Birth and Death of a Conductor, Part Two

     Several years passed after my Beauty and the Beast experience before anyone made any serious suggestions to me about conducting again. There was one half-serious suggestion, made by the Head of Music Staff Richard Bado, that I conduct second cast performances of Romeo and Juliet, but that was dismissed almost immediately it was brought up. I think my deep reluctance to remount the podium was apparent to everyone.

     Everyone who knew me, that is. In 1998, HGO acquired a new Music Director in Patrick Summers, one of whose first missions it was to start using prompters on a semi-regular basis. I was the first "guinea pig" prompter—I wrote about that venture in an earlier post, in which I mention that one of the duties of the prompter is to conduct rehearsals in the maestro's absence. After serving as prompter for Patrick in a few shows, he summoned me to his office one day and told me, without any preamble, "I'd like you to conduct second cast Elixir [of Love]." As I had no ready answer, after a few seconds' silence he added firmly, "I think you should."

     I don't think Patrick knew of my one previous conducting experience, nor my reluctance to repeat it. He knew I had some baton technique, not only from seeing me conduct rehearsals, but also through my lessons with him on prompting. I knew (a) he wouldn't have asked me to conduct performances of anything if he didn't think I were capable, and (b) he was my boss. So I said yes. I had a few months to prepare, plenty of time to panic.

     I was very, very fortunate that Patrick conducted the first cast of Elixir and that I was his prompter on the show. That was the best preparation I could ask for my own performances. Patrick was more than generous in giving me coachings in our spare time, going through the score phrase by phrase, he at the piano, me conducting. He was so thorough, exacting, and supportive, I just couldn't panic, and though I was a bit nervous before my first performance, I knew I could conduct that score from memory (which I mostly did, actually), and was confident that the orchestra, well-trained as they were by Patrick, would be supportive of me as well, even though I had no rehearsals with them.

     I was also very fortunate in my cast, all of whom except the Dulcamara were either Studio or ex-Studio singers. I knew their voices, their breathing, their musicality, so well from years of private coachings, conducting them was almost second nature.

     Thirdly, I was fortunate that I had a prompter of my own to help keep the ensemble tight between stage and pit.

     My three performances of Elixir went very well. I was happy, Patrick was happy, the cast and orchestra were happy. Maybe conducting wasn't so bad after all!

     To be continued . . . .

Post-performance in my dressing room with family. The tails are a bit big.