Irony
I have great admiration for the student who has been asked to conduct the opera. He worked with our late guest music director on the same opera this summer, spending at least 10 hours a day with him every day. This of course makes him the logical choice to continue the work that was started, but it is an incredible task to take on at such a difficult time; I don't know if a student has ever conducted an official opera here in the history of the school. How ironic... the passing of a friend and mentor becomes perhaps the best professional opportunity of a lifetime. And yesterday, he must have just found out (the orchestra had no clue that anything was wrong), and directed an extremely organized and thorough rehearsal, complete with jokes about the plot of the opera. Some people are incredibly strong.