Every musician has a story to tell, be it funny, tragic, or inspiring; be it about him or herself or someone else (conductors, soloists, orchestras); be it about playing music or flying airplanes, about a particular theatre or production, or even a recurring dream. Let this be one of your "15 minutes of fame" and share with us your tales, your "Musical Notes".

Swan Lake at Sunderland
From Yuval Zaliouk:
I was, for a time, conductor for the Royal Ballet. We were in a small town in the north of England - Sunderland, near New Castle. The production was Swan Lake. The stage in this small town theatre was extremely raked, very steep, with the usual alignment of the pit, the conductor slightly elevated, the screen and the stage higher still. The fourth act opens with a scene on a lake with swans gliding around in the mist. The mist is of course made by utilizing dry ice, which is engaged right before the curtain rises. The accompanying music for this scene is very difficult to conduct and control, as many of you may know, especially in a pit setting, which is shallow, wide, and dark, unlike a normal orchestral setup. The stage is ready to go, we begin the music, the screen rises, and the catastrophy begins -- Within 10 seconds the mist from the stage is cascading down this steep stage into the pit like Niagara Falls! The mist fills the pit and the orchestra disappears below the cloud, and I am above it unable to see my players, but most importantly they cannot see me! We struggled to continue the piece until the mist dissipated, and we were able to reconnect, but needless to say it was not our "best" performance!

La Fille Mal Garde at Sunderland
From Yuval Zaliouk:
As in the previous story, I was with the Royal Ballet and we were in the small town of Sunderland, England, where the theatre stage has a very steep rake. The production was La Fille Mal Garde, in which one scene engages a carriage pulled by a live pony. I conducted this production hundreds of times without a mishap, but with a live pony, an "accident" was bound to be inevitable. They were prepared though; there were always two dancers following behind the carriage, ready to pick up any pony droppings. Unfortunately though, there was no way to immediately handle a wet situation, which is what this pony decided to deliver on one particular evening. With the stage as steep as it was, a fast-moving stream quickly developed in direction of the pit. I feared for the musicians, but lucky or not, they were saved by the footlights on the stage, which when wetted, popped and sparked like fireworks until they shorted out!

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