Monday, February 7, 2000
Total Immersion
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Pit stop
Cooperative venture gives music students operatic experience
By Beth Roberts

Mark Cedel, director of orchestral activities in the School of Music, will be conducting the UGA Symphony when the Athena Grand Opera Company--a cooperative venture between the music school and the Classic Center--presents Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus next weekend. He spoke with Columns about the process of putting on an opera.

Columns: Is this a different experience for your orchestra players?
Cedel: Yes, it is. If we want students at the University of Georgia to get a complete orchestral experience, then they have to play opera, because it’s a different discipline. It’s part of their training.

Columns: What’s different about it?
Cedel: They have to be much more flexible. They’re not the stars--they are supporting whatever happens on the stage. As a conductor, when I’m in the pit I’m there not for myself, I’m there for the stage. Obviously, we have to work out things ahead of time, but whenever you’re accompanying--be it a dancer or a singer or an instrumentalist--you have to be flexible. Your radar has to be out all the time--not just the conductor’s but the orchestra’s too. Things change--somebody gets inspired, they take more time, they make an extra turn--and you have to be there for them.
One of the musical challenges of this operetta is the Viennese style. A lot of the music is very familiar--it’s hard to do it in a Viennese style. It’s very easy to go overboard, to overexaggerate the anticipative “oom-pah-pah.” It’s difficult to teach because it’s difficult to describe. But it’s part of the language of this music, and it’s a language that you have to be conversant in if you play in an orchestra.

Columns: How does the orchestra prepare for an opera?
Cedel: We began by reading straight through the opera, so they could get a feeling for it and know where the problem spots are. Obviously it was far from a finished product. The next week we had two rehearsals where we went through it number by number, just the orchestra. And then the next week we started putting it together with the voices, small pieces at a time, bringing in a few singers at a time. That gives the young singers--the students--a chance to do it with the orchestra, which is totally different than doing it with the piano, and it also gives the orchestra a chance to start hearing the voice, understanding what they have to do to accompany it.
Then we start putting it together, in bigger and bigger sections, and the Sunday night before the show we have our last musical rehearsal, a straight run-through in the orchestra room with no action. Come Tuesday night, we will be in the hall--the orchestra will be in the pit, and the singers will be on stage with the set, and at that point there’s really no time to stop to rehearse the music. The singers have to worry about working the set, where they need to be on the stage--so we go straight through the show, stopping only as needed.

Columns: It’s a pretty complex undertaking.
Cedel: There are so many elements. In this show there’s dance--the choreographer is teaching the chorus to waltz. You can’t just put 60 singers on a stage and say, “Do the waltz,” and have it look right.
It takes an enormous amount of time, and I am forever respectful of the students. In the professional world we talk about working “services”--you do so many services per week in a professional orchestra, rehearsal or performance. The week of the show these students have eight services, just like a professional orchestra--plus they’re going to school. Every night, as soon as I can get them out of the theater I will--but it’s a big commitment.
It also takes an enormous amount of my time, as well as Stephanie’s [the music school’s Stephanie Pierce is directing]. You can’t just look at the score and say this is what we’re going to do. We have so many meetings--necessary meetings--technical meetings, logistical meetings, committee meetings. There’s a lot to think about. But it builds momentum as we get close to the show, and you get more and more excited.

Columns: Are there both student singers and professionals, as with last year’s Magic Flute?
Cedel: Yes, graduate students and undergraduates. We are doing this for the students first. We audition the students first. We look for every possibility--who could do which role. After we put students in as many roles as possible, then we have open auditions for people in the community. After those two or three rounds of auditions, then we look at what haven’t we filled and look for a professional. But if there’s a student who is capable of doing the role, that’s it.

Columns: And how’s it going?
Cedel: Some things are going well, and some need work. You have to roll with the punches and come up with some good solutions. As a conductor I like being in the pit--I like the challenges, the extra dimension.
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