Video Games Live with the RPO

members of Concentus who volunteered their voices
for the VGL concert

I’ve always dreamt of performing a choral soundtrack piece (preferably Koyaanisqatsi or La Double Vie de Véronique), but I guess Video Games Live is as close as I’ll ever come. There’s something about incidental soundtrack music that can be rich and compelling, with its tendency to use the chorus as an instrument – an extension of the orchestra. In the case of the VGL music, complexity was not a factor, although the lyrics were tricky – some seemed to be Slavic and others perhaps made-up, and by the end of the performance, I know most of the chorus had made up their own words to fit the fast-paced music! But it was rollicking. When Concentus’ conductor, Gwen, asked if I wanted to participate in what would be a motley crew of chorus members, I didn’t hesitate, even though it meant learning the music on my own (to mp3s sent by the concert coordinator) and an all-afternoon rehearsal immediately prior to the concert.

the orchestra watches as an audience member plays
Guitar Hero to mostly recorded music

This was the first time I’d been on stage with the RPO (singing the Holst didn’t count, since we were offstage behind a wall), and it was an amazing perspective on the musicians, conductor, and audience, whose energy we could see and feel. It was exhilarating to feel a part of the RPO, even though we were situated behind them and we feared our sound might not carry. The conductor and many of the musicians had earpieces that clicked the tempo for them, so they would stay together with the video projection (and the backtrack – there was obviously some electronic music that was being played simultaneously, perhaps even supplementing the chorus…).

There wasn’t a lot of finesse to this type of music – it was more theatrical (the music was really in support of the video) than interpretive – and it showed in the more casual approach of the conductor. At our choral rehearsal, we skimmed through the pieces, and received only minimal guidance from Maestro Fratianni about dynamics and entrances and cutoffs. The orchestra rehearsal was similarly lacking in subtlety – it really was all about the tempo – and the earpieces almost made the conductor redundant.

the audience are invited to shine their
cellphone flashlights

The event itself resembled a rock concert more than a traditional RPO performance. The audience was overwhelmingly young (people who were familiar with games like Tron, World of Warcraft, Tetris, and Skyrim), the songs were short, and there was a great deal of audience participation. This was probably the first exposure to the RPO for many, and it will be a challenge for the organization to find ways to continue to engage them in live orchestral concerts. At dinner between rehearsal and the performance with other Concentus participants, as well as principal clarinetist Kenny Grant (husband of one of the singers), we chatted about the need for more John Williams-type concerts, which stealthily expose a new generation to classical music.

conductor, creator/guitarist, and soloist
take bows as the orchestra departs

The final song was performed just by the show’s creator/guitarist (who had quite an ego…) and the soloist, as an audience sing-along. Many of the younger men in the chorus didn’t even need to twist around to see the words displayed on the giant screen behind them to add their voices. It made me think that there had been a lost collaborative opportunity for the RPO with a local college or high school choir. Not only would such a group have had more volume, they might also have been familiar with the genre, if not the specific music. And they could have brought additional audience to the hall in the form of family and friends. Their loss was my gain!

Ticket Forgiveness (not the traffic kind!)

Last Fall, a friend and subscriber of the NYC Ballet purchased extra tickets for us and two other friends, for a date in the Spring when I’d be in the city. But in her haste to get to her seat for that night’s performance, she didn’t bother to look inside the envelope. Apparently, there was mayhem at the box office that evening, and the agent misheard the request, and gave her tickets for February, instead of May. When she finally looked at the tickets in March, she was dismayed, and we both contacted the box office (they were no help, because they didn’t work for the ballet company) and then NYC Ballet’s customer service. They initially refused to exchange the tickets for the correct evening, even though we both explained the circumstances, and that it was unlikely that four of us all forgot to attend the performance. I even contacted the development office, promising to make a contribution if they rectified the situation (and checking online, there were still plenty of seats available for the performance we intended!). Radio silence, until a few days before the date, when the organization grudgingly reseated us for the correct date. What a struggle, and not the best way to build customer loyalty…

I’ve recently learned that two performing arts groups in Rochester have generous “ticket forgiveness” policies. Geva’s “Missed Performance Insurance” allows 6-Show Season Ticket Holders to see a show they’ve accidentally missed, as long as there is availability (you need to get there no more than two hours prior to curtain). Similarly, the RPO has something called “Subscriber Standby,” which allows subscribers to exchange unused tickets for a future performance in the same season, again, subject to availability. So one more reason to be a subscriber!

Obviously, both Geva and the RPO would rather you notify them in advance so they can re-sell your unused ticket, in addition to exchanging your ticket for a future performance. And if too many people abuse these forgiveness policies, the organizations might have to get less forgiving. Now, if you realize your error after the run of the show at Geva, or after the final RPO performance in May (it happens – my parents once showed up at the Kennedy Center for a concert only to find an empty parking lot and hall – they didn’t realize the tickets were for the prior year…), you’re out of luck. But as long as you catch your mistake in time, neither Geva nor the RPO will be as rude to you as the NYC Ballet was to me!

“Good People” – Great Show!

Charlie and I both thoroughly enjoyed Geva’s Good People, directed by Mark Cuddy, on its opening night two weeks ago – it’s funny, it’s thought-provoking, and it deals with issues that we here in Rochester can definitely relate to, even though it’s set in South Boston. And speaking of setting, the rotating triangular sets were fantastic and seamless (I’d seen this concept once before, in the first Broadway production of Chess, and it was a miracle no one was hurt, they were so erratic).

All of the actors are wonderful, and it was impossible to tell whose accent was real (Mark informed us at a pre-show talk that one of the actors actually hails from Boston) and whose were not, and Charlie and I each guessed a different person. I saw the show again on my regular subscription night, this time with my sister-in-law Kathryn, and my friend Jan. I was worried I might not enjoy it as much, knowing some of the jokes and all of the dramatic twists, but I think I actually liked it more, since I had had time to think about the issues in between. The characters of Good People remind us that, just as in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” you can never know what might have happened if you’d chosen a different path. And they remind us that our memory is more elastic than photographic – we mold it to fit the story we want to make of the memory. That “truth” is not something absolute, and that one person’s “luck,” when viewed from a different perspective, is actually guided by unacknowledged, but very real actions on the part of other people.

Jan emailed me the next morning, saying, “I keep thinking about the play we saw last night, which is most often my measure of whether I really liked something or not – if I leave and never think about it again it probably was good, but not good enough to think about again. So I must have really loved the play.”

Good People is yet another memorable Geva co-production that will move elsewhere when it ends its run here on November 16. So unless you are planning to visit Indianapolis in January, see it here, soon.