I’m a big fan of the Metropolitan Opera chorus – there, I’ve said it! Over the years that I’ve worked on the directing staff, my admiration for my colleagues in the chorus has continued to grow, and I’ve been inspired and amazed at their commitment to performance and creativity. On opening night of Meistersinger, the audience will hear “Wach Auf” – and they will be moved by the power of this amazing choral sound. What they will not experience is the actual day to day grind of a chorister’s schedule; which usually includes a three hour morning stage rehearsal, an evening performance, and possibly various musical or staging rehearsals in between – oh yes, and two performances on Saturday!

There’s a group of 20 choristers who have a great deal to do in Meistersinger. These are the Lehrbuben (Meister’s apprentices), who spend much of the first act engaged in a very detailed and rather complicated construction project; the assembling of the Meister’s Singing School and Beckmesser’s Gemerk – the platform from which he judges the singer. One of Wagner’s jokes is that the kids get it wrong the first time – without David, Sach’s apprentice, to help them. He’s too busy playing Mr. Know-it-all for Walther von Stolzing, and gets chastised by his apprentice colleagues. The Lehrbuben mistakenly construct a large Gemerk and then have to correct their error, eventually building the small curtained platform from which Beckmesser “scores” Walther’s first song.

Usually when we are reviving a production, we rehearse the chorus only onstage. But for this very complicated scene we had the luxury of some time with the Lehrbuben in the rehearsal room. My colleague Eric Einhorn and I arrived early to check the room set-up. Thankfully, we had asked Gary Dietrich, one of the Stage Managers, to join us and give us a hand, and help us prepare the room for rehearsal. We found that the prop crew had everything ready for us – according to Gary’s very detailed chart which shows exactly how and where the props need to be stored offstage in order to be carried on by the chorus. On Stage Right the various pieces of the two Gemerk platforms were piled in exactly the correct order - a jumble of poles, curtains, platforms, and platform lids which the Lehrbuben have to carry onstage and construct. Likewise, on Stage Left, the various pieces of platforms and tables that in the end make up the seating arrangement for the Meisters. Everything was set in just the right order – a complicated task!

The rehearsal flew by…. Peter, armed with some excellent paperwork which had been prepared by Assistant Directors in earlier revivals, (updated to include all the names of the newcomers to the production), read very quickly a summary of each and every chorister’s movements in the scene. It was only a brief reminder – most of the Lehrbuben have done the show before. But three years have passed since the last revival – three busy years for the Met chorus. Still, the “collective memory” kicked in: everyone remembered their business – and there is a LOT going on in this scene. Peter is very experienced with this production and was expecting things to go really well. Eric and I, newcomers to the show, were pretty amazed at how it all fell into place. I am convinced this could not happen in any other opera company in the world.

We ended our rehearsal day grateful to have pieced back together a huge and difficult chunk of this long opera, and grateful for the cheerful and generous spirit of the chorus, and especially for their sharp memories!

This entry was posted by Laurie Feldman on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 7:37 am and is filed under New Production Countdown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.