Lulu at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
June 4th, 2009 | Published in hornplaying
I’ve been working at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for some weeks now. At first it was Donizetti’s awful, “L’Elisir d’Amour”. Why awful? Because the first horn part is unremitting torture and is UTTERLY boring. I really resent horn parts which will only get you noticed if you make a mistake. I hated playing it!
Now, though, things are different. We’ve just completed 49 hours(!!!) of rehearsal for Berg’s “Lulu”. This opera has a complete monster of a first horn part. Well over three hours of music and all of it incredibly intense, convoluted and concentrated. It’s a massive challenge to play but really very rewarding.
I’m extremely happy with the horn section – Richard Kennedy (2nd), Hugh Evans (3rd) and Jonathan Durrant (4th) sound really excellent together. It’s a real pleasure to play with these excellent musicians.