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"The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: William
Date: 2001-06-25 15:11

FYI:

I just received my book of operatic excerpts compiled by Ben Armato, the Reed Wizard guy and former clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera House and am loving it! Symphonic excerpts are a "dime a dozen" but a collection of vintage masterpieces such as this is truely unique and a joy to play. It is spiral-bound (easy to open a lays flat) and contains many tempo markings and other expressive markings used during Ben's tenure as principal clarinetist at the Met. Ben Armato is a Sneezy sponser and his book, THE OPERATIC CLARINETIST, is available from him. Try it--you'll enjoy, as I am!! Good Clarineting.

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RE: "The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: mw
Date: 2001-06-25 15:28

Better than that, Ben is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life. I heard Lisa Argeris going thru the entire book (she did a great job of sight reading it!). I was fortunate to have spent some time at the OU Symposium with Ben. He is a real pedagogue. What was it ... 38 years at the Met? I feel badly because growing up I was not to far from Ben. I was taking lessons & he was giving them. I just wiswh it would have been to me!

Thanks for reminging me of the next excerpt book. I meant to buy it from Ben , bit he was too busy on Saturday. On Sunday morning he was not available.

Best,
mw

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RE: "The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: Bill
Date: 2001-06-25 16:10

What level of playing ability is needed to use the book?

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RE: "The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: clarinet713
Date: 2001-06-25 22:15

where can you get this book? are auditions for opera pit orchestras similar to orchestral auditions? are they more or less competitive? is that a stupid question?

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RE: "The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: mw
Date: 2001-06-25 22:27

Here is the Link/URL (from the Sonsors scetion here at Sneezy.org) :

http://www.reed-wizard.sneezy.org

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RE: "The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-06-26 00:00

clarinet713 wrote:
>
> auditions for opera pit
> orchestras similar to orchestral auditions?

Yes, very similar.

> are they more or
> less competitive?

About the same. Very, very competitive.

> is that a stupid question?

By no means!

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RE: "The Opera Clarinetist"

Author: mw
Date: 2001-06-26 02:27

Bill, I just got a glance as Lisa played ... the book was upside-down and I was 6-7 feet away. : )

Ben was coaching Lisa as she played, he knew the Music by heart & could have called off dynamics blindfolded. Of course, he lived Opera Music for some 30 odd years.

My guess would be at Grade 4 or 5 ... to play entire pieces. Grade 3 or so to pick out & play _some_ melodies ... which is a lot of the FUN, too.

Like I said, I saw the 16th & 32nd notes from the opposite side of the table ...

If you don't like it you can always flip it on eBay for a discounted price. Alos, it may be available for loan from the ICA Library in MD (you can go to the ICA site & find out more info ..... GREAT LIBRARY!)

Best,
mw

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