Royal Opera House, Chapter Two: The Magic Behind the Curtain

What I was looking forward the most was the backstage tour on the second day.

（Royal Opera House, Chapter One: Velvet, Gilt and Glamour）

Hasty finishing the breakfast, the tour guide today was that lovely David again.

After taking the backstage pass, David led us to the auditorium to brief the history of the Royal Opera House.

We looked at the 3 small monitor screens placed on the Grand Tier and Balcony. I believed that whoever enjoys observing the environment would be curious about these modern devices within the splendid decorations. The improvement of technology allows the performers to walk on the stage at ease while watching the conductor; otherwise, the performers in the past could barely move around.

Passing through the main grand staircase and the auditorium, we walked down the secret staircase behind the Queen’s royal box. Keep walking down, we passed an aisle that seems to be a space to place the drums and the racks.

“This was the smoking room of Edward VII; sometimes, he would also bring some girls down here. See, that was a fireplace at that time.”

Well, it seemed that not all the royals enjoyed the interest of watching a show in the opera house.

This was my first time passing through those heavy doors in the backstage of an opera house. Walking in the aisle for the exclusive use of the staffs, I felt like I was the Phantom of the Opera in modern days.

Due to this chance, I could peek the entire auditorium from the orchestra pit first time in my life, and to glance around the corner that creates millions of masterpieces.

There is also a huge knowledge to arrange the orchestra pit, it’s not simply organizing space for the orchestra. According to the size of the group, the bigger the group is, the deeper the orchestra pit goes. The harmonious music is born with the balance of orchestra pit, the momentum of the music and the capability of the performers.

The diamond in the gloomy basement under the opera house.》

Kept walking in the basement, we came to a large studio where stored various kinds of light equipment.

This was a dim and narrow room, with plenty of large storage racks and black equipment; however, this inconspicuous room valued 65 million pounds! Without the equipment and the technicians, every theatre would lose half of its magic in front of the audiences.

David picked up a piece of demonstration, I couldn’t tell if that was a photo or drawing.

The development of the technology is to save the efforts for the users. The technicians will design the 3D demonstration for the light rehearsal, which makes them save 70,000 pounds for each performance.

We took a large elevator to the sixth floor, this is the freight life for the staffs to carry the props and costumes.

When the elevator door opened, I heard the clapping in tempo and the tiny sound between the ballet shoes and the floor. I could only say that I was lucky enough to encounter the morning class and warm-up of the ballerinas.

The bright studio on the sixth floor occupies the same size of the area with the front stage, this benefits the ballerinas to know their actual blocking while practising.

This day, there were only 3 ballerinas, a pianist and a teacher. Even professional performers need to keep practising with their teacher to improve their skills and positions. It takes a lot of training for the ballerinas to look like they are galloping without any effort.

Recalling from my ballet class: “Now, développé en avant. Oh, Nereid, your left hip lifts, and so are your shoulders, relax them! Oh, now your toes are relaxed.”

Tough.

Tears and sweats behind the dazzling costume.》

All the beautiful costumes we see on the stage, are all made by the costume department stitch by stitch. Although every walk of life has its difficulties, what needs to be considered when designing a  piece of stage costume is absolutely different from the ordinary outfit design.

Especially the ballet costume, besides the colour result under the lights, the designers need to know if the fabric would be too smooth to interfere with the movements of the ballerinas.

From dying to design, the costume department needs to start the process at least 3 to 6 months before the performance. Costume supervisor of Royal Opera House, Ilaria, whom I met during the insights lecture in June always says:

My job doesn’t really finish until the first night!

Wearing the histories from head to toe.》

One of the most important tasks of the costume department is to repair and maintain the historic costumes.

A famous performance, besides the iconic music and choreography, costumes are also a reason to make a piece of work become classic because this is the most direct way for the audiences to get to know a character. Hence, a lot of stage wears have been used since the debut of the performance. For example, the Royal Ballet has been using those 500 costumes every year in 《Romeo and Juliette》since 1975.

The costume department even repairs some of the costumes for more than 20 times!

Royal Opera House even has a large history collection, storing up to 5,000 props and wears since the 19th century. Because of the long history, some of the fabric may no longer be able to obtain. In this case, they will utilize the digital printing technique to recreate the materials.

There are only up to 20 employees in the costume department. Thanks to them for spending at least 1,500 hours on repairing the costumes, I could keep enjoying these classics until now.

Recollect my initial dream.》

Coming back to the outdoor pizza restaurant on the first floor, the hustle and bustle returned to my ears again. Compared to the silence in the backstage during the past hour, I felt like coming back from a dream.

The encounter with the Royal Opera House makes me recollect my desire and passion for the theatre pieces.

I remember when I was little, my aunt bought a whole set of DVDs about ballet, opera and classical concert published by Jingo International Records. During summer and winter vacations while studying in elementary and junior high school, besides staying in my parents’ office, I always went to my grandma’s house. When my grandparents were having their afternoon tea in the dining room, I loved to take my snack to the living room and select one show to watch.

However, after starting the entrance examinations for entering high school and university, my passion for these interests started to fade away. Until I have begun showering under the theatre culture in London, I finally recollected the amazement watching a show and performing on stage bring to me.

Plus, with the improvement of my learning ability, I can finally have a chance to peek those glorious magic behind the curtain.