Così fan tutte

February 17 - March 16, 2018

‘mood’ fog and ‘functional’ fog.” With prompt technical tweaks, the

principals could see each other, and be seen by the audience.

Performers, the creative team, and Lyric staff may have a general

sense of what a production’s sets and costumes look like, “but sometimes

you don’t know what the

effect

is until the PRT,” says Elise Sandell, a

frequent assistant director for Lyric productions. The chorus members

“always get so excited, seeing each other in costumes for the first time.

They take a lot of selfies. It adds a level of fun to PRTs. It’s a challenge

either you wear the costume or the costume wears you! The chorus

members have to assimilate the costumes in a very short time; they’re in

full costume only for the PRT and for the final dress rehearsal” before the

performances commence. For the stage-orchestra rehearsals in between,

the soloists wear costumes, while the chorus members are in street clothes.

The assistant director sits with the production director and designers

at the tech table in the middle of the main-floor seating area during

the PRT, shuttling back and forth to the stage as needed. Sandell gets

through PRTs with “LaraBars and trail mix, and you have to hydrate. The

most important thing for keeping calm is lots of deep breaths. It’s easy

for everyone’s fuses to get short. I’ve learned from working at Lyric that

how I see a challenge, how I meet it, and how I choose to talk about it

can either make everyone’s day better or worse. I try to keep my attitude

optimistic and realistic. You have to crawl before you can walk, and

walk before you can run. A PRT is crawling, with a little standing and

walking, so that you can run by dress rehearsal.”

PRTs for revivals of productions previously staged at Lyric and

elsewhere are generally easier than for new productions, Sandell observes.

“Someone’s worn that costume before, and there are notes. With all the

hoop skirts in

Eugene Onegin

, Act Two, director Paula Suozzi could tell

people which ring of the skirt to pick up. With a revival you know where

the problems are and solve them before they crop up.” New productions

can match first-time parenthood for anxious anticipation, but the payoff

is worth it: Sir David McVicar’s production of

Elektra

, once everything

came together, “was jaw-dropping and so much fun,” Sandell recalls.

During a PRT “you have to manage everybody’s time,” she

continues. “I make a schedule with the stage manager, who is the king

when the show is onstage

it’s as much the stage manager’s rehearsal

during the PRT as the director’s.” Each production presents its own

special challenges. “For

My Fair Lady

there were 350 costumes on about

80 people

so many costume changes, eight different scenes in the

show, all the moving scenery which has to be lit in different positions

with different timings and different effects

with dancing added in,”

Sandell recounts. “For the world premiere of

Bel Canto

, almost everybody

was onstage the whole time, which made it logistically impossible to tech.

A PRT is the day everybody works the hardest, the full gamut of every

department that touches the onstage product

dressers, props crew,

stage managers, singers, music staff.”

Eric Weimer of Lyric’s music staff notes that a PRT is the first time to

hear the offstage musicians that many operatic scores require. “Do they need

to sound like they’re in the next room or the next county?” he quips. Those

musicians’ audibility is affected by set design and location. “Those of us who

are pianists have a romantic notion of the PRT

it’s our chance to play,

and as close as we get to public performance. In our minds it’s a big thing!”

On the other hand, Weimer realizes, for nearly everyone else the PRT “is

not about the music. A lot of the singers aren’t singing out. They’re more

concerned with ‘What do I do with my train?’ ‘My gown doesn’t fit!’ ‘What

do I do with my sword?’

the details of the production.”

leap safely onto the table to claim his promised sword and sister-bride Sieglinde (Elisabet Strid) while the scenery shifted around them; (above)

My Fair Lady

cast

members had a scant nine minutes to change from racetrack to ballroom attire; (right) at one of the two PRTs for the world premiere of

Bel Canto

, Derek Matson

(seated), who adapted Nilo Cruz's libretto for surtitles, discusses the script with (left to right) Cruz, composer Jimmy López, and Lyric general director Anthony Freud.

TODD ROSENBERG