Newbie Moment #11

At the Met today: As I walked through the gate at the guard’s desk, I stopped and said, “Can you tell me where the Auditorium is?”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I figured it out. You see, on the rehearsal schedule for today, all the covers (myself included) were listed in a separate block from the rest of the Jenufa cast. They were all called to a rehearsal on the Main Stage, with the full complement of music staff (conductors, pianists, coaches) which has been at our rehearsals in the rehearsal studio. We covers were called to a rehearsal in the Auditorium, and there was no music staff listed. I wondered, “What are we going to do at this rehearsal, and where the heck is the Auditorium? Is that a smaller hall somewhere?”

Oh, my. Of course, what I figured out in that split second when the guard gave me the “you’re new here, aren’t you?” look, was that we covers were called to sit in the house and watch the rehearsal taking place on stage.

As my friend SH said one fall day in Seattle, upon observing my very rudimentarily carved pumpkin, “It’s a good thing you can sing.”

So, yes, today I watched the rehearsal from Orchestra Row J (those chandeliers overhead are so shiny!), as I will tomorrow and most likely all mornings this week. When we get to April and tech week of Trittico, I’ll go into more detail about how tech week is structured here, although it’s pretty much the same as elsewhere, except…