Word: ballets
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...real pillars on the side comes crashing down across the front of the stage. It's made of solid wood, and it's about 30 or 40 feet high, so it's a real thousand pound pillar, and they let it freely drop. The ballet people have to scamper out of the way. That's really a fear moment...
...most of the people are there through connections as friends of older extras. A lot of them are music students or dancers. There isn't much need for females, because most of the roles are servants or soldiers, but when they do need females, they use the ballet corps, because there's not enough work for them. You're selected for parts on a personal basis, and the assistant stage manager has definite favorites. You're paid by the act, by the way, about $5 per act. If you're in every act of a four-act opera...
...ballet, though, did have contact with the singers. One tenor, who is a married man with kids, spent most of his time chasing after the ballet women, one or two in particular. He was very much on the make, smooth and slick...
...knew the ballet girl he was after...
...After the Met season ended, I was in a very small opera company in the Beacon theatre in New York which did Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea. It was their first production and it showed. In the ball scene, the ballet dancer was supposed to float in on a platform through the smoke and dance around very ethereally. But they started the dry ice too early, so in the middle of the scene before, smoke started coming up from under the setting and flooding the stage. It was very pathetic. The company has not been heard from since...