Episode 2 Maestro at the Opera

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

One of the world's great stages,

where only the best of the best ever get to perform.

'Opera's the ultimate artform.

'It's the most powerful drama in the world'

and the conductor is in charge of everything.

Four novices are competing for the ultimate honour -

to conduct an opera performance in front of a discerning audience.

I can't remember which instruments are used in this piece.

I was shaking so much, I couldn't do the triangles.

I feel violently ill.

Last time, our students attempted famous arias,

conducting soloists and the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Mathematician Marcus kept strictly to time...

I was really, really impressed, Marcus.

..while Josie and Craig were praised for conveying their passion.

Fa-bu-lous.

But it was time to put down the baton for DJ Trevor Nelson.

You were so seduced by the music that you lost the orchestra then.

The conductor who's been appointed to go further is...Josie.

Three students are left.

But there can only be one winner.

-Oh, yeah!

-Cheers!

There can only be one Maestro At The Opera.

This programme contains some strong language

KNOCK ON DOOR

Hello, my darling.

This morning, the trainee conductors meet with their mentors...

Mr Michael mentor!

..professional conductors who are working with them

-throughout the competition.

-I'm wired about what we're going to get next.

You do it for me because I'm scared.

They now have a new piece to learn.

Judging them on it will be the world-renowned opera

and symphonic conductor, Sir Mark Elder.

'The students are going to have to'

conduct a five-minute scene from a big opera

'with orchestra, with full cast, with a full production.

'The test will be'

whether or not they can keep cool,

and yet conduct with spirit and passion.

'Staging a scene is where all the elements of an opera come together.

'And this experience'

will take them to another level.

Actor and comedian Josie Lawrence is first to get her scene.

-La Traviata.

-La Traviata?

This is great for you. This is fantastic.

Verdi's La Traviata - The Fallen Woman -

is a classic tale of doomed love, a chance for Josie to channel

her emotions into conducting this passionate score.

-It's got the drinking song at the end, which you'll know.

-What's that?

SINGS THE DRINKING SONG

JOSIE JOINS IN

Oh, Mozart! Don Giovanni.

-Mozart.

-Yeah!

Mozart's Don Giovanni packs a seduction,

a fight and a death into its first five minutes.

A real technical challenge for Strictly Come Dancing judge

Craig Revel Horwood.

This is good. This is going to be really good for our conducting journey.

So, are we thinking I might not sweat in this one?

Oh, I don't know about that.

-Oh.

-Oh, my God. Fledermaus again?

Having learnt the overture last week,

mathematician and broadcaster, Marcus du Sautoy,

will need to tease out the comedy in Strauss' light-hearted operetta.

This one is auf Deutsch. Do you have any German?

Yeah, I have O-level German from many, many years ago.

The fact that I call it O-level, not GCSE, shows how old I am.

MUSIC: "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi

Oh!

'I think this week could play to my strengths, as far as the drama

'of the piece is concerned, but I really want to work hard

'so that the next time I'm up in front of those wonderful musicians,'

I at least feel I've worked hard enough,

because I didn't feel worthy of them.

Oh, God. That threw me. Oh, sugar.

Oh, bugger.

It's a different music.

MUSIC: "Don Giovanni" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

'I really like the piece. I like the fact'

there's major drama in it. That suits me.

Knowing the orchestra, I think, to the action,

'is going to be one of those times.'

-What a scene to open an opera with.

-Fighting, raping, pillaging.

I love it.

MUSIC: "Fledermaus" by Johann Strauss

'It's kind of intriguing that this week's challenge'

'has got this element of theatre because, you know,'

both Craig and Josie, that is their world.

Oh.

Yeah.

'You know, the first challenge was more musical, and that was'

more up my street,

so it's kind of going to even out the playing field a touch.

More singers to deal with, and a stage director,

and the whole paraphernalia of the stage itself,

so the game has got hotter.

Yep.

I thought last week was...

difficult enough, but this is... Yeah.

In one week's time,

they'll perform in the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre.

There will be sets, props, costumes.

Our student conductors need to bring it all seamlessly together

with the music.

'I think an opera conductor has to'

combine musicality...

but think of theatre at all times. What is the situation?

What is the expression? What is the emotion?

What is music, what is the orchestra, what is this drama

is the stage of our inner world.

This multilayering, this revealing of the...

of the magical inside

which an opera holds ready to show us all,

that's what the conductor needs to be able to do.

At the end of the week,

our three hopefuls will be judged by a panel of opera experts.

And one of them will be asked to leave the competition.

To get their conducting to a standard worthy of the Royal Opera House,

Craig, Marcus and Josie will spend the next few days

in back-to-back rehearsals.

-Mine goes into a huge German dialogue at the end.

-Well, lucky you.

-You're in German, are you?

-Yeah.

-I'm in Italian.

It's quite a chewy language, though.

SPITS OUT GERMAN SOUNDING CONSONANTS

-Well, you've learnt yours, obviously.

-I was reading it.

I've got Voglio so far. That's all I've got down.

Mines all about blame.

Is it?

Yeah, well, I've got a lot of blame in me, too.

Hello!

Hello.

Good to see you. I'm good.

Before the students are let loose on any singers,

they'll get tips on from Maestro judge and star soprano

Danielle de Niese.

I wanted to talk to you about exactly what

kind of challenges the singers are going to face.

They're going to be managing so many different things

and the best way to understand what the singers are going through,

is to go through it yourselves.

Who wants to wear this?

-I'll go for that.

-CRAIG: Suits your character.

-Do you think so? Axe murderer.

-Yes!

The more the conductor can know about

what it is to be on stage,

the better he will conduct the singer.

THEY SING AMAZING GRACE

Hats change the acoustics in the ear.

We singers hate the hats.

Really you don't hear yourself in the same way,

or masks or beards,

or all this kind of stuff that change the way you perform,

or you need to adapt to them in order to perform.

THEY SING

-So, you guys, how did that feel now?

-I couldn't hear the other singers.

It was almost like having headphones on. It put me on my in my own world.

What about you, Josie? You've got a corset

and that's restricting you.

I did notice on the running I was getting out of breath a little more.

Any movement, any prop, is going to affect the ability of the singer

to perform, so you really have to pay attention to the singers.

Look for when they're struggling. If you hear they're out of breath,

speak up and you have to be diplomatic.

I feel like I gave the conductors today a real taste

of what it's like to be a singer.

MARCUS SINGS AMAZING GRACE

It has become clear to them that it's their responsibility to make

sure they bring out the best from the singers.

If I see the singers flailing, needing help, being left hanging,

I'm going to mark them down.

PIANO PLAYS

Over the next few days,

the students will go through the same process as when a new opera

is staged and it starts

by learning and preparing the music.

And this is everybody, the whole orchestra, so be bigger.

HE SINGS ITALIAN

# Da-da-dum. #

Speaks first. Then strings.

# Da-dum. #

Josie's mentor, Stevie, also wants her to work on her confidence.

STEVIE SINGS

Sorry, I forgot where I was. It's straight after...

'What we need now is for her to be authoritative,'

because conducting is all about leadership

and getting people to be confident to do their job.

So you were much faster than me.

I know. It's because...

Let me try it again.

'If Josie doesn't come across as the leader, the orchestra'

will get the sense, "I'm not sure she knows what she's doing. Who are we following here?"

Go!

Go!

Better. Better. It still had a "whoa" about it.

And if she's not in control, then she's not a conductor.

PAUL SINGS IN GERMAN

Marcus has already memorised his score

and Paul has been impressed by his pupil's technique.

'Of course he's fantastically quick, he's so intelligent.

'He takes things, absorbs them'

and goes, "Is it like this?"

PAUL SINGS IN GERMAN

PROMPTS MARCUS IN GERMAN

And then I just have to say, "That's not quite there,

"so let's just fix that", and then he has it.

Correct! Marvellous!

'But, what I'd like to see,

'is how much we can develop his actual

'ability to relate to the live human beings,

'the singers.'

That's what worries me.

HE SINGS SOFTLY IN GERMAN

Oh, scheisse! Pot. Sorry.

Hello!

Learning the score is only part of the students' challenge.

In opera, the next step is to work on the musical interpretation

with the singers and a pianist.

I'm Craig.

The young artists from the Royal Opera House have learnt their parts

but now they need Craig's help to put it all together.

What's the usual thing here?

Have a go and see what happens. Everything we've been practising.

That seems to go out the window!

All right. We'll give it a bash.

HE SINGS IN ITALIAN

Mozart's opera Don Giovanni is the story of a promiscuous womaniser

who leaves a trail of victims.

The opening is a complicated action scene which climaxes in a fight

and a killing.

The singers need clear cueing

and direction from their conductor to keep them on track.

-I could have slowed that last little bit down, I think.

-What do you do?

You go smaller, lighter.

You focus it, you get it... You certainly don't waste energy.

You make sure that it's a focused beat.

THEY SING IN ITALIAN

'The judges, after the first stage,

'picked up on the fact that Craig was overdoing his gestures.

'So I've just got to try and get him under control, more efficient,'

because, definitely, in his case,

less is more.

'Having too much movement is very confusing for people.

'You can be far more subtle with the movements

'and still give enough information'

to the singers and the orchestra.

DRAMATIC PIANO MUSIC

Off.

Well I thought, actually, that session went rather well,

to be honest. I was quite surprised.

But, as you can see,

I look like I've been dragged through a sewer backwards, darling!

You shouldn't look that exhausted and sweaty. No.

I'm not sure he actually believes that more efficient

gestures are going to be as effective,

so it's really a priority now.

Josie is on her way to the Royal Opera House.

Alongside her six principal singers, her scene also features a chorus.

I'm meeting them for the first time.

There's 18 of them, apparently.

But I don't know what it is today, but I'm not nervous.

I've spent two and a half weeks being torn apart with my nerves.

But some reason today,

the nerves have become hysteria.

She's about to rehearse with them for the first time.

Hello, chorus!

You're going to be trouble! I've seen you in the corridor.

I've seen you in the corridor.

I so know you're going to be trouble.

All right. Shall we have a go?

FAST-PACED PIANO PLAYING

CHORUS SINGS

Wow! Ho-ho-ho!

Verdi's La Traviata - The Fallen Woman -

is a tragic love story of a nobleman and a kept woman in high society.

The opening is a busy party scene with six principal singers

and a large chorus.

With so many artists needing clear cues,

the conductor has to display absolute confidence and clarity.

CHORUS SINGS WITH GUSTO

Ho-ho-ho!

It's like driving a Ferrari!

LAUGHTER

That's bloody brilliant!

'Her chorus adds to the complication

'just by the sheer numbers. They have to act'

and move like a body of sound,

but of course, we're talking about individuals here,

'so everyone can take on in information

'differently and their reactive response to gesture is going'

to be different per person.

THEY SING IN ITALIAN

Did that work? That was quite nice, colourful.

Because, I think I'm galloping

on an old nag there, and I should be...

You want a young stallion!

Tell me about it!

Josie, could you keep your eyes open?

-We need to connect with that.

-Exactly! Do you know,

that's what they said was one of my best attributes last week, and here

I am, shutting my eyes, because I'm going, "Huh",

and I shouldn't, should I?

'What I need from a conductor is their face, first and foremost.'

I need to see the drama in their eyes.

I need to see that they understand what I'm going through.

CHORUS SINGS

THEY LAUGH

Thank you so much.

That's been one of my favourite sessions so far.

-Great, well done.

-Thank you.

I thought pointing out your eyes were closed, is something I never picked up.

I can't remember closing my eyes, but perhaps I do.

But what a lovely reinforcing of that whole Josie gift of eyes.

Absolutely.

Someone who's just met you, wanted your eyes and also well done you.

-It's the first time I've seen you be a conductor.

-Wow!

-How's that?

-That's...

-Because you led the room.

-..brilliant.

SINGING IN GERMAN

Maybe if you're a little more here,

so just slightly behind her, then you can be talking to her.

A vital part of a conductor's job is to work with the stage director.

Seeing him, clocking him.

Marcus is first to meet one of Britain's leading opera directors.

Yes, I think that's really good.

'The director is responsible for everything you see on stage,'

all the visual aspects,

as well as the performance aspects as they relate to

the storytelling and then crucially, how all that relates to the music.

Johann Strauss's operetta, Die Fledermaus,

is a fast-paced story of mistaken identity.

In Marcus's scene, the hero is explaining to his wife

how their incompetent lawyer has got his prison sentence increased.

Comic timing and complex stage action mean the pace of the music and drama have to blend seamlessly.

-Marcus, why don't you join us for this?

-Yeah.

I think it works really well where you're really in with what's going on with the story.

I'd love to be, yeah.

When you're staging an opera, and you're in the rehearsal room with the director,

he's got to be allowed to have his time, his space to put out his ideas, to organise the singers.

A conductor has a role, but not there.

OK, good. Great.

He needs to bide his time,

otherwise too much intervention feels like interference.

-The person you want to please.

-The arbiter.

-The arbiter, exactly.

I love that kind of... That feeling like he wants to get... This is the moment, I think...

Cos there's that real swap over of... I love the comedy in this, you know? Who's speaking next?

-Yes.

-# Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da #

Then it's you, and then it's you, but then it's you.

-If Madeleine laid him across them both.

-Almost thinking, we're 1920s Austria...

-Yeah.

Perhaps it's kind of Freudian analysis.

-So this triangle is a line, you know? Until it pulls out.

-Yes.

When he moves... when you move to go round.

You then go # DA-DA-DA-DA-DA # and you break it up, don't you?

"He did it! No, she did it!" You know that moment in football?

They never really fight each other, but it's so strong, it's like, there is about to be an explosion.

-Wetterhahn!

-OK, great.

-Don't you think that should be smashing the middle?

-I'm not sure, actually.

-Oh, OK.

-I kind of hear something which is... "ENOUGH!"

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Yeah?

It's an interesting dynamic, here, because, you know, I've got some ideas

which I think John is in tune with,

but, you know, I don't want to step on his toes, because this is his gig.

But, you know... It's kind of... It's a team game, so... Yeah.

-I'm just trying to tread carefully, because...

-OK, Marcus, where shall we go from?

Also on team Marcus are his singers.

But the German language can be hard to sing at speed,

especially at the tempo, or pace, he's setting.

-You're taking it a bit slower, I think.

-Well, it's tricky to get the words out.

-And it's all... # Das beste war Sie geh'n hinaus. #

-OK.

-But I think it's a little bit lower than I'd imagined.

-OK.

I'm imagining...

Marcus has very set ideas about tempo of this piece.

It's very wordy, and there are lots of moments

were the words are fitting into

very, very tiny, very short, very quick notes.

And that's where it becomes difficult, because we need to be understood,

and we need to be able to just get the words out.

What we need to achieve, we need to be able to achieve that energy without rushing.

-Marcus, this is a challenge for you, I think.

-Yes, yes.

It's crucial that the scene doesn't run away with itself.

Right. And I can help in that, because although I'm hitting the tempo, I can...

I can calm... But I don't want to calm it down too much.

Today, our three would-be conductors are visiting the Linbury Theatre.

It's one of two stages at the world-famous opera house.

-Wow!

-It's very friendly, isn't it?

-Where's the pit?

-This is the pit. This goes down.

It's a chance for them to see first-hand where they'll be performing.

-Oh!

-JOSIE LAUGHS

Oh, we're going down! I thought they were going up! LAUGHTER

But it opens up a new challenge.

So, we've been lowered while standing on the pit,

and we're now five foot below the stage floor level.

-Wow. So, they don't really see us, the audience?

-Not in here, no.

-They see the top of your head.

-It's nice, you're sort of hidden away, so you can just cower away from people.

-Actually, yeah.

One of the first things that you notice is that you have

completely different sightlines to when you were just conducting an orchestra.

They'll be here with you.

The singers will then be up there, so they're on a different level.

It's a bit of a mind explosion, really, at this point,

because there's so many elements coming together.

It does feel like the world is on your shoulders.

It's down to one person, and I think that's hideously terrifying.

Opera design starts with a scale model of the set.

Josie's meeting with John to find out more about his vision for her scene,

and how the stage direction could create problems for her and her singers.

In La Traviata, I want to create the feeling that the party, the chorus,

is partly an imaginary thing, and so we've stage them behind a gauze

because it will enable the scene to be very intimate.

And then, suddenly, with lighting, we'll be able to turn it into a much bigger space.

For this to work, we really need you to buy into it, because...

-How do they see me?

-How do they see you?

Because when we light the gauze, the gauze is going to go solid, they're not going to see you directly.

-I know.

-So the way we'll get round that is that there'll be

a camera on you, and they'll have televisions in the wing.

-The danger is, then, it's harder to be together.

-Yes.

-So we'll need you to be very...

-Clear.

It is going to be very odd, because in my head,

when I've been rehearsing in my kitchen, they are all around, and I can make contact.

Because the one thing I do like doing is eye-to-eye contact with people.

Well, I think in a way, just so we all know where we are,

it would be great to go from the beginning of the scene.

Craig's working on his scene with the stage director.

Originally, Mozart's tragic comedy was set as a period piece in 17th-century Italy.

Dan, I thought the image you built over there was fantastic.

-Didn't you think, Craig?

-Yeah, I love it.

I and the design team decided that we would set Don Giovanni today,

in a city like London in 2012.

Erm, Craig seemed to engage with that.

I was expecting a traditional production, and what have I got?

Two bloody garbage bins. Bin bags!

Where's the bloody glamour in the opera house in that?!

SINGING AND PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT

Craig's biggest challenge is to time a pause perfectly.

Too long, it loses its pacing, too short and the singers can't catch their breath.

The duel scene is very, very dramatic.

Don Giovanni stabs the Commendatore.

# Da-ram! Da-ram! Da-ram! #

But, the hardest bit is this little trio between the three men.

The singers are singing twos. # Dee-da, dee-da, dee-da, dee-da. #

TRIO SINGS

And often that is difficult to start, and difficult to sustain.

Sorry. OK, that's a complete disaster.

If we try adding in two more notes.

Now we've got another problem, of course.

You know, I'm still thinking hideously technically,

and you can't be free as an artist when you're just concentrating on,

"That's an up, that a down, that's an out, that's an off.

"This arm's not allowed to come up until this one engages."

It's... It is difficult. It's just hideous.

I just have to be able to do it under pressure and stress, that's all.

-Have you seen my set? My set's rubbish.

-Literally, rubbish.

Literally, rubbish. JOSIE LAUGHS

They're kicking milk cartons around, putting their heads in bin liners.

-MARCUS LAUGHS

-The biggest thing that I do now, is if I make a mistake,

even a little one, I don't even know I'm doing it, but I show it,

and it affects everything that comes next.

Well, I feel I've just let my mentor down.

You know, that's something we've worked on, and I didn't do it.

-I'm totally freaking out.

-Don't freak out.

-I'm just going to do what I'm told to do.

-Yeah.

-You know, they know what they're doing.

-Exactly.

-One would hope.

With just two days to go before the final performance,

head judge Sir Mark Elder is to give a masterclass.

Sir Mark will help guide the students through the critical moment

when the orchestra and singers come together for the first time.

Today, they're working with the Southbank Sinfonia.

To conduct a whole scene of an opera is a very, very big undertaking.

And I think today, I want to make sure that they're prepared, that they're confident as possible,

and that when we go to the performance

we can see which two must go forward into the final.

MUSIC: From "Die Fledermaus" Act One by Johann Strauss

SOPRANO SINGS: # Es sei nun abgetan. #

-Awful.

-Bit of chaos, there.

-Yeah, yeah.

-No, it's very, very hard.

-That is my minefield moment.

-Well, it's hard.

-It is.

Marcus's minefield moment is a challenging musical entry, where, after a pause,

the violins and singer have to come in at the same time, and at a completely new speed.

Try again. Doch schone dein Organ

# Es sei nun abgetan. #

OK, now... ORCHESTRA STOPS

-If there's one violinist, she or he might have coped with that.

-Yeah.

-But since you've got a group of them...

-Yes.

-..How are we going to get them together?

-They need a little bit more clarity...

-Yes.

-..for when they've got to start.

-And at the moment, you're just doing, "OK, go!"

-Yeah.

-Yeah? And so, it's all over the place. Yeah?

What you need to do, is to find a way of saying, "I'm going to do it now." You see?

First of all, look at them.

Don't look at the leader, look at there, there, or there. The last players in the group. Yeah?

That helps to give them confidence. It's tricky, this.

So you're doing, # Ab-ge-tan # Pause. One, two.

# Ba-ba-ba-BI # Same place.

SOPRANO SINGS: # Abgetan

# Das beste war Sie geh'n hinaus... #

-Sorry.

-Your gestures mustn't be too heavy.

You're still conducting, for me, a little bit too, "Oh my God, they're not going to be with me." You know?

I sense all that. But actually, they don't need it.

-The music needs to be buoyant, doesn't it?

-Yeah, definitely.

-And sparkling.

So when the brass play, it mustn't sound like the guillotine coming down,

it wants just to sound just like a cork popping.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Try again.

-Good.

SOPRANO SINGS: # Abgetan

# Das beste war Sie geh'n hinaus... #

Marcus is proportioned and consistent, and you can see

that the players are satisfied, because they all smile and they're confident,

they're all nodding, "Yeah, thank you, we got that right."

But he gives the impression of being too heavy-handed and too robotic.

We need to get him to loosen up a bit.

It's as if he's a switched-on machine, and he's just going to do it, and do it.

Meanwhile, Craig needs to address his elaborate conducting gestures with mentor Michael Rosewell.

I've brought something along with me today, to help matters.

We're going to just try things out.

CRAIG LAUGHS

-I want you to know, this is not from my personal collection.

-Yeah.

I just thought it might make us...

I think it's a really good idea. I might need metal ones though, darling.

Cos I'm likely to break these with my energy.

It's about controlling the middle of your body.

As a dancer, you know, it's about this middle area that has with it such an authority.

We're not trying to sort of, you know, make big, extravagant gestures.

Not in this, although it's very, very dramatic.

First violins.

That's almost a double hander, isn't it?

Lid on, lid on. Rest. Rest.

-I sort of liked it.

-Oh!

-Bizarrely.

Cos I couldn't get wider.

Although I didn't feel as passionate, but I suppose that's only because of me using my body a lot.

-But remember, it is about others feeling and delivering passion, you know?

-Yes.

As a dancer, I've been trained within an inch of my life

to go Bang! Bang! Whack! Voom! You know?

But I'm learning just to be small,

and bring them to me, rather than me going to them.

It's Josie's turn to work with Sir Mark Elder, but just starting the piece is proving tricky.

All right. Great, you see? You want to make the moment where they start really positive.

The moment of saying... It's like the starting gun in a race, isn't it? Go!

Your problem is that you don't make it absolutely clear where you expect them to start.

-You're sort of saying, "it's sort of now, if you wouldn't mind".

-Yes.

-Yes?

-But they need something more than that.

-Definitely.

-More definition.

-God, the way you did it was good.

-LAUGHTER

-But then it would be!

It's just like saying "now", yes?

-That's it. That's it!

-Now.

-Yes!

-Do it again, do it again.

-Shall I do it again?

-Don't say anything, just do it.

-OK.

MUSIC STARTS

-Well, what do you think? What do you think?

-Was that better? Yes.

-Was it better?

Yes, I got the first bit right, then I forgot to do the next bit...

-No, but...

-That's so much better, thanks.

-But once you started it right, it goes.

-Do it again.

-I will.

MUSIC RESUMES

Josie's fundamental problem is being there at all,

because she's so lovely and she's so self-critical.

She needs to have the confidence to believe that she's got the answer

and she showed that this morning.

It's extraordinary, watching him work.

He's so succinct, so precise, but everything is right.

You see, all the singers are smiling.

It was really helpful,

especially with the beginning and keeping the tempo up and colouring the piece,

so, I've had a great time.

It's the day of the dress rehearsal for all our potential maestros.

A final chance for them to practise, but their first time

conducting from the pit of the Linbury Theatre, complete with set and props.

We're going to go from the beginning of the scenes, turn out the lights.

'The dress rehearsal is the last chance to get everything right.

'They need to inspire everybody with a feeling'

that this is a smoothly-oiled machine and that it's going to run very, very easily.

That looks fantastic.

Josie's singers are dressed as Parisians of the mid-19th century.

Do you find it hinders, having the tight corset?

-It sort of breathes with you

-and there is no problem.

-That's brilliant.

Craig's costumes are inspired by contemporary fashion.

The singers look like they're going to be free.

-Yes.

-And relaxed and not all, constrained,

-unlike poor old Josie who's got Traviata, where they're all, like...

-Exactly.

Oh...

Marcus's costumes complement his set, which is abstract in style.

John has decided to update Strauss's 19th-century Viennese comedy

to a modernist 1920s setting.

All primary colours and frenetic movement.

This feels like a proper production.

I mean, it's not just, um, er...

Yes, gosh. We're going to be good.

OPERATIC SINGING

And it's the singers' complex movements that are causing problems for Marcus.

-Yes.

-You need to get there quick, so you can be totally motionless.

-Yes, yes, yes. Yes.

I think Marcus has been slightly thrown by a couple of things,

because the staging is so busy

the singers aren't quite fluent yet, even where they're supposed to be.

I know where it went wrong.

I need to get them watching my beat, get them copying the words.

-Clocking that with their brow.

-Yes.

-I kind of got, yes.

-Yes.

Carried away.

Or something.

That's slightly throwing Marcus in the role of conductor,

because he's trying to make sure he's hitting particular speeds,

which they're not coming along with at the moment, but that's what happens in opera.

Craig is next to rehearse his scene.

It's the first time he's seen the scale of his set.

-It's quite deep, isn't it?

-Yes.

Those guys at the back of the stage, that's where everybody's coming on from.

I mean, what I don't want it to tempt me to do is work bigger,

-because I'm trying to be more precise now.

-Yes, yes.

MUSIC STARTS

'On the whole, his gestures are definitely more contained, no question about that.'

But, still, when the music stops, when it comes to a halt, when there are held notes,

it's coming out of those, he's still doing the same wrong patterns

and he's got to step back so he can actually control those corners,

they're going on, but there's still work to do in that area.

# Bom, bom, ba... #

I don't feel as comfortable doing mini little things like that.

I think that's, sort of, just not me, because I'm so big,

but the thing is, it's not about me, is it?

It feels like we've got, maybe too many across this back section.

Josie's up next and her chorus are assembling behind the gauze wall.

That's fantastic. Great.

As she's cueing them via a camera in the pit, they need clear,

confident gestures that they can see on monitors in the wings.

-You've got to conduct the monitor, orchestra and singers.

-Yes.

Good luck.

OPERATIC SINGING

Thank you.

Conducting down a monitor seems very alien,

after having all the eye contact, and I buggered the end up again,

which I've done a lot today and I've never done before.

It's very important for a singer on stage

to have a confident conductor.

(Fuck it.)

I've gone completely.

'The conductor has to smile.'

"No problem, whatever happens, I know how we do it well, even if it's not true."

Just, you know, there is this sense of everything,

everything will be controlled. This is the control system.

It's OK. We are fine here.

(Shit.)

I think she's really, sort of struggling.

The confidence that she exudes is infectious

and the lack of confidence she exudes

is equally as infectious and really dangerous.

-Don't make your physicality angry if it's going slow.

-I was getting so stiff.

-It tenses you here.

It's suddenly gone in to, uh, uh, no, no,

no, don't do it like that, please, come with me.

-I know and it was grimace a go-go. Grimace a go-go.

-It was a bit, yes.

CRESCENDO

It's my fault at the moment, because I'm getting too tense.

Pablo Banchi, Josie's tenor, is struggling to know what she wants.

For me it's very important to watch that you are enjoying the music.

-And I'm not at the moment.

-You were in the other rehearsals, more, more...

What I'm going to try and do is, I felt I'd made it very leaden,

because I tensed up and I'm going to try and lift it like I did. You're right, smile.

Before that rehearsal, I said, "I'm suddenly not nervous any more."

LAUGHS

That's like saying, "Ooh, the roads are nice and clear for this journey, aren't they?"

And then turning the corner and there's a traffic jam.

-Finally, the day of the performance has arrived.

-How are we?

Getting my tails ready.

By the end of today, one of our would-be conductors

will be voted out of the competition.

Kind of feeling terrified actually.

Actually knowing what's coming up hasn't made it easier,

I think it's made it more difficult.

I did wake up at 3:47 and think...

I don't know how to start it.

I think I went through it for about four hours in my sleep.

But I think that's probably the sign.

You're supposed to be able to do it in your sleep.

Judge Sir Mark Elder is joined by leading orchestral bass player Dominic Seldis

and renowned soprano, Danielle de Niese.

'I'm going to be looking for conductors'

to show that they have a great understanding of what singers need

and have brought them to a higher level through their own performance.

When they are conducting a stage scene,

they have to believe in themselves completely

and be fully immersed in what they're doing.

Now, I am complete.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's time for the three students to conduct their scenes...

-Good luck, Maestro.

-Toy, toy, toy.

..with the professional orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

So here we are, conducting part of the first scene

of La Traviata by Verdi.

Please welcome, Josie Lawrence.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

MUSIC STARTS

This piece is all about fizz and bounce and lightness and air.

She just needs to keep that up feeling.

It's all in her eyes, all in her expression

and I really want her to just keep the lightness in it. That's the key challenge.

MUSIC CONTINUES

OPERATIC SINGING CONTINUES

This is like auditions. It's absolute torture.

For Josie, the next few bars are key.

She must set the correct speed for the famous drinking song.

MUSIC CONTINUES

Josie's next challenge is to keep her tenor and orchestra in sync.

OPERATIC SINGING CONTINUES

I'm making sure I don't get Traviata in my head. It's so catchy.

HE LAUGHS

Verdi was good at writing tunes which just stick in your head.

OPERATIC SINGING CONTINUES

SINGING REACHES A CRESCENDO

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Was that a wonderful experience?

-Just incredible.

One of the best days of my life.

I'm absolutely floored by your confidence.

You completely embraced the music and I think that showed in the sound of the orchestra,

because they felt confident, they felt secure with you.

Um...

There were some times the singers were a little bit out of sync,

but one of the reasons I think that happened

is because you made contact with the singers a little bit too late.

Yes.

When the singer doesn't sing with the orchestra,

you've got to decide, are we going to go slower to fit with him,

-or are we going to make him go a little bit faster?

-Yes, got you.

You managed to control this amazing orchestra in the way you wanted to do it

and that's incredibly difficult to do.

I would say if you're really happy with your musicians,

to give them the thumbs up.

It's perhaps best to do afterwards, not during the performance.

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

-Josie, thank you. Well done.

-Bravo.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

She was nervous when she first did it, which you'd expect

and she ended up smiling all over her face,

which is of course how she should've started.

I didn't apologise. I showed leadership,

but I was told not to do the thumbs up to the drummer when he comes in.

SHE LAUGHS

So here to conduct part of act one, scene one,

of Don Giovanni by Mozart, Craig Revel Horwood.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

MUSIC STARTS

Craig needs to remember to keep calm.

He needs to remember to keep it small.

He needs to remember to actually reflect and enjoy the music.

I'd be devastated if he falls out at this hurdle.

Midway through Craig's scene,

he's struggling to keep his orchestra and singers together.

I'm desperately tring not to get Don Giovanni in my brain as well as Traviata.

Cos then that's just going to totally screw Johann Strauss.

As Craig approaches the scene's climax,

he must now coordinate the music

and the dramatic action of the knife fight.

Craig must now convey the tragedy in the music without losing its tempo.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Well, Craig, there was a terrific problem for you,

as somebody who's so physically expressive,

and you've had to work really hard at fining it all down.

-When you were conducting in a contained way...

-Yes.

-..it actually made it possible for the music to be beautiful.

-Yeah.

And the moment that you gave us one of your Rudolf Nureyev moments...

LAUGHTER ..immediately the orchestra was then late

cos you were late with the beat, you know what I mean.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

Self-indulgence, darling, I think you might mean!

I'm going to talk about first the toughest moment you faced

-which is when it all went a bit pear-shaped.

-Yep.

I don't think it could've gotten much more difficult

than in a situation like that when you were almost a bar off.

-Exactly.

-And you handled it so well!

You kept yourself together, you found your beat again.

I was truly, truly impressed by that.

Your theatrical experience paid off enormously.

The stabbing scene was timed absolutely to perfection.

There's A LOT of music going on and you've got to connect the two up.

The last chord, where you just did this...

This was perfect and as a result it sounded UTTERLY beautiful.

What a journey you've made and it's lovely to hear you doing

something so different from the music you did last week.

Thank God that's over!

But I wasn't sweating as much. Look, I'm hardly sweating.

That's good, isn't it?

That's a good sign that I've calmed down a bit.

There was a moment that I normally always have

confidence in where I lost it.

-I just...suddenly the singers got out.

-Yes.

And I got out with the orchestra and it was like, I was doing one thing,

the orchestra was doing another, everyone was staring at me...

And for two bars it was a disaster and then I saw a "forte"

-on my thing and I just went...da, da, dum!

-Daga, daga, dum, da.

They all noticed.

They all noticed the big hoo-ha in the middle of it all.

Please welcome now to conduct this Act One Trio

from Die Fledermaus by Strauss, Marcus du Sautoy.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

He's gone in and he's got very difficult things to

negotiate as a conductor.

He's connected with the three singers on stage

and the orchestra can sort of see that he was helping them

so there's a little bit of trust emerging which is very nice to see.

Marcus is approaching his minefield moment - that tricky tempo change.

This sounds lovely.

Mine was a bit all over the shop.

The difficulty he's experiencing as a conductor is that the orchestra

plays slightly late to his beat.

And I'm hoping that he wont panic

and jump the gun just before the end by being too fast.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Marcus, thanks very much indeed. It sounded great.

There was a lot of punch, you'd learned it by heart.

It was great you were giving cues to the singers with absolute confidence,

but there's a fine line between security of beating

and appearing to be too dogmatic.

Too insistent.

There were times when the singers needed a bit of time to breathe

and you were already going on.

Sometimes you gave me the impression that perhaps you weren't really listening to what they were doing.

Still that moment of changing the tempo, after the beginning,

that first tempo change.

It really is a tricky corner, isn't it?

-That's the one I've woken up every morning going, "Da, da, da, da!"

-DANIELLE LAUGHS

-God, yes!

-And the bird outside has been joining me

at 5am going, "Do, do, do, do!" Yeah.

You are a math man. You think methodically. I can see the method.

I loved how clear you were. You were crisp, you were on the ball.

You didn't miss a beat.

From a musician's perspective, you've learnt it brilliantly,

you're a clever guy.

But REALLY this music is about passion and about fire,

and you MUST show that to your musicians.

Had I have heard an hour and a half of that,

I'm afraid I perhaps maybe would have been on the bored side.

-It's quite stressful up here, I must admit.

-I know!

HE LAUGHS LOUDLY

Thank you very much indeed, Marcus.

APPLAUSE

Well, that was quite a lot of critique, actually.

They've picked up on the fact that I seem to be very serious.

I'm not on the same sort of high as I was last time

but we'll see whether it's enough.

The judges must now decide which student to put through to

the next round of the competition.

I think we could've expected more progress from Marcus,

-given his gifts.

-Yeah.

And his mind.

I was MASSIVELY impressed with Josie.

-I felt her gesture to be the one-note performance.

-Yeah.

I was quite impressed with Craig's ability to dial it down.

He'd had some real disasters, Craig.

-He didn't have any in-built sense of rhythm.

-No.

-Right, so...

-No-one's ticked all the boxes.

That's the problem.

The judges will announce their decision,

leaving the remaining two to face the orchestra's vote.

CHEERING

Well, we've come to a decision.

The student who will immediately progress through to the final stage is...

..Craig.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

No orchestra vote for me!

Thank God. That's brilliant!

Josie and Marcus' fate is now in the hands of the orchestra.

Marcus has a fantastic technique.

He does it with great confidence.

It's very easy to follow.

He was clear.

The opening was good. It felt very da, da, da-da. It seemed to just,

"Oh, it's worked!" You know?

He's technically very strong,

but musically I think

he needs to just sort of enjoy it a lot more.

Josie's greatest weakness is she sometimes lacks confidence

and that can easily spill over to us.

She had not quite the same level of awareness and technique.

Her performance was something that came from within rather than

being technically very, very strong.

Ladies and gentlemen, the orchestra has now voted.

I can reveal that the conductor accompanying Craig into

the final stage of this competition...

..is to be Marcus.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

That was the most terrifying thing...I think I've done, ever!

I KNOW there's so much further to go

and I want to be part of that and they've given me the chance.

I mean...thank you, orchestra.

I have had the most brilliant time.

To be welcomed into a building like the Royal Opera House.

It's a magical place and I feel completely honoured.

Thank you so much.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

-Oh, my God!

-It was horrible.

-Mission accomplished.

-Oh, my God.

On the evidence of today, I feel confident that the orchestra

and the judges have made the right decision.

I think it ended on a joyous note, which is fantastic.

-I think a glass of wine might be in order, don't you?

-Yay!

-Champagne!

-Champagne!

'Now, as we go through to the final part of the competition,

'these two finalists have got to be ready'

for a whole act of a opera.

But they have no idea what's coming their way.

Next week on Maestro At The Opera...

-Oh, no!

-BOTH: HA-HA-HA-HA!

Two surviving conductors go head-to-head.

How do we beat Marcus?

Who will become the maestro?

I've had a boiled egg so I've got something to throw up.

I don't KNOW this piece.

And conduct one of the most difficult operatic acts at the Royal Opera House.

-This is the moment, isn't it?

-Come on!

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