Life in the Pit

I have been playing 2nd oboe and English horn with the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra for over 12 years. As a young musician planning a career, I never foresaw myself as a “pit musician,” but it has turned out to be more artistically satisfying than I ever imagined. The music of opera is physically, technically, and artistically demanding in ways that symphonic music is not. I find that it calls for softer pianissimos, more precise accompaniment playing, more exposed section playing, more endurance. And while some of the standard romantic ballet repertoire isn’t exactly profound music, there is much in the ballet orchestral repertoire that is superb.

But for me, the real difference between the concert stage and pit work (opera, ballet, and musical theater) is feeling that you’re part of a magical event that transcends the sound you are making. You’re part of the drama on the stage that, guided by a director or a choreographer, moves the audience on a completely difference level than in symphonic music alone. The lights go down, the audience hushes, and the disembodied music from the pit transports the listener without the visual distraction of watching the musicians produce the sound – the music is just a natural part of the world you are entering, like the air you’re breathing.

Of course, not being the focal point of the performance has disadvantages. Too many ballet companies think recorded music is just as good, and cheaper, than live. Too many musical theater producers think the orchestra can be piped in from a remote location, cut to bare bones, or replaced altogether with synthesizer or computer technology. No one talks of eliminating live ballet or musical theater, but the orchestra is fair game for anyone who wants to save money. Reduction in orchestra size, replacement by recordings or synthesized technology, even replacement of pit musicians by actors onstage “playing” instruments – our very existence is threatened because we’re not visible. We can never let “out of sight” become “irrelevant.”