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Pit Antics

Author: diz
Date: 2003-04-08 00:59

Years ago I attended an Opera Australia performance of Boris Godunov (1979). I was studying clarinet with the then principal clarinet of the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra (now called the Opera and Ballet Orchestra), whose home is the Opera Theatre at the Sydney Opera House.

Anyhow - I was up at the top of the dress circle and could see down into the pit (rather like the Bayreuth pit in that it's completely submereged under the stage and not visible from the stalls) and was admiring the playing and singing when a chicken flew from the stage into the orchestra pit, landing amongst the cellists - of course the poor beast was rather startled and clucked and pooed all over the place until one of the orchestra's men-in-black rescued it and removed it from the pit.

There was much "silent laughing" going on in the orchestra and this event cause the management of the Opera House to put a (still existing) net over the pit. The chicken had impeccible taste!

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