I have been a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Core Supernumeraries now for about a year. We are a group of ten who appear in all of the performances, the non-singers and dancers who act as townpeople, soldiers, or even members of a commedia troupe.When the cast list for Meistersinger went up, I was very excited to see that I’d be a fighter in the show. I come from a dancing background and it is always nice to have to learn patterns of movement instead of just standing around holding a spear.

Our first rehearsal basically consisted of watching the archival video with our director and his assistants and putting me into the track of the guy who I was replacing. The other three fighters were returning to their roles and recalling their own patterns during our bit where we start out by coming into the town square to see what has awoken us in the middle of the night, and ending up in a full-fledged riot.

I am “hit”, “thrown” onto the ground, “punched” in the gut, and “slapped” in the face during the course of our routine. I roll around a bit with one of the guys, our elbows both crunching onto the painted stone of the set, and also take great pleasure in yanking another of the guys by his hair and “throwing him” dangerously close to the orchestra pit. He slides a good foot on his stomach for effect, I yank him back towards me and flip him over, and then he throws me over himself and smashes me up. Even after all of this, the hardest part of our few minutes onstage is having to chase each other out of the scene via a two-flight staircase that leads up and offstage. I am guaranteed a good workout, breathless and gasping for air. All of this is timed to music, of course, so that we are offstage by the time the principles continue singing.

The set itself is pretty cool, an adult jungle gym in which 70-80 people are hanging out of tiny windows and doorways (everything on the stage is in a forced perspective), the inhabitants of our little town. The scope at the Met Opera never ceases to amaze me. I come from a musical theater background where at most, you MAY see 40 people on a stage. If people are needed at the Met to inhabit a “town”, that is easily done with the addition of choristers, dancers, and supers. Instant population!

We shall see how all of our preparations are affected by costumes, but I hear we only wear nightgowns that should not hinder our movement. Our next rehearsal will be with the orchestra, which means one shot to get it all right. We were lucky during our last rehearsal to have four tries perfecting our timing with the choristers who get involved with our fight and a principle who slaps us all in the face. Meanwhile, we had to remember to avoid the hordes of others making up this complex scene.

This rehearsal is over and I’m off to another one for a new production that will open in a few weeks. Working in a repertory house keeps me busy and on my toes. I will have a dinner break and then perform at night in yet another opera, the third I will have been a part of in one single day here at the Met.

This entry was posted by Mike Gomborone on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 1:55 pm 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.