A: That's it, actually. I fared pretty well, I must say.

Q: Weren't you nervous at all when you looked out into the audience?

A: I never even saw the audience.

Sans Opera Glasses

Q: Ah, you mean you were so confident you never noticed them?

A: No, without my glasses it was totally pitch black, like looking out into a cavern. I'm very myopic--my entire career at the opera revolves around trying not to break my neck because you can't wear glasses on stage. In Aida, for example, I was a torchbearer in the big triumphal march. You walk out, you walk downstage, you hit the front of the stage, and the stage drops very quickly because the set is elevated. As you hit that point, you enter the lights that cross the front of the stage, and you're blinded. So one step too far and... I did 30 Aidas, and each time I was a torchbearer and each time I was sure I was going to break my neck. One or two times I stumbled on stage, and let me tell you, it makes a lot of noise.

Q: Are there any regulars among the extras?

A: There are three or four extras who'll be in practically every opera, then a circle of 15, and then a full corps of 30 or 40. Finally, for mass operas of about 75, they will drag in people from wherever they can. The assistant stage manager might get them from a certain college or theatrical organization or even the YMCA. For example, in the trample scene of Aida they needed so many people they used some football team from a high school in New Jersey. I, of course, taken as a young recruit, started off on that level, but by the end of my third year I was regularly getting into operas which had only 15 or 20 extras.

Q: You must have been one of the youngest.

A: The extras range from 15 years old--when I started out I was definitely the youngest--to 50. The older ones are more used in roles like "archbishop" or "dignitary" or "boyar." The really hard core people have been there since the opening of the house ten years ago.

A: Do most of them just call up the way you did?

A: No, 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, you get $20 for a night. Also, everybody but the extras gets paid more for Saturday radio broadcasts. The extras always considered that slightly unfair, because the ballet, which makes no noise at all, gets more for broadcasts--and not the extras.

Q: How much time did rehearsing take?

A: A new production will rehearse two and there might be seven rehearsals they will ask you to come to, all in the middle of the day. Now what I would do, because I had school, would be to pick about four to go to. If you pick the right rehearsals, you can skip a lot and still be in it with no problem. If you pick the wrong rehearsals, you miss the day, for example, when they give out costumes--that's it, you're through. You get bumped.

Mezzo-Mezzo Soprano