"Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!"
An initial exploration into differences between opera and orchestral conducting.
My students at CCM are all required to spend some time with opera; working with singers, conducting recitative, experiencing staging rehearsals, conducting in a pit or in a space other than a concert stage. This element of their training has grown in importance in recent years, not merely because we do a lot of opera at CCM and most of it has an ensemble that needs leadership. The fact is that conducting opera is a skill apart from orchestral conducting, both physically and in terms of the role of the conductor; the skillful opera conductor will have many more tools at his/her disposal to aid them in their symphonic work.
Traditionally, the symphony conductor stands before an orchestra, on a podium, and executes the score in whatever fashion suits him/her. S/he is accountable only to his/her view of the score. The orchestra is bound to follow the conductor and is encouraged, or required (for better or worse) to watch the conductor as often and as intently as possible. If there is a soloist, s/he arrives a day or two before the concert, rehearses once or twice with the orchestra and prays that either the conductor has studied the solo work and/or that the conductor might be responsive to what the soloist is trying to do. As often as not, the soloist is disappointed on one or both counts, and simply follows along with the conductor, who, because s/he is not used to actually accommodating the wishes of a soloist, just does his/her thing.
The opera conductor usually has spent years at the piano as an assistant, playing staging rehearsals for conductors, coaching singers, working his/her way up the ladder to a position of conducting staging rehearsals with piano, slowly amassing a body of repertoire from Mozart to Puccini, in various languages, eventually being entrusted to conduct performances (after the premiere) that must conform to the principal conductor's approach ("Nachdirigieren" - "conducting after," i.e. copying the tempi and style, if not the exact gesture, of the principal conductor). Over weeks of sheer (and often tedious) repetition, the would-be conductor learns the score and text at the piano in stagings, playing for the principal conductor, or for another assistant further up the ladder. Given that casts in major opera houses change with some frequency, s/he, once put on the podium, may just as well be required to be flexible in interpretation, and therefore in physical gesture, while maintaining the basic shape desired by the principal conductor. Of some importance is the fact that the assistant who takes over these performances is not necessarily (politically) in a position to demand that singers - particularly "star" singers - follow him/her, and they rarely have their own orchestra rehearsal to establish their own tempo or sound.
Thus the beginning opera conductor 1) often does not have the chance to put his/her interpretive stamp on a performance, 2) is often relegated to the role of "traffic cop," 3) must follow soloists, as opposed to lead them and 4) must demonstrate extraordinary flexibility of gesture to accommodate different singers in the same role.
Add to this mix: The conductor, be it the principal or the assistant, usually can't have orchestra play at its preferred dynamic level. A Straussian fortissimo will have to be tempered in performance, lest the singer on stage be overwhelmed and unheard in the house. This affects the conductor's gesture as well, either demanding frequent use of "the hand" (the infamous flat left hand awkwardly deployed to shush the orchestra) or (more prudently) encouraging the conductor to beat smaller. Complicating matters even further, being in a pit often affects the conductor's right hand. The pit podium is usually considerably higher than in a concert hall, and if the conductor's right hand is too high, the front stands in the pit often can't see it and the music at the same time. Depending on the height of the pit, if the conductor beats too low, the singers can't see the gesture either. The higher the pit, the easier it is for the orchestra to see, but the louder it gets and more difficult it is to balance with the singers. If the conductor's head is below stage level, often s/he can't even hear the singers on stage.
The only way to ensure that both orchestra and singers can benefit from the conductor's gesture is if his/her two hands are at different levels in space, one higher than the other. As the singer usually has gone through weeks of staging rehearsals with the conductor and shares with Maestro a common understanding of tempo, breathing and style, s/he usually doesn't have to "follow" the conductor and therefore doesn't have to look all the time.
On stage, the symphony conductor never looks up; s/he is always looking either straight at or looking down at sections of the orchestra (when s/he is not looking down into the score). In the pit, the conductor must look UP, in order to see singers, at the same time keeping the right DOWN, to help the orchestra.
When working with orchestra, the symphony conductor rarely has to account for breathing (other than his/her own), which is often written into the instrumental parts; in the opera pit, the conductor is constantly called on to adjust for a singer's breaths and to shape phrases to align with the singer's inflection of text. Unfortunately, many conductors simply expect singers to breath like instrumentalists, and, not knowing the text, just beat without regard to the drama unfolding on stage.
The only way to ensure flexibility and to be able to adjust immediately to a singer's breathing or phrasing is shrewd use of VERTICAL SPACE. Simply put, what goes up, must come down. Furthermore, in conducting, what goes up at a certain speed must come down at the same speed, so that if a conductor beats as s/he would normally do in a concert situation, they often risk either leaving a singer in the dust or falling behind a singer who needs to get through a phrase. Thus, the wise opera conductor will save vertical space and use every part of his/her arm/wrist/hand, subtly adjusting even the angle of the baton, to maintain an organic pulse and to efficiently and effectively guide and adjust to the singer.
This idea will be expanded upon as I prepare this chapter for the book, but I wanted at least to share initial thoughts with you as we roll out this summer's opera conducting course at CCM, "CONDUCTING MOZART OPERA: FIGARO and COSÌ," information for which I just posted on the blog. I learned how to conduct in the opera house; I encourage all of you to explore this crucial aspect of our craft.
Mark Gibson
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