Sitz down, you're rockinz' the boatz

Once our Yale Opera group leaves New Haven and is safely over the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday you will all start to see more and more input from the actual "talent" who will be a part of these performances.  But as the talent is largely tied up in rehearsals until we leave, it looks like you're left with the comedic and operatic stylings of Johnny McPencilpusher (that's me, Grant Meachum, once again).

Last night was the sitzprobe rehearsal for this Thursday's performance of ORPHEE AUX ENFERS with the New Haven Symphony.  What is a sitzprobe, you ask? It's a word we opera folks like to toss around because it's much easier than saying "The first rehearsal where the singers work with the orchestra, but there's no costumes and no staging, so everyone just sits onstage and stands up to sing when it's their turn."  Sometimes we even shorten it to "sitz", because that's the kind of cool opera cats that we are.

Last night was the sitzprobe rehearsal for this Thursday's performance of ORPHEE AUX ENFERS with the New Haven Symphony. What is a sitzprobe, you ask? It's a word we opera folks like to toss around because it's much easier than saying "The first rehearsal where the singers work with the orchestra, but there's no costumes and no staging, so everyone just sits onstage and stands up to sing when it's their turn."

At any rate, last night the cast of ORPHEE met with the New Haven Symphony and conductor Gerald Steichen in the band room at Yale's historic Hendrie Hall.  (Side note - "Historic" often goes hand in hand with "Not air conditioned").  Maestro Steichen led the assemblage through the score, with the occasional stop to fix tempi or transitions.

What makes the sitzprobe such a gratifying rehearsal is the mutual admiration that often arises.  To this point, the singers have been working in a rehearsal room with a piano, and the orchestra has been playing the accompaniment without singers. To see both groups of talented musicians together is like the scene in "The Wizard of Oz" when everything suddenly becomes colorized.  (For you rock fans, that's when the cash register rings at the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Money").  For the first time, the singers can hear the jollity of the cancan and the instrumentalists can become part of the interplay when Adelaide Muir (Eurydice) and Ed Parks (Jupiter) sing the Bee Duet.  There were several truly honest moments of talented musicians from different backgrounds admiring (and applauding) what their colleagues are capable of.  As Wagner would tell you (if he were alive and also spoke English and also wasn't a sociopathic crank), opera is a true joining of all the arts, and these two groups of musicians, ably led by Maestro Steichen, proved that last night.

Once again, please join us on the New Haven Green on Thursday evening at 8:00pm for ORPHEE AUX ENFERS, featuring Yale Opera and the New Haven Symphony, presented by Festival of Arts and Ideas.  Hope for good weather.  We'll see you then.

Grant