| This article is for you if you're a behind-the-scenes kind | | | | hear them, seated down below in the orchestra pit as |
| of person - the admin assistant who gets the | | | | they are.Many elements go together to produce the |
| presentation ready for the guys in marketing but | | | | opera we see that bears the name of one man only. |
| doesn't get to go to the meeting; the PR pro who | | | | Take "Turandot" for instance. It was librettist Semoni |
| writes all their speeches and answers all the complaint | | | | who gave Puccini the suggestion for the opera in the |
| letters for the president or CEO; the at-home mother | | | | first place, telling about "Turandotte," a play written by |
| who makes sure the concert pianist practices; the | | | | Gozzi, based on a fable from the Arabian |
| deputy chief whose job description is doing all the | | | | Nights.Puccini had been searching for two years for a |
| things the chief doesn't like to do or can't do; or the | | | | suitable plot for an opera, and at the age of 61 began |
| paralegal who prepares all the pleadings, knows all the | | | | "Turandot," instructing his librettists, Adami and Semoni |
| codes, and does all the licking and stamping.Temistocle | | | | to "pour great pathos into the drama." Puccini was |
| Solear, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Henri Meilhac, Jules Barbier, | | | | known, incidentally for being extremely demanding, |
| Michael Carre, Guiseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica, Renato | | | | requiring endless rewrites from his librettists.From his |
| Semoni, and Nicola Haym all know what this is like.Who | | | | point of view however, the librettists were difficult. We |
| on earth are these people??Well even if you're not an | | | | can read his letters begging them to do their work. He |
| opera fan, I bet you've heard of the composers Verdi, | | | | wrote frantically to Simoni, in charge of Act III, "The |
| Bizet, Mozart, Strauss, Gounod, Handel, Donizetti and | | | | third! The third! The third!"At one point, he confessed to |
| Puccini. And I'm sure you've heard of some of their | | | | a friend "Music disgusts me...", as he evidently had |
| operas - Aida, Carmen, Cosi fan Tutte, Madame | | | | periods of self-doubt and composer's block. Toscanini |
| Butterfly, Faust, and Don Giovanni, for instance.Did you | | | | paid him a visit and gave him the encouragement to |
| know that these composers wrote the music for their | | | | keep going. Every team has their Toscanini; or needs |
| operas but not the lyrics? Solear, Ghislanzoni and the | | | | one.Puccini was justified in urging completion of the |
| other individuals in the list are what's called "librettists." It | | | | opera as he died before the team had completed the |
| is they who wrote the words to the music that tell the | | | | third act. The collaboration continued on, as Toscanini |
| story, without which you would be listening to a | | | | found a composer named Franco Alfano, whose |
| symphony, not an opera. And we never hear their | | | | name is rarely mentioned, to complete it. The world |
| names!They're called "librettists" because the words to | | | | premier took place on April 25th, 1926, the work of one |
| the songs, which basically comprise the script of the | | | | guiding genius and many hands, hearts and minds.It isn't |
| opera, is called a "libretto." It's Italian for little book.Like | | | | that teamwork and collaboration is new, it's that it's |
| Gilbert and Sullivan, the pairs worked together. The | | | | newly being recognized. Most of us realize we couldn't |
| inimitable Richard Wagner was the only one to | | | | accomplish anything alone, while those behind the |
| compose all his operas entirely by himself, creating | | | | scenes who work long and willing hours, long for some |
| both music and lyrics, which may account for why | | | | recognition. Appreciation, after all, is what tops the |
| they are so powerful, so "Wagnerian."This is quite a | | | | surveys when employees talk about what they want |
| feat because composing music and writing words | | | | at their job, and it's so consistently there, it's a wonder |
| require different parts of the brain.Sometimes the | | | | it isn't heeded more.Richard Montuori, town manager of |
| composer and librettist met in person, while other times | | | | Bellica, Massachusetts, knows and appreciates his |
| the work was done by correspondence. Strauss | | | | team. "I love [my] job," he said a newspaper interview. |
| worked exclusively with one librettist, after writing his | | | | "Every day is different and presents new challenges. |
| own lyrics for his first opera and finding out he wasn't | | | | Finances are a daily and yearly challenge, but no one |
| good at it, but most other composers switched around, | | | | person ever accomplishes anything alone. We have |
| finding the right librettist for the job, or one who was | | | | excellent department heads and town boards that help |
| available. It's not unlike the way a lot of us work these | | | | keep the town moving in the right direction."Isn't it nice |
| days - long distance and by contract.Again, grasp the | | | | to hear someone publicly acclaim the team that makes |
| significance of the work these unsung heroes did. The | | | | him shine? I hope your boss or manager does this for |
| words are so integral to the opera they are never | | | | you, and that if you're the boss or manager, you |
| translated. Subtitles run across the big screen on stage, | | | | appreciate and acknowledge - and sing - the unsung |
| or the little screen on the chair in front of yours at the | | | | heroes in your midst.But how do you praise everyone? |
| opera. We read them in our native tongue while they | | | | There are always so many.Here's a leadership trick I |
| are sung on stage in the original German, Italian, or | | | | learned from a pro. At the culmination of an |
| French. (For aficionados, anyway. Beginners may | | | | anniversary banquet, engineered by many, and funded |
| enjoy translations, such as The Chandos Opera In | | | | by many more, the director of the benefited-agency |
| English series, which translates the lyrics into | | | | rose and thanked "everyone who helped make it |
| English.)What an incredible collaboration an opera is. It | | | | possible to raise the $50,000." Then he added, looking |
| takes costume designers as well, because an opera is | | | | around the room, "And I'd especially like to thank |
| as much visual as it is auditory. The Grand Opera is | | | | someone whose name I won't mention, but they will |
| known for its elaborate sets and costumes. In | | | | know who I mean."I thought it was me! So did a dozen |
| "Turandot," when the mob turns surly and the moon | | | | other people, I'm sure, and that was what the director |
| appears, she is personified and costumed in a | | | | had in mind, he told me later when I asked him whom |
| magnificence dominated the stage for what seems | | | | he had in mind, because his glance around the room |
| like half an hour, that will keep you transfigured.One | | | | was professionally ambivalent.It works, and it's always, |
| opera I hope to see one day is Verdi's "Aida," excuse | | | | always true.©Susan Dunn, MA, THE EQ COACH. |
| me, Verdi and Ghislanzoni's "Aida" at the Bath of | | | | Offering coaching, Internet courses, and ebooks |
| Caracalla in Rome, where the Triumphal March of | | | | around emotional intelligence for your personal and |
| Rhadames features live elephants and horses on | | | | professional success. EQ Alive! training and certifying |
| stage. Now that's entertainment!What we don't see at | | | | EQ coaches. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for |
| an opera is the orchestra, perhaps the most important | | | | information about this fast, affordable, comprehensive, |
| element of all. They're listed in the program, of course, | | | | no-residency program. Email for free ezine. |
| and given their bows at the curtain calls, but we only | | | | |