Stage managing Bach's St. Matthew Passion

[smejs]

Hi all,

Have any of you ever done this project before? The score is 309 pages (Bärenreiter edition), and I'm wondering whether to just buy a score, split the binding and put it in a ring binder, rather than try to make any copies or bother with single-siding it. I've seen people split the binding and then spiral bound it, but I think I want the flexibility to add pages in between. I tried once before to put a mini-blocking page in the middle of my score pages for double-sided music; maybe it's time to try this again.

Thoughts? It's 6 soli (principals), and two different choruses, from the little bit of information I've gotten so far. We're performing one night each in two different venues, the first has "lighting in house," the second no lights, so I'll mainly be tracking blocking.

Erin

[MarcieA]

I've not done this, but I PSMed Leonard Bernstein's Mass last spring, and just wrote blocking in my score. I've tried the whole slip sheet thing with the folded corners, and I just don't like it. My cast had 16 Street Chorus (soloists), 2 choirs, a boys choir, a ballet company and the Mummers, so similar in size I think. I just treated it as I would any other opera that I SM.

As for the score, I was given a bound copy by the producers, and i took a few hours to scan, crop and re-print for my own notebook. No digital copy of this score existed, so I actually created it for them.

[NJ.JerrySmith]

If you want to go for the insert pages for blocking method, try finding a logical place to split the score between two binders (intermission, long scene change).