All the rehearsals are finally over and we’ve got the first run of Bach’s St John Passion tonight (Thursday) in the Opera House. I’m very excited. It’s such a beautiful work and the soloists, whom we heard for the first time at last night’s run-through, are a particularly fine group - especially the Evangelist and Jesus. It should be a great way to start the Easter break.
I’ve only heard a few bits and pieces of it here and there. I know the St. Matthew Passion well but haven’t taken the time yet to get into the SJP.
I’m assuming you are performing or part of the production in some way? What’s your role?
Sorry. I should have noted that I’m in the choir (first tenors).
The first performance tonight was a bit hit and miss: lots of good things but also some mistakes. The most obvious came when the soprano soloist, in her role of Ancilla, was off with the fairies somewhere and completely forgot to come in. The conductor looked at her, waited, glared, coughed etc. Finally she realised and hastily started to sing. Not very professional.
Cunctator (love the user name, btw) - but how did the audience react? I have been in countless performance situations where we cocked it up royally, but the crowd was so into the energy of the performance that we could regain our footing and soldier on.
I have come to realize that what matters is what the crowd/audience/dancers think…
Oh the audience loved it. And I doubt that they noticed any of the mistakes - except for the missing Ancilla. Everyone in the Concert Hall would have been aware of that.
Next performance tonight (Saturday).
The Sydney Opera House? That would be way cool.
Yes, the Sydney Opera House. And I always get a great buzz singing there. 
Last night’s performance was even better than Thursday’s. Now we’ve got a few weeks’ break before we begin rehearsals for the next programme which includes Stravinsky’s *Symphony of Psalms * and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé.
No, I’m pretty sure it’s been performed before.
The Sydney Opera House. Oooh, I’m jealous. Glad to hear the next performance went better. Your upcoming performances sound cool, too. Maybe I need to move to Australia.
That soprano’s experience is one of my worst nightmares. I’ve never had such an obvious mistake in performance, but I once had a series of rehearsals of Don Giovanni (as Donna Elvira) where for some inexplicable reason I kept getting lost in the aria “Ah, fuggi il traditor” because I kept missing an entrance (don’t ask me how, it’s not that complicated a piece and it’s short!). After the first time I developed a real complex about it and could not sing the damn thing correctly to save my life for several rehearsals in a row. Argh. Opening night I just glued my eyes to the conductor and he pretty much sang me through the piece, and it was fine from then on. Anyhow, my heart goes out to the poor woman.
Actually, one more story. (I’m procrastinating getting some work done on a paper.) I was in a performance of Handel’s Messiah when the entire bass section did not come in during one part of the Hallelujah Chorus, and the whole thing ground to a halt. Major disaster!!! Fortunately, it was a church performance (not a big concert deal), and all was forgiven. Ha.