I´m bringing this hilarious post by former opera singer J Venning, initially posted on the rec.music.opera discussion forum some weeks ago:
"I have to tell this anecdote from my past experiences with the English National Opera (ENO). As you may all know, the ENO used to tour round the country 10 weeks a year with different productions, and Mastersingers was occasionally taken on tour while I was there (yes, it was Alberto Remedios who sang Walther, and his younger brother Ramon sang David).
Those of us in the Chorus who weren't Apprentices could actually get changed to our street clothes after the church scene in Act 1 and go to a restaurant to enjoy a sumptuous meal *and* go see a full-length feature film in a cinema, and still have some time to wait after returning and getting changed for the end of Act 2 to do the fight scene !
Here at the Danish Royal Opera, I actually managed to sing a full-length concert outside the Theatre after the end of Act 1 and return in time for our entrance at the end of Act 3."
No kidding....That is just hilarious...
1 comment:
I remember Friedelind Wagner remarking in a televised presentation that the first act of Goetterdaemmerung was as long as all of Rigoletto. This is part of the fascination with comparing the times for acts, especially Parsifal, among different conductors - Boulez's vindication in 1965 because his times were similar to Hermann Levi's, and the surprising comparison of slow Toscanini and much faster Strauss.
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