(Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Marriage of True Minds?<\/strong> The Relationship between Conductor and Director in Opera<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Few partnerships in the arts are as intense, creative, or rewarding as that between an opera\u2019s director and her conductor. The chance to tell a story together through singing, acting, movement, lighting, and instrumental accompaniment is uniquely rewarding. When it works it produces one of the most enveloping experiences that we can offer to an audience member on a wet Wednesday evening after a miserable day at work. Of course, when it doesn\u2019t work \u2013 and there are many pitfalls available to the unwary operatic practitioner \u2013 the disappointment can be overwhelming. I have had an unusually happy career in this respect, enjoying long and deeply rewarding relationships with director colleagues over several decades. Rather than indulge in anecdotes both cheerful and instructive, I wanted instead to distil some of those thoughts into a practical view on what qualities make the collaboration work, and where the key moments of decision-making are that require both parties\u2019 keen attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The balance of personalities is of course crucial, but let\u2019s get one misconception out of the way first: it\u2019s not necessarily about always being in agreement. More precisely, it\u2019s not about starting out in agreement. It\u2019s completely right, and absolutely necessary, for the two roles to have different perspectives and different priorities. Productive disagreement is crucial, but that has to be underpinned by trust and this is something that I will return to. The director is concerned with telling a story in all its dimensions: musical, dramatic, visual. Their duty to the audience is to convey this to the audience with clarity and immediacy. The conductor\u2019s first duty is to the score: not only to the accuracy of its realisation but to the spirit of the composer \u2013 insofar as that can be established \u2013 and to the integrity of the musical texture and the stylistic nuances of the period in which it was written. Aligning these diverse priorities is a process of experimentation, negotiation, and probably some trial and error. And the core creative team are not the only people engaged in this of course. Once the production is cast and in rehearsal, the performers\u2019 drive of the story \u2013 within the space that the conductor and director create for them to grow into their roles \u2013 will be absolutely crucial. But I get ahead of myself: the collaboration begins a long time before that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, ideally it does. Of course, in a large international house the production may well be a revival of many decades standing. In that case cuts, translations, characterisation and even some tempi may be largely immutable. Let us imagine, however, a new production with a freshly-engaged artistic team. And just to keep things simple, let\u2019s assume that the composer is no longer with us (working on a new piece with the author there is a subject worthy an article of its own). Firstly, an edition needs to be agreed on. Many great operas exist in multiple versions with alternative arias and even alternative endings. Only then can there be a sensible discussion of any cuts or amendments. Again, these should be agreed as far as possible at the outset otherwise you risk bringing uncertainly into the rehearsal room. This is often the first test of how well the team can negotiate and resolve their slightly different perspectives. Directors are usually concerned to tell the story as directly as possible with minimal deviation. The conductor, however, will need to be mindful of the architectural integrity of the music, which may (particularly in the case of da capo arias and their successor, the aria-cabaletta) push in a very different direction. Arias and finales have tonal structures, balancing repetitions and modulating links that might appear to have no dramatic necessarily but cannot be removed or altered without damage to the musical shape. Alongside this, they may also have to contend with the choice of translation. There are so many fine translations out there that this is usually tough because of an excess of excellence, but the choice is not a neutral one. We almost never use translations contemporaneous with the original score so the translation will subtly locate the work in a different literary world to the original. The conductor can probably cede most of this quandary to the director, but will need to be properly attentive to whether the vowels and rhythms of the new text are properly singable. And above all, this should be settled well before rehearsals as endless adjustments during the process consume time and mental energy \u2013 usually to little gain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Early on there will be drafts of a design, and this is where the idea that the conductor and director occupy non-overlapping magesteria is most pernicious. The stage design has enormous musical implications, and the conductor and director should talk these through in serious detail. There need to be enough entrances and exits and enough space for the chorus to circumnavigate the space, but there are other things to consider. A generous provision of wooden walls will reflect the sound from the stage forward, supporting the singers and giving them much more freedom to vary dynamics and explore a greater expressive range. Big open spaces will absorb the sound from the stage and leave the orchestra predominant. Sight-lines to the conductor (or at the least to the monitors) are best considered here \u2013 well-before reaching the rehearsal studio \u2013 so that key moments are musically secure. And it might seem obvious, but it\u2019s good to discuss at this stage how far back the performers are going to be. Unless the space is amplified (and it usually isn\u2019t) then the acoustic realities can be thrashed out before anything is blocked that turns out not to work. At the same stage, it\u2019s worth talking about any headgear, which tends to make singing harder, and badly interferes with hearing. These are all conversations that conductor and director should be having at the outset. There is pretty much always a solution to both people getting what they need, but it\u2019s much easier if they understand at the outset exactly what the other needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometime before or after this \u2013 or most probably both \u2013 the opera needs to be cast. Again, in some houses the casting may already be in place. In that case the following may apply instead to discussions with the casting director and house staff. Let\u2019s imagine optimistically, though, that our conductor-director team are both fully involved in the casting process. In the twenty-first century this is a process that is both a delight and heartache. The number of supremely talented singers so massively outstrips the number of roles on offer that one is left regretting that it\u2019s impossible to quadruple-cast the show. This is where I think it\u2019s particularly helpful for the conductor and director to have a sense of how each other sees the work. The performers must be not only objectively capable of singing the role but also suited to the way the team sees the character developing and behaving. Otherwise, you must rethink the dynamics of the production or find yourselves asking a performer for a reading that never rings true for them. How open we are to casting performers who don\u2019t fulfil preconceived ideas about famous roles is another discussion too big for this confined space, suffice to say that we need to be alert to our own subconscious biases here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s during rehearsals that the relationship is fully tested. If everything has been thought through properly beforehand, and trust properly established, that process will also be unbelievably rewarding and productive. Opera is unlike spoken theatre in many ways, but the most fundamental is the degree to which the score restricts a director\u2019s freedom: setting into the very structure of the work key aspects of timing, pacing and emotional temperature. There are as many ways to deliver a Shakespearean soliloquy as there are actors; but an aria marked con fuoco<\/em> accompanied by the full orchestra with violent extremes of range cannot be delivered gently. This is why \u2013 speaking personally now \u2013 I am fairly relaxed about where and when a production is set; whilst I am far less sanguine about characters being presented as emotionally and psychologically at odds with the musical representation of them that is contained in the score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, now that we have works spanning more than 400 years in the regular repertoire, the conductor must also arbitrate what is stylistically appropriate in an opera written in 1726, set in 1926, being performed in 2026. This is where I think the ability to sustain productive disagreement is a superpower. If the director is committed to clear storytelling, the conductor to the musical architecture and period style, and the singer to the essence of their character through their own vocal and dramatic strengths, then those different priorities will push and pull at each other. The trick is resolving them. I say this as if it\u2019s easy. Of course it\u2019s not. I would say though, that always remembering what it is that your colleagues are responsible for is a pretty good start. Also remembering who the audience will hold accountable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A special version of this tension gallops into play for those operas from Purcell through Mozart and Beethoven to Gilbert and Sullivan, where there is spoken dialogue. You won\u2019t be surprised to hear me say that conductors should no more disengage with this than they should for secco<\/em> recitative. Just because speech doesn\u2019t have pitches and notated rhythm doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t part of the musico-dramatic thread that runs through the whole work. Whether it is Die Zauberfl\u00f6te <\/em>or The Gondoliers<\/em>, the dialogue has to have sufficient rhetorical amplitude to initiate the musical numbers; the musical numbers in turn need to deftly set up the emotional register of the next section of dialogue. In a show in which the two alternate frequently, this needs careful thought and pacing across the whole act. The same is true of secco<\/em> recitative, but in general the composer tends to help with a build of harmonic tension leading towards the numbers. In any case, the combination of dialogue and music needs to be treated as a continuous totality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other peculiarity of opera as opposed to spoken theatre is that while the director is ultimately responsible for the vast enterprise of set, lighting, and costumes, it is the conductor who shepherds (or cat-herds) the performance in person. If we\u2019ve got it right, then the union of drama and music on stage will be so perfect, that nobody is aware of where the one initiates and the other cedes. Whether the dramatic impetus came from the stage and was responded to and supported by the pit or vice versa should be entirely impossible to judge. The conductor and director share a crucial quality: we only succeed when other creatives (designers, lighting designers, costume designers, choreographers) and performers can deliver to their best ability. Some aspects of the production are clearly in one person\u2019s sphere of responsibility that the other, but where they come together, overlap and blur should always be a mystery; ultimately even to those taking part. And of course if we succeed properly then the audience should be so focused on the human drama on stage that for those few hours we disappear entirely from view. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell) A Marriage of True Minds? 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