Le Nozze di Figaro

Another collaboration with Opera Company of Brooklyn and the Department of Entertainment Technology at New York City College of Technology.  This production used virtual orchestra (Sinfonia®) technologies to add the other 25 instruments to an existing 10-piece acoustic ensemble.  Sinfonia is much more effective when combined with other performers than when playing alone (as in fact is any musical instrument), and we have always considered that to be the preferred embodiment.

Controversy

Once again, use of this technology, even in an experimental environment of a campus research project, and even though the Opera Company of Brooklyn allocated its entire budget for the show to hire live musicians, aroused the ire of Local 802, a group of members who arrived at Voorhees Theatre the evening of the performance and threatened the instrumentalists (young professionals and Juilliard students). One informed me that they had been brought into a room with the ranking union leadership, and told  that if they played in this production they would be blacklisted from the Union and lose access to any union job in New York City.  As she so ruefully stated, "I can not afford to lose other jobs".   The union representatives then coerced the president of the OCB board by telling her that if she did not sign a permanent ban on "The Virtual Orchestra Machine" (as they called it), they would shut down the performance due to loss of the 10 instrumentalists.

She signed.

Later Opera Company of Brooklyn attempted to void the contract due to "coercive tactics".  Local 802 immediately filed an unfair labor practice charge, which they ultimately won, thus forcing the end to this wonderful collaboration.  It also marked the end of much of OCB's ability to provide an orchestra, as they became responsible for union rates, which were out of their budget's range.

Ultimately, the union admitted that there is a place for this type of technology.  But for all the shouted concerns about the deterioration of the musical experience, the union would not have been so concerned if these systems did not work so musically and effectively.