Article by Lewis Segal

[volcanohunter]

6 hours ago, Helene said:

I think all performers have moments where they completely forget where they are, whether the words, the music, or the steps.  Also, when a performer isn't familiar with the staging, or a prop is missing or in the wrong place, or a backstage light is out, or has a new colleague, a second of distraction can look like they've forgotten the music, when it's what baseball players at least used to call "vapor lock."  It might last a second, and no one else might know, or it may be long enough for the audience to see it.

I was being facetious about the tenor, even though they are the butt of many jokes. In this case the singer belonged to the ensemble of a repertory theater, and I don't think he was making his debut. I couldn't tell you how many other operas he had sung that month. The prompter did his job and got the tenor back on track, after which the performance continued without further problems. They did what they're supposed to do when something goes awry.

As for the initial question, live theater isn't a film set or recording studio, where takes are repeated until everything is perfect, or at least until they can be spliced together into something seemingly perfect. Once a performer is on stage, the time for repetition and restarts is over. Whatever happens, happens, and if something goes wrong, you take your lumps and try to make sure it doesn't happen again next time. Unlike pop stars, artists are on stage to serve their art form, not their image.

Edited September 15 by volcanohunter

[Meliss]

Thank you all very much, the discussion turned out to be very interesting!

20 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Sometimes audiences fall for cheap tricks.

Do you think it was a cheap trick?

[Quiggin]

A friend of mine attended a Bach recital in which the pianist – I think it was Piotr Anderszewski – apologized and redid a prelude because he thought he was off to a bad start. Often in a classical music program, the first piece is often a throw away. Richter does Haydn first sometimes before Debussy or Chopin to tune up before settling in. And with classical music there are natural repeats and variations and hidden clues where you can sort of get your bearings without too many people noticing.

If a mistake happens in a cabaret or downtown venue, there's enough latitude to backtrack and (charmingly) correct and make it a part of the act. Ella Fitzgerald had to fudge the lyrics of "Mack the Knife" she was (re)introducing to a Berlin audience in the 1960s. In straight theater I don't mind people repeating something or fudging to get back on track – or a little stretch of improvisation, like Marlon Brando (and Allegra Kent?) used to do (which gives the performance an eerie depth).

And aren't there ballets where mistakes dancers have made are later written into the choreography? And false endings (Emeralds) where the audience begins to clap and then is shocked to see there is more. Part of live theater is that at any minute there could be a mistake, a repeat would have to be made – and that it doesn't happen is part of the thrill.

 

Edited September 15 by Quiggin

[Meliss]

19 hours ago, Helene said:

Sometimes audiences can be delighted simply because something is unexpected and feels spontaneous, and they feel like they are witnessing something unrehearsed and human. 

That's exactly how it is.

 

19 hours ago, Helene said:

There is a much-told story (interviews and in writing) about how during NYCB's first tour to the Soviet Union in 1961, the audience was clamoring for a repeat of one of Edward Villella's solos.  He said he wasn't sure what to do, but he did it.  (He couldn't have done it without the conductor.) 

It's very interesting, thank you.

[Meliss]

19 hours ago, Drew said:

Sometimes unexpected strange moments land memorably--and make for an exciting if unusual evening. Especially in a live art form that is performed by big personalities.

I absolutely agree with this.

 

19 hours ago, Drew said:

I bet if I had been in the theater that one night I would have enjoyed the ride and applauded wildly.

☺️

[Meliss]

16 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

but the performance didn't stop for a second.

I think Godunov didn't interrupt the performance either. And he repeated his variation after they had finished dancing.

[Helene]

Jessye Norman became my favorite recitalist, because there were no warm-up pieces in her program.  Lawrence Brownlee started his joint recital with Eric Owens with "A mes amis."  All of the warm-ups happened before the performance.

Marilyn Horne was the guest soloist for the 1999 Seattle Symphony Opening Night.  She started to sing "Ma couer s'ouvre at ta voix" from Samson et Dalila.  Close to the beginning, after the orchestra's intro, everything stopped.  She apologized to the audience for having a senior moment. (This was her final year of performing at 65 ) Then they all started over.  She turned 90 this past January and was still giving interviews.

Edited to add:  Performers aren't machines.  No human is rational all of the time. If this was a one-off from Godunov in the West I would ask whether this was common in the Soviet Union -- just like the expectation for an encore when demanded was in the middle of a Balanchine ballet in 1960's Soviet Union -- and if he reverted in this one instance.  If it was not common in the Soviet Union and was a one-off, I might think it was just being human.  If he did this repeatedly, I would question his professionalism and avoid his performances, even if I liked his dancing before.

Audiences aren't always rational and aren't always seeking professionalism.  People go to see certain dancers who are on the brink of falling/wiping out, whether because they go all out and skirt the edge of balance, or because, we want to see which Dancer X will show up, which was true of Kirkland in her later ABT performances.  We bring individual tendencies to get thrills similar to schadenfreude and rubbernecking at car wrecks.

[volcanohunter]

There is a clip of Brigitte Fassbaender [] asking Gundula Janowitz [] whether she ever listened to her recordings and wished she had done something better.

Janowitz: No, no, no, no!

Fassbaender: I do! I do!

Janowitz: I am not one of those people who says, "Oh, actually, I could have done it better." No! We were at the peak of our abilities. We didn't go on stage and say, "I'm going to sing badly today." No, we were doing what we were best at.

 

[volcanohunter]

2 hours ago, Meliss said:

Do you think it was a cheap trick?

It sounds like it, but without the original text, I cannot be certain. The translation only says that Godunov insisted that the orchestra return to the same spot in the music. That doesn't sound like a repetition of the entire variation. If this involved actually talking to the conductor, that would be out of bounds. If he danced the complete variation twice, that would look like an attempt to upstage his partner, which would be totally inexcusable. Even if he repeated only part of the variation, that still sounds like an attempt to upstage his partner.

I know dancers who perform in galas for the extra income, but who hate the format, precisely because it's difficult to perform set pieces in isolation. But none of them demands a redo if something goes wrong. They simply accept that performing pas de deux Y out of context is difficult, but that's what they are being paid to do. Basic professionalism. 

In any case, the example of Godunov, with his Soviet baggage, is not the same as Villella's Soviet example. Villella's audience would not have demanded an encore if he hadn't performed stupendously. He obliged even though Balanchine thought it was inexcusably vulgar. Balanchine didn't allow his dancers to milk their bows, let alone perform encores. Nobody demands an encore of a substandard performance. Godunov's audience wasn't clamoring for an encore, but he insisted on giving them one anyway.

Edited September 15 by volcanohunter

[Meliss]

On 9/15/2024 at 9:59 PM, Helene said:

If this was a one-off from Godunov in the West I would ask whether this was common in the Soviet Union -- just like the expectation for an encore when demanded was in the middle of a Balanchine ballet in 1960's Soviet Union -- and if he reverted in this one instance.  If it was not common in the Soviet Union and was a one-off, I might think it was just being human.  If he did this repeatedly, I would question his professionalism and avoid his performances, even if I liked his dancing before.

Of course, this is a very rare case. I don't think Godunov had ever done this before or since. And the mistake was minor.

[Meliss]

On 9/15/2024 at 10:08 PM, volcanohunter said:

Janowitz: I am not one of those people who says, "Oh, actually, I could have done it better." No! We were at the peak of our abilities. We didn't go on stage and say, "I'm going to sing badly today." No, we were doing what we were best at.

Going to do something perfectly and doing it perfectly are, of course, different things.

[volcanohunter]

Gundula Janowitz was a stupendous singer, one of the greatest of the 20th century, and a very great artist. Considered an ideal Mozart/Strauss soprano, her range was actually very broad. She was strong as anything, her voice was simultaneously very beautiful, pure and extremely focused - an angelic spear, as some called it. The reason the audience laughed when she said she didn't wish she had done something better is that a lot of her recordings do sound like perfection. I think she was telling Fassbaender, also a great singer, with an exceptionally glamorous and expressive voice, that she shouldn't beat herself up for not having been a machine. They were exceptionally gifted, exceptionally trained, worked very hard and conscientiously to master the technical, musical and artistic demands of their roles. There wasn't anything more they could have done. If perfection eluded them from time to time, that only meant that they were still mortal, and Janowitz accepted that. That's life, that's live theater. But most of the time she set an almost unattainable standard of performance. 

[Helene]

Janowitz made it really hard for other singers that way 🙂.

Artists can only prepare as much as they can.  There are so many other factors in live theater that can throw a wrench into it.