Old Friends: Conducting & Recording Invisible Cities

Hi! I’m Marc Lowenstein, Music Director for The Industry.

I wanted to talk to you about is the new recording of Chris Cerrone’s INVISIBLE CITIES.  We finished the studio recording about two weeks ago and are now in the process of editing, mixing and finalizing the recording production.  There will be lots more about this on this blog, including details of the CD release, but first I wanted to talk a little about the recording project itself.

One of the questions I get asked most about INVISIBLE CITIES is, “How could you conduct an opera without seeing the singers and without them seeing you?”

The answer is simpler (and less impressive) than one might imagine.  For one thing, we built up to it gradually, from our very first production.

When the Industry produced CRESCENT CITY, we tried to figure out how the orchestra could fit into the seven unique art installations that made up the supernatural, drowned city that was, in many senses, the main character of the show.  After thinking about it, we came to the conclusion that the orchestra should be mostly separate, protruding into the set only in small numbers at a few special moments.  We were fortunate in that the space at Atwater Crossing had a spacious loft that would easily fit Anne LeBaron’s eclectic orchestra.  All that remained was to figure out the musical logistics.  We decided that the loft was fine, because it worked for me not to see the singers as long as I could hear them – and as long as they could see me on video monitors.

With INVISIBLE CITIES, however, even video monitors were impossible.  To substitute for them, we essentially had to heighten our other communicative senses so that we did not depend on sight.

One could argue that seeing the conductor is highly overrated.  In fact, from the conductor’s perspective, it is uniquely disturbing to be on the podium and have a singer stare at you.  It means they are either lost or about to be.  Or, at the very least it means they are pretty unconcerned with dramatic projection.  In other words, the sense of dedicated musical and dramatic concentration can be weakened by too assiduously watching a conductor.  Great singing actors catch the conductor out of the corner of their eye, only from time to time, fiercely projecting and coordinating their internal metrical sense by living in the musical moment.

That kind of projection is made easier by learning each other’s small vocal and orchestra cues – slowing down here means we are about to arrive here.  This kind of accent means the this is about to happen.  This kind of articulation means that time feels like this.

And at it’s best, opera uses those kinds of coordinated cues not just as musical landmarks, but as dramatic signposts as well.  So, as we learned the score and as we learned each other’s musical directions, we learned how best to project the psychological drama of the opera.  And as we became clearer about how the individual cities in each scene were shaped and characterized, learning each others cues became easier and easier.  Even if there were occasional, shall we call them, “variances” in the performance, we could always get back on track again.

What does this have to do with the recording we just made?  Well, since I had been out of sight during the performances of the show, I discovered in the studio that we had not sufficiently practiced not looking at the conductor.

What we thought would be a luxury – having a visible timekeeper and coordinator, actually turned into a bit of a liability.  That is, until we learned to constantly remind ourselves that while accuracy is a wonderful thing, what we wanted to record was the story, the characterizations, the created atmosphere, not just the accurate beat patterns.

Fortunately, our singers adapted fabulously.  They were readily able to re-imagine themselves back in Union Station, placing themselves in the narration of intensely personal, subjective, fantastical musings on life and death, arrivals and departures.

Our recording session was a great success – and I’m sure that you’ll agree when you hear the results.

The Industry’s recording of Christopher Cerrone’s INVISIBLE CITIES will be released on CD and digital download on November 4th, 2014.  Follow this space – and ‘like us’ on Facebook and Twitter – to learn more.