An opera is like a car. There are about a trillion different parts all working together to make it go. If one or more of those parts don’t work right, it can all come crashing down. Today we had our production meeting for Bohème, kicking off an intense four weeks that will culminate in an amazing production. But there’s so much work before that!
The meeting is always interesting because we have a production staff that doesn’t work for us all year – assistant directors, wardrobe directors, chorus masters – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you’ve ever flipped through the program, you’ve seen the long lists of people who work on the opera. So the production meeting is a good time to sit down, go over the schedule, and any important issues.
There’s the normal tasks that come up with every opera: the press photo shoot, the Meet the Artists event, chorus costumes, singer schedules, the student dress rehearsal donor events, and more. Then there are things to coordinate with the specific opera. This year Colorado Public Radio is broadcasting the operas live. (Exciting!) Bohème will have members of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, so we want to make sure those kids aren’t up too late. Act II also has the banda, the military band that marches through the square – gotta make sure we have enough people for that.
As the weeks go by, the process of putting the opera together will be refined. Some of the staging may be changed. Some of the costumes may be altered. Hundreds of people will work on thousands of tasks to make sure that on Opening Night, the curtain will go up to create a magical experience for everyone in the audience.
And at the end of the night, we will all breathe deep, relax for a few minutes…and then do it all over again four more times.
But good news around here – we barely have two seats together for the Saturday performance of Bohème. Fortunately we have four other performances to choose from.
Ciao for now!
AriaGirl
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