Peter Serko Photography

How about a little opera?

One of the great personal discovers of mid-life has been opera. I fell mysteriously in love with this art form in my late forties and can’t seem to get enough of it. Last year I did some volunteer photography work for Tacoma Opera shooting rehearsals with the intent of giving a “behind the scenes” look at how an opera comes together start to finish. What an eye-opening experience it has been to see what is involved with pulling together an opera production in a short five weeks or so!

The company’s second production of the 2009-10 season is Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”. It is a marvelous “opera buffa” (comic opera) with the unmistakable orchestration of Mozart instantly recognizable for the first bar of the Overture (YouTube). Although I have photographed three previous operas for Tacoma Opera, this will be my first attempt to write a little about the experience. My intent is to write a short commentary about things of interest to me (and perhaps the reader) I notice in each rehearsal (I don’t go to them all nor do I stay for the whole thing). As you will see below I have posted short video commentaries on each rehearsal. These are obviously rough and unedited shot with a Flipcam.. a phone-size camera that is incredibly easy to use. My intent is to share some of my “off-the-cuff” thoughts either before, during or after each rehearsal. On occasion I get a few details wrong but I hope these give a sense of how much fun this process is for me as an opera fan.

Disclaimer:
I am NO opera expert, nor am I versed in music. I’m just a simple opera fan. My approach will be one of interested observer, one with great admiration for the awesome talent and dedication of the artists and all those involved in the production who’s collective passion and dedication to this venerable art form keep opera alive and viable.

All photos are here

Museum of Glass Tacoma, WA

The Museum of Glass is located on the Thea Foss Waterway in the heart of downtown Tacoma. Constructed in 2001 it is one of the cornerstones of the revitalization of Tacoma along with the University of WA downtown campus. Spearheaded by renown glass artist Dale Chihuly and a number of bold civic leaders the museum was sited in the most unlikely location, a federal superfund site. This contemporary structure offers many marvelous opportunities for the photographer day or night, rain or shine. On any given day visitors from all over the world can be seen snapping photos of the fabulous structure and the glass art that adorns it.

Many of these shots have been taken over the course of a year late at night and before dawn. You will note that a few were even taken during a freak snow storm in Dec 2006. Light, sky, clouds, water, and moon all play wonderful tricks on the building surfaces that richly reward the patient and persistent photographer. I have learned a great deal photographing MOG. I hope you enjoy a few of my favorite photos. MOG Website

My Favorite Image Says It All

The moment I saw this scene unfold in front of me I knew instantly it would be the perfect image to bring closure to my work of the past month. After all every photo is really a statement about the photographer more than the actual subject being photographed.

It is through the talents of these artists that we experience first-hand the genius of the composer, in this case Mozart. At the helm of it all is the conductor who in essence stands-in for the composer. How fascinating it is to watch how the conductor interprets the master and guards, if you will, the sanctity of the score. Maestra Sara Jobin is a joy to watch. Her interaction with the musicians in the pit and on stage is at once playful yet direct and precise. Singing along, gracefully gesturing… it is clear that she is thoroughly immersed in the action and story being told on stage but in tune with something greater that drives the music forward, the unifying thread in everything we hear… this is the ethereal domain of the conductor where musical genius and artistry meet.

My desire from the outset has been to do more than simply taking pictures these last few weeks. I am in awe of the gift of musical talent and artistry we see in opera. My hope is that my photos reflect this heartfelt admiration and captured a little of the magic that is opera.

Final Dress 3-3

Wow..what could be better than going to the opera every night for the past week? What a marvelous week it has been! A few days ago I decided I wouldn’t attend the Final Dress Rehearsal just to give everyone a break from me poking my camera in their face and business however, after seeing the shots I took last night I had to go. I decided to sit in the audience and just watch from that perspective rather than move around as I have done over the last few nights. The quality of the images I got shooting with the big 80-200mm lens were spectacular (if I say so myself!) and I was eager (what an excuse to go back) to try from a better location… balcony center.

Final Dress usually has a small audience of invited guests, family and friends of cast and crew and often students. Tacoma Opera has a educational outreach program that works with local high schools. Students and teachers can come to the Final Dress at a discounted rate. I was surprised to discover that I would be assisted by 500 students in the balcony no less! They were very cute and well behaved. They laughed when it was funny and showed great appreciation for the many fine performances throughout. Many were all dressed-up for the evening. I can report that they saw a terrific performance that left them buzzing after the show. How wonderful to attend such a marvelous opera in one’s teens… I didn’t attended my first opera until my mid- 40’s.

My review: thrilling. The singing was strong and passionate, set and costumes a treat for the eyes, and the orchestra superb. The little comedic “gags” worked pefectly and the characters suppose to be laughable were indeed appropriately so. For me it all worked. Sitting in the audience for the entire performance was such a treat. To see it all come together fully developed and staged in all its glory was moving to say the least.

I popped backstage briefly after the third act and talked with Jim, the stage manager, and he reported a few technical and costume problems but nothing out of the ordinary. I ran into Erin, the props manager in the audience and we had a good laugh about the topiaries in Act 4. I recalled a discussion heard at the production meeting about additional ones required for the scene given that only 2 came with the set… but, of course, they needed to be cheap given the budget yet look good. Turns out that there was a last minute panic when it was discovered that big styrofoam balls originally planned would be too expensive. The solution: spray foam insulation (you know the kind that goes everywhere but where you want it) shaped it neat two tiered globe-shaped trees painted green.

Photo Info
Center balcony is the place for good shots. Lighting is the best in the middle of the stage and it seems that faces are better lit as well. Fewer deep shadows on faces make for better images. I shot exclusively with the 80-200 2.8 Nikon at ISO 1600 shutter priority. I kept the shutter speed between 1/200-320 sec with no EV adjustments. Starting in Act 3 I moved down to the main floor and sat almost center stage row 5. A very different perspective indeed but it allowed me to get a few shots of Sara with the singers in the background. Watching her is as much fun as watching the action on stage she is totally engaged in the performance.

Orchestra Dress 3-2

It was wonderful this evening to see everyone in full regalia with lovely costumes, high quality wigs and made up beautifully for the stage. One humorous note… the ladies both principals and chorus will not wear the big butt pads that are accurate for the period but that everyone abhorred..who wants to have a big butt these days? In Mozart’s time that was a sign of class and privilege but today not so. Seems that the main reason for the decision was space.. too many big butts on the stage just made it hard to move and you will recall the issue I mention yesterday.. getting everyone through the upstage entry door.

I stopped to chat with Michael Misiurak, rehearsal accompanist and performance harpsichordist. I asked how it was to finally play on the harpsichord after playing the piano for the last month. To my surprise he said that this was the first time he has played the harpsichord other than a workshop in college.. geesh! The harpsichord plays a light accompaniment to the recitative passages throughout the opera. I asked if these were all written out. Turns out that the score only has chords every few bars and the harpsichordist improvises the passages and must arrive at the chord change at the proper moment. He said one of the challenges and fun parts of this kind of scoring is making the improvisations work with the action in any given scene and with shaping the sound to the characters involved. What did I tell you about great musicianship!

Photo Info
One of the challenges of moving around the entire theater is the vastly different lighting in many locations. At one instant backstage it can be totally dark and then a slight movement one way or another and the light will be white hot. While the current camera I’m using, D5000, is wonderful in low light and high ISO it is not easy to change settings on the fly due to the menu-drive controls. I made the decision to go Manual or Shutter priority during the course of the evening. The bottom line is that I have to have fast enough shutter speed to keep things crisp so I’m willing to sacrifice on DOF. As I mentioned earlier, when shooting the stage I found underexposing works best to keep the faces from blowing out. In Shutter priority I set the EV to -.7 when I was around the stage. When in areas of very low light I switched to over expose an equal amount. This seemed to work out fairly well.

The other thing I did was haul out my Nikon 70-200 ED 2.8 lens. This monster is really hard to work with because of its weight and size but boy does it take nice photos! I rarely use this lens and on the D5000 the autofocus doesn’t work (the is no internal motor on the D5000) so focusing must be done manually with no VR (vibration reduction) support. While it is easy to think of this as a hassle and reason NOT to use it, I found it to be a great exercise in composition and focus. We get so lazy with autofocus that we tend not to look closely at what we are doing (at least I do). To manually focus something like this is an active process that I found surprisingly rewarding. Looking at some of the photos from the evening I can honestly say it was well worth the effort… they are crisp and clean..I was pleasantly surprised. I shot with this lens in shutter priority mode keeping the speed at no less than 1/200, mostly at 1/250 with f/4 or slightly higher most of the time. With a lens this big and clunky one can’t possibly hold it still enough to take good shots otherwise. At ISO1600 and under exposing .3 or more, faces looked just great. I decided to shoot again for Final Dress Rehearsal with the lens and to maybe bring along my Nikkor 70-210 AF that is a lot lighter but is not nearly as fast. With the push-pull zoom function it makes it very easy to react. Still need to manually focus however. Gotta exercise the lenses once in awhile!

Piano Dress 3-1

As usual I misstated in the video that the cast would be donning wigs and make-up this evening but I was wrong. They did however, wear their costumes which firmly set the era visually. I won’t go into much detail other than to say how focused everyone was on the task at hand. This was particularly noted among the stage production staff who were now really pressed into service moving everyone on and off the stage on cue. Now we get to see how everything that the cast has been pretending was there in terms of set and props was really there to have to make work. It was interesting to see the rush and minor panic moving all the chorus through a relatively tiny double door upstage (the back) in short order along with a bunch of props. I recall several rehearsal discussions of this, now in real-time it appears that the warnings were well advised…it is a real pinch.