Joe Green a long time MET Opera Stagehand has many wonderful memories of the Met Opera, HEY MISTER is one such story. The brothers and sisters of Local One, the other IATSE Unions, the Chorus Members, Musicians, Building Services and Security Department, the Met is not only a job but away of life. HEY MISTER Some of my most rewarding and certainly joyful experiences at the Met involve children. It was, and to some extent,still is an honor and a pleasure to be involved with the Met Education Department and helping them reach out to and introduce the Opera to children who otherwise might never be exposed to, what at least in my opinion, is still one of the greatest shows on earth. I inherited my position from arguably one of the finest gentleman to have ever graced the stage at Metropolitan Opera when he finally retired after more than forty years with the Met, at both the Old House and our present address at Lincoln Center. I don’t think it’s any secret, and I’m pretty sure I’m already on record when I tell you James Connolly probably taught me more about life and theater than he ever realized. There’s an old expression that says steal with your eyes, and that’s exactly what I did. I would watch and when possible give Jimmy a hand setting up his little demonstrations and I thought to myself, self you could do this, never dreaming that one day I would, nobody, including myself thought that Jimmy would ever leave! As a ruggedly handsome (some might disagree) young hot shot with a full head of hair and all my own teeth I can remember thinking to myself I’ll never be like these old timers. I’m going to get my card and get out of here. I’ll do rock and roll, TV, get on a Broadway show or go on the road. Guess what it never happened, I had found a home. So here I am, thirty seven years later and I have become the man I swore I’d never be. OK, so I’m through gushing about that old bastard Jimmy and that’s enough about me. Let’s get back to the story. Back in the day the Education Department was run by a fellow by the name of Mark Caruso. Mark ran a very ambitious three or four part program where he would first visit schools in the city, suburbs and the tri state area where he would talk about opera to the children and prepare them for at least one if not two visits to The Opera House. The kids were treated to a final dress rehearsal and backstage tour and sometimes a special presentation in List Hall where representatives of different departments Wigs, Makeup and Wardrobe would collaborate to transform one of the teachers into an Opera Star much to the delight of their students who as a rule would howl with laughter. After they were done it was my turn Joe Green, translated into Italian that’s Giuseppe Verde. Who’s better suited than two guys named Caruso and Verde to entertain the children and help turn them into future subscribers? It was at just one of these events that I got the working title of this story. On one particular day we were scheduled to perform our routine for large group of inner city kids. I rounded up my usual assortment of props and effects and proceeded to set them up in List Hall. Smoke, bang bangs, flash paper all the usual things. At some point I felt I didn’t have enough. At the time we were doing Otto Shenk’s and Gunther Schneider Simssen’s Les Contes d’Hoffman a prop loaded extravaganza. I decided grab a few of the easily handled items featured in Act 1 namely Spalanzani’s chemistry set and Jacob’s ladder. That ought to do it. The chemistry set was built on a small rolling table and had all sorts of chemistry related glassware on board. We would fill the beakers and what not with colored water and add dry ice, the whole mish mosh was lit from underneath with two 12V lantern bulbs run through an old school car flasher. A bit crude by today’s standards but dramatically effective nonetheless, especially when combined with the myriad of other effects whirling and twirling on stage in Spalanzani’s laboratory. I positioned the chemistry set prominently beside the Grand Piano so that it would be impossible not to notice. The lights were off and I had not added any dry ice preferring to actually demonstrate to the kids how it actually worked. The kids started filing in and taking their seats in a very well behaved and orderly fashion. I busied myself making a few final adjustments. We were about half way to capacity when a diminutive little fellow who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old was just about to start filling in the next row. I guess he must have noticed the chemistry set. The next thing I hear is “Hey Mister, what’s all that science shit you got over there anyway?” I looked over my shoulder and saw the shock on his teacher’s faces I tried to keep a straight face but failed miserably. I totally lost it. I’ve laughed a few times since (again some might disagree, after all they don’t call me Senor Happy for nothing) but I really can’t recall it hurting so much. The little crumb snatcher made my day. Like
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:11:03 +0000
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