The alarm is set for 8:30—but Misty, the family lab/shepherd has other plans….so I am awakened earlier than planned… I think to myself ….uuh, what day is it, what is rehearsal today? As I stretch, I am reminded we just performed a very busy Eugene Onegin last evening (which is a delight—but demanding on many levels). Ah,yes—speaking of demanding, it’s Act II of Die Meistersinger in costume with orchestra… that means Jimmy Levine in the pit, too (a true delight). I have had the great fortune of performing as a Lehrbuben since Otto Schenk’s production was created at the Met. Talk about demanding!! First there is the small (rather large) issue of acting like a 12 year old boy (mind you I am a ?? year old female!!) Many people I know will tell you that I should have no trouble with the 12 year old acting part, and I must admit… it is true. Actually it is kind of fun to reconnect with that free childlike attitude —and being given permission to do so. This is the fifth time around for this production….so one could say yes, even more of a challenge this time around.

What a delight to come back to a piece like Meistersinger with almost all the same colleagues doing the Lehrbuben—and a couple of new ones—God bless them. I say this because it is a very demanding work for us—staging, physically and of course, musically.

There are many specific things to do, like completely building the Meister’s platforms and the singing platforms in Act I —very detailed about who puts which piece where. We have developed a nice rhythm with all of our “bits” and many times invent new ones as we go-because we have become comfortable enough in the piece.

Back to Act II rehearsal of today: Johannestag!!! Preparations are beginning for this huge festival day. All the Lehrbuben are cleaning and preparing the town for Johannestag.—spring fever is everywhere and the young Lehrbuben are feeling the season.

Later the Lehrbuben rehearse the “fight” scene with the entire cast. What a scene this is, with the complete town being awakened from a dead sleep to such cacophonous goings on. The Meisters come out in partial night clothes and day clothing thrown on in some odd fashion, then the townspeople and Lehrbuben join in, wearing similar attire. All are singing what seems like, and is, their very own screamy version of “what the heck is going on here?” This is such a difficult musical scene to sing and maintain one’s place musically (what a genius Wagner is here, and Jimmy Levine’s interpretive command of the orchestra and singers on stage is needless to say, impressive). You cannot imagine until you hear it… and if that is not enough, fights break out all over stage between Meisters, Lehrbub and townspeople. One of my fellow “bubs”, Irwin Reese, and I really go at it, he picks me up and slings me around in a circle until I am so dizzy I can hardly sing. We often get so tickled during this, but yes, we do manage to continue to sing. That is until the townspeople have had enough and dump their chamber pots on us to stop the ruckus. And it works: we flee the stage screaming. What a great scene it is—great fun to perform.

And now on to Act III tomorrow.

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.

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!