What I learned from opera - lesson 2
In the last post, I shared a lesson I learned from conducting opera - I don't need to know everything. Here's the second lesson.
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Lesson 2: Perfection is boring. Repetition is not.
One of the main jobs of a conductor is to have a clear vision and interpretation of a piece of music, and leading other musicians to realize that vision. We spend a lot of time and energy to ensure it is "perfect."
For example, the tempo must be exactly quarter equals 100, the crescendo must be this loud by this point in the phrase, the slowing down must start on exactly the "and" of beat 2. If we don't achieve this, it's considered "wrong" or a "failed attempt."
Orchestral playing often emphasizes precision and achieving one ideal together - every single time. When we repeat performances, we keep aiming for that same ideal. While striving for this kind of excellence is a sign of integrity and respect for the composer, anything taken to its extreme can become unhealthy.
As a result:
Our definition of success becomes more narrowly-focused to fit this story.
Our innate agility and adaptability are weakened, as fear begins to drive us to not mess up.
Our creativity gets turned off in favor of perfectly repeatable execution.
In short, we get bored of striving for the same thing, and we'd feel lacking if we don't achieve the "perfect" version.
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In opera, I quickly learned that achieving this kind of cookie-cutter repetition from performance to performance is simply not realistic. Honestly, I originally resisted this. Coming from an orchestral background, I thought, "Why can't I strive for the music and its exact trajectory to be perfect each time? Isn't that a noble cause? I'm serving the composer here!"
I had to learn that the human instrument requires flexibility every day. The storytelling art form demands spontaneity or it becomes predictable. And if you have 8 performances, there is NO way that it can be exactly the same each time.
Just because that tempo change was achieved by beat 4 instead beat 3 doesn't necessarily mean it is totally worthless or triggers shame for doing something wrong. It may be less correct in an abstract sense, but interestingly, it may be more powerful in the context of this unique performance we are executing today.
Instead of perfection, I realized that what is more important is to strive for connecting with the context of "now." There can be more than one right way, as long as it makes sense in the context of what came before and what comes after. This is going to be (and can be) different with every repetition. We often overlook the power of this mindset in the more abstract context of orchestral music.
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Once I embraced this about opera, I realized that I didn't need to put my interpretations in a straight-jacket. Having only one vision to achieve leads to tunnel vision and fear of not achieving perfection - both limits us.
And perfection in a vacuum is boring. Repetition is not. Every repetition is a real-life opportunity to search for that deep connection with the music happening right now and the people making it. It's what makes us feel alive.
Instead of asking "was that tempo change correct," we can try asking questions like:
Did that transition make sense musically?
What are other ways in which it might make sense?
Did we feel connected to one another?
What if we don't quite make it to our goal tempo in the previous section, how might we salvage things in the next section?
This mindset frames a shared vision that is focused on connecting to the now and executing together, adaptable to any circumstance or risk, rather than focusing on individually achieving musical perfection on a repetitive loop. What if repetition was an opportunity to create something slightly new each time?
If this is how we approached each one of our repeat performances, what would happen? What would we learn? How would the music be transformed? What kinds of risks might we take?
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