Crowd control for The Dead City

Odyssey Opera gave a concert performance of Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt tonight at Jordan Hall. A rainy evening before the sold-out show prompted creative crowd management. Patrons entering the foyer were led on a semicircular path along an interior corridor. Many grumbled about this Disneyland treatment, but I appreciated the efforts to get people inside and dry instead of huddled on the street. My favorite sign: "Will-call tickets are down the hall under the statue of Beethoven."

I had bought the cheapest ticket in the back row of the balcony, but the day before the event I got an email telling me I had been upgraded. It turns out the chorus needed to file past the last row during the performance to sing from the balcony proscenium. I wouldn't have minded this slightly obstructed (and obstructing) seat, but by moving me ten feet across the aisle to the right the company effectively doubled the value of my ticket. Thanks!

There was more crowd control during the first fifteen minutes of the first two acts as patrons on the waiting list were allotted unclaimed tickets. Bodies were shuffled into open seats as unobtrusively as possible under the circumstances. Everything sorted itself out by act three.

Conductor Gil Rose is a pleasure to watch in these concert performances, where he is not hidden in the pit. His orchestra is well prepared, so economical gestures produce big results. This efficiency doesn't mean he is idle, though. It is easy to see why the three occupations most susceptible to shoulder injury are baseball pitchers, swimmers and conductors. 

How was the opera? Paul becomes obsessed with a woman who is the living image of his dead wife. Obsession turns to murder ... but it was only a dream. There was modest staging as vocal soloists entered and exited from side doors to sing in front of the orchestra. The dead wife appeared in a backlit "ghost door" behind the timpani to signal her otherness. Tenor Jay Hunter Morris was a fine acting singer as Paul. I didn't buy into this psycho-supernatural symphonic thriller, but it was a harmless way to spend a dark and stormy night.