This story will not bring lolz of any kind.
Six years ago, I produced an opera I wrote. I had a backer who contributed $5000 to the production, and I was able to hire an 8-piece orchestra and 5 singers, in addition to venue rental, video recording for both nights, and all the incidentals of a production. A lot of hype and energy (and money) was put into attracting the attention of the theatre-going public. But the leading girl and her friend (who was also in the cast) was a total Bitch, and refused to respect the music, the words, and the others working on the production, yet she called herself "a professional actress" on many occasions, and never missed an opportunity to remind us of the fact.
The band was pretty good individually, but collectively, they sucked. I auditioned each of them myself, and arranged a score that would suit the available instrumentation. So imagine my horror when they played it and it sounded just awful. Very little of it was together, and the woman playing violin couldn't play in tune for sh*t. My one horn overpowered the others, the strings hid in the background, and my piano girl couldn't count time. Add to this that my backer was not present for the production of the work so I had to do all the last-minute work myself (his participation was part of our agreement), and only 70% of the last-minute work was completed, and many oversights had to be forgotten.
Add to this one guy was absent for an entire month in a concurrent show, and who didn't bother to learn his part until the week of the performance, and the basso who lived out of town and was so creepy in person that we were glad when he wasn't around. And you have a recipe for disaster. And "disaster" is only the tip of the iceberg that my world premiere was wrecked upon.
We started fairly enough, and there was a point where we were saying "This might turn out OK after." We jinxed it, apparently, for the long-absent baritone completely blanked on his song (expected), and three people walked out in disgust. During the mezzo's letter song midway through, seven people walked out, and the blame is squarely on her and the violinist (who conveniently "lost" the last two pages, so she didn't play anything at all, and it SHOWED). The applause after songs stopped after that one. The ending was a real trial, and I very nearly had a breakdown on stage before a paying audience. The finale, which was supposed to tie everything up nicely, was wrong in several places, thus creating a cacophony that was really discordant. The applause resumed for the end of the piece, and I refused to take my curtain call. I was so humiliated. I was actually in the kitchen down the hall, ready to slice my wrists in the sink. The only reason I didn't was because one of the stagehands caught me, and knew what I was planning. During intermission, a few more people left.
When everyone had left the auditorium, audience, cast and orchestra, I sat on the stage steps and wept tears of anger and frustration. It was, without a doubt, the most embarrassed I have ever been.
Cliffs:
- produced an opera
- it sucked; at least ten people walked out
- I was so embarrassed
- no lolz, only tears
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