at work in opera : 1 . the producer . Dennis Arundell . it is quite a common belief among non-technical enthusiasts that a theatrical producer is solely concerned with the movements of the actors ( together with some share in the lighting , when a lighting expert is not employed ) . this may have been true to some extent of the 18th-century stage-manager and is still often partly true of the director for films or television , who has with him a producer ( which in this field denotes a managerial , not an artistic functionary ) to supervise , check and organize the heads of the various departments and all the artists who contribute to the whole . but it is certainly not true of the play-producer , who is probably even more closely consulted on other matters by his organizing management than his film or television counterpart ; nor is it true of the opera-producer . indeed opera managements ( to judge from those countries where I have worked or of which I have had close information ) seem more inclined than ordinary theatre managements to choose conductor , producer , designer , and so on , and then , having given them the responsibility and authority , not to interfere or supervise themselves . I do not say that managerial interference is always to be welcomed . ( after all , interference is a misleading word : practical interest is a different matter . ) but it is remarkable that notable theatrical r&amp;eacute;gimes have all been inspired by the personality and personal supervision of a manager ( think of C B Cochran and musical shows , Diaghilev and ballet , Mahler and opera , Hugh Beaumont of H M Tennent Ltd in the present London theatre ) . none of these managers - with the exception of Mahler - took any active part in a production , but they were always at hand to check on every detail and to solve any problems that might arise from the various conflicting elements that had to be united to achieve a satisfying artistic result . in opera there are more conflicting elements than in any other form of theatre entertainment - orchestral performance , vocal performance ( ranging from naturalistic speech-song to what are practically concert performances of non-dramatic arias ) , straight acting , melodrama ( in the technical sense ) with atmospheric music , ballet ( at least in the sense of movement to , or in harmony with , music ) and mime , quite apart from scene-design , scene-building , scene-shifting , costume-designing and costume-making , lighting , furniture and properties . this means that all responsible should be experts - the conductor , the orchestral players , the singers , the designers , the painters , the scene-builders , the wardrobe-master , the electrician , the property-master - and all should be ready with their expert advice to contribute to the whole . now most experts are willing collaborators , but the danger with all experts is that they are often not content to give of their best but insist on valuing their own contribution higher than that of other experts : think of the brilliant designer Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson &apos;s not unreasonable attack on his conceit . that is where the Mahler or Diaghilev is invaluable . Cochran , who checked every bit of material used in his shows ( like Bernard Delfont now ) , was always there to appeal to , and was always watching from the background ready to step tactfully in to prevent trouble . he used to say : have whatever rows you like inside the theatre over the job , so long as you can go and have a drink together afterwards . ( nowadays , alas , the tendency is for any professional criticism to be taken as a personal affront . ) now that entertainment has become an industry , and opera managements ( probably quite rightly ) tend to concentrate on organization rather than personal contact , the job of welding together the various elements has become the duty of the producer . of course he is still responsible for the movements on the stage ( which includes arranging that the conductor can catch the eye of the singer at necessary moments and that awkward positions are avoided for singers during tricky vocal passages ) , but he also has to see that excellent scene-designs are practical both for the stage and for the action , that the lighting gives prominence to a character without either falsifying the general effect or dazzling the singer &apos;s eyes unnecessarily , and that striking touches of production do not distract from a leading character or action . moreover , he is responsible for checking the construction and painting of the scenery and the choice of materials , and the cutting and making of the costumes . the opera producer is called in by the management at an early stage of planning . he is consulted on the choice of the designer and choreographer and on the casting of at any rate the minor roles . usually a management confronts him with an already decided casting of the main roles ( though I have known a producer refuse a commission because of the employment of what he thought an unsuitable principal singer ) . about changes of cast , when a production has once been taken into the repertory , he is not consulted . in the budgeting of an opera the producer has no say : he may be asked whether he would permit some alteration in his planned staging for economy &apos;s sake , but I have myself never known of a case where a producer &apos;s ideas have been flatly turned down for financial reasons . when practical work has begun , a producer has above all to be able to give all the collaborating experts their heads when desirable , and to check them gently but firmly - that is , tactfully - when necessary . it is rather like driving a team of fine , high-mettled horses : it is they who do the work , but , unless they are a team used to working together , they may have to be guided . how often does an excellent conductor wish to take a passage of music at an effective pace that is unsuitable in the circumstances ? the co-operative conductor , like Beecham , will always listen and be prepared to modify , as he did when he paced his study to get the right tempo for the guard &apos;s march in the Bohemian girl - after I had objected ( as producer ) that , at his original pace , the quaver was too quick and the crotchet too slow for human steps without being comic . ( Beecham also let me have an extra stage rehearsal in place of a scheduled orchestral rehearsal on the grounds that it does not matter how good the music is if the stage is wrong . ) but I have known a good conductor insist on what was arguably a correctly fast pace when the singer was incapable of singing at that pace . how often , again , does a designer create a beautiful set that is unpractical ? one distinguished architect &apos;s stage setting was a flat picture background with extended frames for the sides which from anywhere but centre auditorium merely looked flatly dull on one side and non-existent on the other . one excellent artist objected to a window in a room although Cherubino had to jump out of it , and another designed brilliant perspective scenery which gained a round of applause at curtain-rise but meant that the performers had to duck under a steeply angled lintel to come through a door . I have known a clever designer in another medium hope to use a film method of lighting on a stage , and I have seen another so ingenious with moving scenery that its repetition became a bore , especially as each new result was similar . I learned in Milan that on one occasion fashionable modern artists without stage experience designed sets that could not be changed with ease . a historical example of non-co-operation can be seen by comparing the scene when Tosca places the candles by the dead Scarpia in the original vocal score and in the usual vocal score . in the original she does not get and place the candles until the long orchestral passage ends on a soft , religious , tender note : the later and more usual version makes her speak her comment on the dead power of Scarpia in the sinister middle of the passage . surely this means that in the original production she had too far to go for the candles in the short time allotted her , so Puccini transferred the line to the middle of the music , thereby giving her longer time to fetch the candles . the original version , however ( which I am sure is more in key with Puccini &apos;s intention with regard to Tosca &apos;s truly religious character ) , is perfectly possible if the designer gives a reasonable position for the candles , sufficiently near where the body is to lie . this I have proved in my current Sadler &apos;s Wells production . again in Tosca there arises the problem of where Tosca is to stand when the firing squad is assembling to shoot Cavaradossi . she has to comment on him standing there , and later , when the soldiers march away , has to tell him not to move yet - neither of which remarks should be so obtrusive that the soldiers might notice them , but both of which should be clearly heard by the audience . the first time I produced Tosca I had her stand on a platform above and beyond the soldiers - ludicrous on second thoughts , but accepted by myself and others too tolerant of bad operatic tradition . but now at Sadler &apos;s Wells I place her right down stage in one corner by the footlights , apparently out of earshot of the soldiers but easily audible to the audience . yet she is sufficiently unobtrusive because she is more in shadow than the soldiers and Cavaradossi , who should be - and can not help being - the focus of attention . this was only possible by careful preliminary consultation with Paul Mayo , the designer , both as regards structure and proposed lighting . ideally an opera producer should know stage technique , music both vocal and orchestral , lighting , style of period , and the design and making of costume and scenery , and should be able to weld all together so that the whole is good without any detail being over-obtrusive . apart from the experts he has to deal with , he also - I am afraid - has often to coax inexperienced artists to give better than their best . many soloists are nowadays chosen because of their superb ( or more often young and promising ) voices , irrespective of their experience of appearing in public or even walking a stage . one fine vocalist I was asked to produce as Carmen , though she had only sung as a solo recitalist on the concert platform , proved my dubious opinion of her possibilities when , in the rehearsal of the card scene , she declared herself unable to get her note while Frasquita and Mercedes were singing . another brilliant young new singer engaged by one opera house , when asked by a friend if she was having any stage coaching before her first appearance on any stage , replied : there is no need : I am singing . ( in every other profession and trade , apprenticeship is either essential or regarded as the soundest step towards success . only opera-singers seem more and more able to dispense with it and to rely on their God-given natural voice which is , after all , but part of the equipment necessary for fine opera performances . ) nor must we forget the great singer who insists on being centre-stage or who shouts a top note even in spite of the composer &apos;s wishes , or who always crosses left on this line as one guest-artist Mephistopheles insisted to me until I told him that he would get his teeth kicked in by the dancers on that spot . but while it is the opera-producer &apos;s job to co-ordinate the work of other experts ( whether willing collaborators or superior dictators ) , many producers also tend to be obtrusive themselves and to show how clever they are with this bit of business or background movement that is distracting . although I try to avoid this , I have unintentionally been guilty of this myself . other producers are careless about style of period ( I recently saw Almaviva in the first act of il barbiere di Siviglia with neither cloak nor hat ) , and some from the straight theatre seem to have insufficient knowledge of musical problems . one insisted on a singer lying full-length on the ground while singing a top note - though with the singer &apos;s approval it can be tried effectively , as I tried it once , only to discard it . 