Staging all four operas in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" as Wagner intended, within a week's time, is an undeniably audacious undertaking. That the Seattle Opera has turned this marathon into an internationally renowned production owes as much to the company's backstage members as it does to the artists whose work is more visible.
Two crucial backstage presences are Queen Anne residents Clare Burovac, "Ring" production coordinator and stage management department head, and Yasmine Kiss, one of the cycle's two stage managers. Their job, according to Burovac, is to make sure everything is in the right place at the right time as planned by the artistic staff.
"Stage managers are like a communications hub," Burovac said. "During rehearsal, the director might say, 'Brünnhilde needs a helmet in this scene,' and the stage manager communicates this to all the departments that need to know so the helmet shows up onstage when it's supposed to."
The stage manager must have everything - props, costumes, scenery - set so rehearsal can start on the dot, Kiss said. It's also the stage manager's job to "call the show." "We cue things to happen, like lights, and sound, and people going onstage," Burovac said.
One of Kiss' challenging cues is flying the Rhine Maidens so they appear to be swimming in the Rhine. Each Rhine Daughter's flight apparatus is operated by two stagehands. "The cues just keep coming, and you don't have an opportunity to look up while you're calling them," Kiss said.
Both Kiss and Burovac have music backgrounds, which is critical since stage managers cue actions from the score. In Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, the stage manager can watch the conductor in the orchestra pit on "maestro TV."
To produce four operas at once requires that work be allocated differently than for a single opera. Kiss is stage managing two operas, "Das Rheingold" and "Siegfried," so rehearsal scheduling - normally a stage manager's task - has switched to Burovac as production coordinator. A production assistant is handling rides for the singers, who typically are from out of town.
"By removing the daily schedule and the rides schedule, it's amazing how much brain space is freed up," Kiss said. "It's the key to allowing [Michael Egan, stage managing 'Die Walküre' and 'Götterdämmerung'] and me to tackle these behemoths without melting down."
Burovac runs production meetings and sees that the artistic staff's notes from those meetings are addressed. Kiss explained how the division of communications with artistic staff works: "What I do is when Stephen [Wadsworth, the director] says, 'Can you make sure so-and-so cues at bar such-and-such?' I make that happen. Clare oversees the bigger operations, like when Stephen says, 'I want to add a horse to the fourth opera.'"
Department issues and monitoring the budget are also Burovac's bailiwick. "When Speight [Jenkins, Seattle Opera general director] calls me and says, 'We need 15 minutes more of rehearsal, can we go into overtime?' I'm the keeper of those numbers. It's my job to ensure people stay within the budget that's been approved."
Given the demands of such a mammoth project - Burovac has been working on the production off and on for two years - how do the backstage divas stay calm and upbeat, both requisites of their jobs?
"Clare and I joke all the time that stage managers are born, not made," Kiss said. "I think you have to have a specific formula of disposition to be successful at this job."
Freelance writer Maggie Larrick lives in the Seattle area and is the former editor of the News.[[In-content Ad]]
