Scene: the auditorium of the Royal Opera House. A stage and orchestra rehearsal of Vito Odafone’s opera “La Merde d’Orange” is in progress. In the pit, conducting, is the Music Director Tony Mobile. He’s generally very happy with the progress of rehearsals but the soprano keeps singing a wrong note. He picks up the telephone on the wall of the pit behind him and dials 0800.
“Welcome to ROH O2 Performer Services!” says a cheery voice.…
Before I got here I assumed that the Opera Theatre Saint Louis (let’s just call it OTSL from now on) was a repertory opera company that performed throughout the year, but it’s actually a summer-only set-up. Its closest equivalent in Britain would be Glyndebourne, although that gives entirely the wrong impression. For starters no-one here wears evening dress to the performances, nor is OTSL a company that aims to appeal to an exclusive audience as part of “the season”. It performs in an unusual theatre that seats about 900, which is intimate by American standards, and the audience is arranged in an amphitheatre around a thrust-stage. There is a proscenium too but because the audience is arranged in a 180 degree arc anything played behind it is lost to a large chunk of the house. So they don’t tend to do that. …
I went to San Francisco with very few preconceptions. I’ve seen the Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt” a couple of times and various other films set in the city. So I knew it was hilly, that it had cable cars, the Golden Gate bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf, but that was about it.
I took the BART train from the airport, as it seemed the sensible thing to do, and it wasn’t at all bad. It’s a subway train really, though who thought it a good idea to put carpet in a subway train is clearly someone who doesn’t travel by public transport very much. I was downtown in about half an hour. …