The German opera company our daughter and her significant other work for, in Gelsenkirchen, merged with the one in Wuppertal, an austerity move by the cities' governments. Their respective orchestras have remained essentially intact, luckily for Rainer, but MAary and the other pianists/voice coaches distribute responsibilities in both houses among themselves.

This sometimes means tedious commuting, confusing schedules, and occasional tension.

The new director at Wuppertal, George Hanson, was a friend of Mary's in graduate school at Indiana. He became associate conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, and since then has been head man in Anchorage and Tucson.

"Met George [here] in mid-August," Mary reported. "He called us to come over for dinner in Wuppertal. Looks like Bill Clinton's younger brother. He had a lot of questions, of course. Haven't heard his concerts yet there's always something going on here but apparently they went very well, and the orchestra is trying hard.

"He's still [officially] living in Tucson, is giving up Anchorage. He'll be in Wuppertal 20 weeks a year hope that's enough to improve their musical standards.

"I'm a little burned-out (ausgepowert) from long rehearsals in Wuppertal. One of the coaches is sick for a month so we all have a lot to do. At least I get to see more of Hanson's work than I would have. People were unhappy that he came so late for this opera production that when he was finally here he couldn't work with the singers because he had so much to do with the orchestra plus, since he doesn't know the system, his scheduling is causing problems.

"But otherwise, he's doing good things; looks sometimes a little bewildered, but never lost; keeps his cool. The Wuppertal orchestra, known for chewing up conductors, is like another group of people you look down, and they're attentive and pleasant."

She expanded her own repertoire by taking conducting lessons last year in Berlin, just to make herself more valuable to a director.

Although she criticized the company's production of La Boheme as somewhat "abstract," it did give her an unexpected opportunity to use her new skills.

"In [Act Two of] Boheme, I'm conducting backstage a military band of piccolo, trumpets, drums my conducting debut! We're only seen as shadows; that's enough for me."

The company opened a new production of Gounod's Faust in December, or tried to. At dress rehearsal, just days before the premiere, a technician moving sets around rolled a heavy cart over Mephistopheles' foot, breaking it. Although the performer was taken to hospital, he hoped nonetheless to make the opening but came down with flu and simply couldn't.

"Our substitute Mephisto was rehearsing Tuesday [for the opening] on Wednesday and he broke his arm on the set jumping through a plexiglas house. So Faust was canceled for the 23rd and 27th and they're waiting for the original singer to get better.

"Not only that, but the guest had a Rigoletto premiere in Essen sometime soon, so Essen is probably mad at us. Expensive series of mishaps."

Given the cost of such a production, it's unthinkable to cancel any part of a heavily subscribed series. A radical decision was made: to do the premiere concert-style, the cast merely standing and singing the parts without action and staging disappointing, I know, both to players and audience.

Mary also had a new operatic dog story:

"About to premier Barber [of Seville]. A month earlier, we had a dog show people brought dogs to audition for the role of guard dog. They were lined up out by the side entrance, a lot of dobermans and a mastiff (which they called a mastiffino, apparently thinking it would sound more Italian that way.) The mastiff got the part.

"The dog is rather large and quite smelly. He's supposed to go through from one side of stage to the other, on a leash, with Bartolo, who is trying to drive off other men interested in his ward, Rosina. They had an owner on either side of the stage to help control this beast.

"What's so funny is that the dog (Pasha) is very large, and Joachim Maas (who plays Bartolo) very small, and has to drag Pasha along.

"[In the plot], Bartolo has decided he's interested in Rosina himself.

The suitors come at night and it's supposed to be raining. How will they get into the house with the dog in there? they wonder. So they put a huge bone on a rope, hoping the dog will follow it across the stage without the leash. And he does, it works.

"Dog stunk so much, one prompter left.

"The owners hang around a long time, going into overtime, because the dog's in the second act as well. Once he started barking backstage.

They'll have to do this for more than 20 performances. No, they're not paid very much, the usual rate for an extra, 6-7 DM per performance !!

"I'm busy too with a piece I'm being thrown into: 30 Handel arias with recitative in German put together to form the opera Dangerous Liaisons (from the letter-novel made into a film).

"I'm playing harpsichord; most of the music just has the bass line, so I have to fill in harmonies; sometimes it's transposed as well. They do it 'in the round' in the small house; at one point I make thunder sounds, give swords to a duelling pair (all roles played by women) and crawl under the harpsichord..."

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