This was like the Sgt. Bilko show back in the 50's. I would not normally disclose this but it was in the '60s and in the past tense.