Music for geeks
OK, so it's college night. Here's another story.
Georgia Tech students are usually not known for being the most well-rounded people in the world. Let's face it -- many of us were geeks. And how many people in their late teens or early 20's do you know who are interested in and/or knowledgeable of classical music, anyway?
Wanting to inject a little culture into our lives, the director of the School of Music started a class on music history and theory. But in order for anyone to take it, he had to make it laughably easy. In the history of the class, one person had failed to make an A. His "friends" had signed him up for the class, and didn't tell him until it was too late to drop it. He still got a B.
In music circles, this professor was a big wig. He was music director at a large church nearby. He had studied under Robert Shaw (conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for about 350 years). He'd conduct better and more interesting and knowledgeable tours than the tour guides at music museums and other similar sites in Europe. What he was doing at Georgia Tech is beyond me.
But because of his background, at least 1/3 of the class was anecdotal -- all relating to music, of course, but story time abounded. A couple of the stories revolved around an opera. The basic plot of the opera is that there is a guy who is the equivalent of a police chief, who is madly in love with a woman who is in love with another man. The police chief has the other man arrested falsely and is going to have him executed. He tells the woman that if she'll just sleep with him, that he'll release her lover. She does so, only to find that the police chief lied. In the final scene, the man stands on the edge of a cliff before a firing squad. They shoot him and he dies and falls over the edge. The woman then sings a long aria of lament, then jumps off the cliff in despair. (A trampoline is hidden behind the cliff facade for the jumpers.)
On one occasion, a snobbish and quite large soprano had the role of the woman. She agreed to the part only on the conditions that (a) she was paid extra money because of the jump and (b) she wouldn't do the jump in rehearsals, only for performances. On the night of the first performance, she jumped, and due to her size, bounced higher than the cliff facade! Not once, not twice, but three times, re-appearing to the audience.
For the other story, it is necessary to know that traveling opera companies usually don't have extras with them, but use local music students in each city. There are no lines; it's usually just being in a parade/processional, and the instruction given is simply, "Follow the principals on (and/or off) the stage." Operas are usually rehearsed in order, and for this same opera, they ran out of time before rehearsing the final scene. Locals were being used for the firing squad, and they realized, just before going on, that they didn't know how to get off stage. In his haste and distractedness, the director mistakenly said the usual thing -- "Follow the principals off stage." So after the female lead jumped off the cliff, each member of the firing squad did the same.
Georgia Tech students are usually not known for being the most well-rounded people in the world. Let's face it -- many of us were geeks. And how many people in their late teens or early 20's do you know who are interested in and/or knowledgeable of classical music, anyway?
Wanting to inject a little culture into our lives, the director of the School of Music started a class on music history and theory. But in order for anyone to take it, he had to make it laughably easy. In the history of the class, one person had failed to make an A. His "friends" had signed him up for the class, and didn't tell him until it was too late to drop it. He still got a B.
In music circles, this professor was a big wig. He was music director at a large church nearby. He had studied under Robert Shaw (conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for about 350 years). He'd conduct better and more interesting and knowledgeable tours than the tour guides at music museums and other similar sites in Europe. What he was doing at Georgia Tech is beyond me.
But because of his background, at least 1/3 of the class was anecdotal -- all relating to music, of course, but story time abounded. A couple of the stories revolved around an opera. The basic plot of the opera is that there is a guy who is the equivalent of a police chief, who is madly in love with a woman who is in love with another man. The police chief has the other man arrested falsely and is going to have him executed. He tells the woman that if she'll just sleep with him, that he'll release her lover. She does so, only to find that the police chief lied. In the final scene, the man stands on the edge of a cliff before a firing squad. They shoot him and he dies and falls over the edge. The woman then sings a long aria of lament, then jumps off the cliff in despair. (A trampoline is hidden behind the cliff facade for the jumpers.)
On one occasion, a snobbish and quite large soprano had the role of the woman. She agreed to the part only on the conditions that (a) she was paid extra money because of the jump and (b) she wouldn't do the jump in rehearsals, only for performances. On the night of the first performance, she jumped, and due to her size, bounced higher than the cliff facade! Not once, not twice, but three times, re-appearing to the audience.
For the other story, it is necessary to know that traveling opera companies usually don't have extras with them, but use local music students in each city. There are no lines; it's usually just being in a parade/processional, and the instruction given is simply, "Follow the principals on (and/or off) the stage." Operas are usually rehearsed in order, and for this same opera, they ran out of time before rehearsing the final scene. Locals were being used for the firing squad, and they realized, just before going on, that they didn't know how to get off stage. In his haste and distractedness, the director mistakenly said the usual thing -- "Follow the principals off stage." So after the female lead jumped off the cliff, each member of the firing squad did the same.
posted by Brendt @ 11:34 PM
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