Reflections on Round One to date.

It is the morning of Thursday 4th of June as I write. The competition is half way through its first round. I conducted on Monday, since then I have gone into the theatre to watch the other conductors on the afternoons of Tuesday and Wednesday, I have not yet made up my mind whether I will go today because watching the competition is an exhausting business! The orchestra and singers have to cope with such a wide variety of conducting styles, techniques and tempi that I fear for their sanity. Every section of Cav seems to be capable of interpretation in an infinite variety of ways with an infinite variety of tempi. I have even started to feel sorry for the Jury, they are going to be mighty unpopular people with the majority of the competitors in a few days (I will accept my fate with stoic resolve), but sitting through 4 hours with 10 conductors each doing 20 minutes of Cav after a morning full of the same thing with Figaro is not my idea of heaven, I hope they are being well paid.

So, you may ask, why are YOU going in to watch the competition? It is tiring, I spend the morning sleeping and working on Carmen (which is the next round of the competition), and exhaust myself with watching Cav in the afternoon. I suppose it is because I am genuinely fascinated by the art and technique of conducting opera. It has so many elements, but ultimately has the goal of keeping the thing together. Stick technique (everybody so far has used a stick, including me) is so important in opera, be too wafty and flowery you might get a nice warm sound but precision will be sacrificed, too clicky and direct and warmth and expression tend to suffer. There are a million other factors to weigh in as well.

So... as we have absolutely no idea what the judges are looking for, I have absolutely no idea how I have done in respect to the other competitors. Some are having their first experience of conducting opera, others have more experience than I do. Everyone has come out of the pit unhappy with their Cav and made similar remarks to mine below. It is all in the hands of the Gods now, and I have never envied the Gods less!