Faust Frustration

The Lord of the Rings Symphony went very well, as did the next concert at the Mann Center, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms conducted by Bobby McFerrin. What a treat that was! Sure, he’s no Lorin Maazel, but he certainly has an innate understanding of music and music-making that was simply amazing to watch up close and personal.

My next foray into the Philadelphia music world was a production of Gounod’s Faust at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Before I auditioned for the chorus, I was pretty nervous, because the last time I had done work with an opera chorus was back when I was 10 in the San Francisco Girls Chorus. And even being in the children’s chorus at the opera, I understood that the San Francisco Opera Chorus was kick-ass. So I kind of equated that with Philly and assumed OCP was that good, too.

Imagine my surprise when I got to the first rehearsal of Faust, and instead of reading right through the music, like any other professional chorus I've ever worked with (and even some volunteer choirs), we sang the music on "la la la," then said the words in rhythm, then put them together. I was so insulted. The last time I had to learn music that way was in high school, and even then I didn't need to. I had to sight-read for my audition into this group, and yet they didn't expect their members to be able to perform that same task for the rehearsals?

After we learned the notes and words, the rest of the rehearsals were nothing but repetition. We have our first rehearsal with the conductor tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.