I have been rehearsing the role of Dancaire in Carmen at the MET and the 1st performance is February 6th. in the 7 days of rehearsal before the 1st performance, I will have worked maximum 16 hours on the production. This means 16 hours in the opera house in the rehearsal room, individual coaching, and the final 2 rehearsals on the stage.
This is a very little amount of time.
The reason we have so little time is because it is an old production and only so much time is reserved for rehearsals.
We must remember that not only is Carmen in Rehearsals, but also Don Giovanni, and La Donna del Lago. Also, The Tales of Hoffman, Iolante/Blackbeard's Castle, and The Merry Widow are currently playing. This means that the opera house is extremely busy, and there are only so many rooms that can hold a large rehearsal and also share those spaces with the other operas.
What you must do is be as prepared as possible as we will only run the scenes 5-6 times before opening night.
The process is such that we are talked thru the scene by the assistant director, and we work through the scene with music. We are then critiqued by the director and adjust the spacing, put more ideas and motives into our work, and then work thru the scene again. Some artists have ideas and we share with each other and work out the blocking (movements).. The we run the scene again. After a couple times we should be ready to go.
This is the level that a professional singer must work at, especially when we have a very short rehearsal period.
All of these things will help you get acclimated to the new time zone and within 2 days your body can be back to normal.
