Yesterday (March 24, 2015), the Har-El concert band, conducted by Eitan Avitsur, accompanied a performance of the The Visit, the well-known play by Duerrenmatt, in Hebrew, as part of the Jerusalem Festival of the Arts. Everyone put in a lot of work, especially all the actors and the people involved with the production.
The music was composed by Orna Magen, the director of the music center where the Har-El orchestra rehearses, and arranged for our band by Eitan.
The orchestra worked hard to learn and rehearse it with the actors and get everything synchronized. The music wasn't challenging, but it was appropriate for the production, it sounded good, and it added a lot to the play.
The actors were in the theater, rehearsing, from around noon, and most of us musicians got there at 3:30. Setting us up on the side of the stage took a lot of time, and then we had a full run of the production, and it was pretty disastrous. The lighting person kept forgetting to keep the light on over us, so that we could see the music, we missed some cues, the actors muffed and swallowed some lines. It seemed to me we would need another three or four rehearsals to get the production ready for performance, but I don't think I could have taken any more. By the time the run was finished, I stiff from sitting so long and bored with the whole project.
But after a half hour break, the audience started filling the Rebecca Crown Hall, a fine venue, and I was getting excited. When you actually perform for a live audience, even if you're playing a rather obscure part, as I do, on the baritone saxophone (I could play instruments with more melodic parts - flute, clarinet, or alto saxophone, but I'm public spirited, and the band needs low voices), you feel as if every note counts. You play with attention and intention.
I'm not sure whether professional orchestral musicians, who perform often, muster the same feeling of excitement as we amateurs, who only perform once in a while. The results of professionals are obviously more polished, more accurate, and more musical, but they may not have the enthusiasm that amateurs have - and that goes for the actors as well.
There were a lot of flaws in the performance. Some of the actors bellowed their lines instead of speaking them in natural human voices, and they obviously weren't half as good looking as professional actors. But they did a creditable job, and the play came across.
It's centered around a figure who is sacrificed, so that the rich Old Woman who revisits her birthplace can take revenge on the man who wronged her. Initially inclined to protect him, the townspeople are seduced by the Old Woman's money and turn against him, eventually killing him. It's an allegory about a scapegoat that doesn't pretend to be realistic, not a bad sort of play for actors who may not be accomplished enough to appear natural on stage.
I made my wife attend it with a friend of ours, and I was afraid she would hate it, but she and our friend both enjoyed themselves. So did I.
The music was composed by Orna Magen, the director of the music center where the Har-El orchestra rehearses, and arranged for our band by Eitan.
The orchestra worked hard to learn and rehearse it with the actors and get everything synchronized. The music wasn't challenging, but it was appropriate for the production, it sounded good, and it added a lot to the play.
The actors were in the theater, rehearsing, from around noon, and most of us musicians got there at 3:30. Setting us up on the side of the stage took a lot of time, and then we had a full run of the production, and it was pretty disastrous. The lighting person kept forgetting to keep the light on over us, so that we could see the music, we missed some cues, the actors muffed and swallowed some lines. It seemed to me we would need another three or four rehearsals to get the production ready for performance, but I don't think I could have taken any more. By the time the run was finished, I stiff from sitting so long and bored with the whole project.
But after a half hour break, the audience started filling the Rebecca Crown Hall, a fine venue, and I was getting excited. When you actually perform for a live audience, even if you're playing a rather obscure part, as I do, on the baritone saxophone (I could play instruments with more melodic parts - flute, clarinet, or alto saxophone, but I'm public spirited, and the band needs low voices), you feel as if every note counts. You play with attention and intention.
I'm not sure whether professional orchestral musicians, who perform often, muster the same feeling of excitement as we amateurs, who only perform once in a while. The results of professionals are obviously more polished, more accurate, and more musical, but they may not have the enthusiasm that amateurs have - and that goes for the actors as well.
There were a lot of flaws in the performance. Some of the actors bellowed their lines instead of speaking them in natural human voices, and they obviously weren't half as good looking as professional actors. But they did a creditable job, and the play came across.
It's centered around a figure who is sacrificed, so that the rich Old Woman who revisits her birthplace can take revenge on the man who wronged her. Initially inclined to protect him, the townspeople are seduced by the Old Woman's money and turn against him, eventually killing him. It's an allegory about a scapegoat that doesn't pretend to be realistic, not a bad sort of play for actors who may not be accomplished enough to appear natural on stage.
I made my wife attend it with a friend of ours, and I was afraid she would hate it, but she and our friend both enjoyed themselves. So did I.
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