Suddenly Tilman warns Michael to hurry musically: “Otherwise it would be dangerous on stage.

We definitely have to be quick.” Tips like this show his many years of experience as choral director at the Frankfurt Opera, where under his direction three young scholarship holders are taking part in a course at the “Forum Conducting” of the German Music Council, which gives them insights into choral practice at a opera house should mediate.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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With Michael's support, Friederike Scheunchen, Jonas Kraft and Bobin Kim led tangible rehearsals of the Frankfurt Opera Choir over three days this week: for Saverio Mercadante's opera "Francesca da Rimini", which premieres on February 26th.

With Scheunchen, who at the age of 30 is already a lecturer in new chamber music and director of the student ensemble for contemporary music at the Freiburg Music Academy, Michael doesn't have to intervene very much.

In the wooden foyer, the freelance conductor quickly announces the passages she has selected from the score to the piano accompaniment of Michael's assistant Álvaro Corral Matute and, with a few hints, lets the choir members sing only a few bars.

In addition, Michael would like to have just one passage where, curiously enough, the choir only sings “Ah!” for a short time.

Nothing is allowed to wobble on stage

The notes of this chord are difficult to hit, he explains.

It can easily become embarrassing if the short exclamation shakes during the performance.

He and Scheunchen laugh as they talk about it after rehearsal.

During his studies he experienced for himself what it was like for a prospective conductor, says Michael.

Although you practice regularly with the choir of the music academy, you have little or no contact with professional vocal ensembles and work primarily on a cappella and oratorio repertoire.

He has therefore been involved in the “Conducting Forum” of the Music Council for seven years, which aims to help the 14 scholarship holders in a first funding stage over two years to make the transition to work.

As a juror, Michael initially limits the number of candidates for this on the basis of videos before the decision is made at auditions.

You make much faster progress with a professional choir and especially one as excellent as the one in Frankfurt, which was recently voted “Opera Choir of the Year” again and, from Scheunchen’s point of view, sings “at an incredibly high level”, she says: “You have to learn to deal with this pace of work.” Because the rehearsal time is limited.

In contrast to the fellow students who sing in the choir at the conservatory, the singers in the opera choir, who are all permanently employed and professionally trained, have collective agreements.

Alas, the singers are too far apart

Added to this are the scenic conditions specified by the director during stage rehearsals, moving to the music in costumes and singing by heart.

Even if there are staged opera productions at many music colleges, such as in Freiburg and Frankfurt, it is something completely different in an opera house, if only because of the size of the stage.

If a director demands, for example, that the tenors should stand in a certain place and the sopranos should stand ten meters away from them, singing together with pinpoint accuracy can become difficult, especially if the distance to the conductor in the orchestra pit is even greater.

"The choristers often have to start earlier than they hear the orchestral sound coming from the pit," explains Michael.

From his point of view, opera choir conductors who do their work in secret and only come on stage briefly with the choir for the final applause often have to be “mediators” between the ideas of the director and the principal conductor, sometimes also “advisers”.

It could be that he advises against something if he believes that it cannot technically work with the choir.

All in all, Michael, who has been choir director in Frankfurt since 2014 and recently prepared a new production of Wagner's "Lohengrin" as a guest at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, says that "stylistic flexibility" is particularly important in an opera choir.

From small-scale baroque operas to the largest roles, everything must be able to be sung beautifully and expressively.

Usually several operas are being worked on at the same time, says the sought-after maestro, who still likes it in Frankfurt.

Scheunchen says she has "won the greatest respect" for the work of the choir director and for the enthusiasm of the choir members, adding: "It's amazing what all that entails."