REVIVED THREAD: Transferring into Opera

[Maribeth]

I'll pick up a CD of the (full) opera (not just "highlights and arias") and once paper tech has been completed, I'll practice calling my cues to the CD.

As an ASM, I do the same thing with my entrance cues before rehearsal- particularly if there is a complicated or fast sequence. Sometimes I just do it at my desk, but if I want to figure out a traffic pattern, I'll go into the rehearsal room and walk the path. (I don't want rehearsal to start and realize that I'm unsure about a cue).

[iamchristuffin]

Spotify and YouTube can be your saviour for this......

[Trak26]

Not saying this is the best way and it is always preferable that you can read music but when I started with Opera and I did not know how to read music at all. I was taught how to follow and understand a score but had some very rudimentary ability to read music.
It is difficult to explain but I could sit with a score and follow the patterns of the music, identify pick up points in a score etc and was taught how a score works. When the bars are repeated, what the terminology means, but ask me to play out the notes on a piano can not do it. Yet I can follow a score and know how the orchestration all comes together.

[babens]

To be honest, with the majority of operas, as long as you have a sense of music and rhythm you can teach yourself to identify certain points in the score and count out the difficult sections of the show if need be.  Now, if we're talking something crazy like Salome or Lulu, well, throw your hands up in the air and just pray to whatever higher power you choose to believe in.  Scores like those two can throw even some of the most experienced SMs into a mini-meltdown trying to follow them.  At one point in time Lulu was even used by the Met as a test during some final interviews (as related to me by somebody who experienced this first hand).

[mscache]

I am SMing an opera (my first opera as a PSM) for a brand new non-AGMA company, and I am wondering what the AGMA rules are for scheduling rehearsals and taking breaks. The only AGMA production I ever worked was very brief, and I was the 2nd ASM; also, our contract was VERY vague. I've tried to search this online, but as each AGMA contract is different, I'm having trouble. I know that it's 15 min after every 90 for breaks, but what about when you get into smaller increments. If you have an hour and 50min left in rehearsal, should you take a 10 in the middle because it's roughly 5 min every half hour?? Also, what the typical guide for AGMA rehearsal days? 6 hours of rehearsal with added time after for fittings or coachings? How much?

Also, my director keeps wanting to schedule the singers for 8-hour days (4hr session, 1 1/2 hr lunch, another 4 hr session), and they are starting to feel taken advantage of. Both the AD and I try to convince her to do 6hrs of rehearsal, but it hasn't worked so far. Any tips?

Just looking for some guidance...thanks for any feedback you might have!