*** you really should read part I first. This won’t make a lot of sense otherwise. ***
In the early days, we had a little difficulty understanding what each of our roles were. I finally had to tell him he was not allowed to operate any of the equipment. He was used to giving verbal explanations and I insisted that he write up his ‘designs’ before we worked on them. We had a big table that we used for a desk. It was kind of like a dorm room with a line down the middle sometimes! It felt a little silly sometimes when he sat at the same desk as me and typed out directions which he then handed to me. Believe me, though, it helped when a few hours later we had to set up on stage and he wasn’t always around. We had a document we could refer to. I think it helped to clarify his ideas, too.
Anyway, I think Roger saw the value in the process. It was a Union house after all! He realized pretty quickly that I knew what I was doing and he was able to concentrate not just on designing for shows, but improving the inventory and quality of the department. He interfaced with management (John Priest) and got a budget line which we talked over before he spent the money. I had the ability to write POs for supplies without having to ask him each time. I know I spent a lot of money at Zack Electronics which was just a couple of blocks away on Market Street.
We also worked closely with ProMedia, a sound company with offices in the China Basin building on Berry just off Third Street. Roger had been an early adopter in San Diego of the PA speakers manufactured by John Meyer’s new company, Meyer Sound. ProMedia became a dealer of Meyer sound speakers and did very well with them for many years. Meyer Sound is now recognized as an industry leader. ProMedia eventually merged with the Grateful Dead’s sound company Ultrasound. They are still big users of Meyer Sound equipment.
We got some very early Meyer speakers and we got Schoeps microphones which were very exotic at the time. Even today, they are not used much in live audio except by ProMedia. I think ProMedia has some of that original batch of Schoeps mics still in their stock.
In addition to improving the SFO Sound inventory, we got involved in improving the program and page system in the Opera House itself. It had been neglected for many years and was failing. When building management saw that we knew what we were doing, they allowed us to make changes in that system. Roger ran interference with, and secured funding from, the Chief Engineer and City management, at that time Beth Murray. We stayed on the Opera payroll to do all the work with John Priest’s acquiescence. The dressing rooms could hear the program and the Stage Manager’s calls too!
On the stage, we had a major challenge starting in 1983 with a new production of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle. Roger had been in touch with director Jean Perre Ponelle and together they developed lots of ideas for this new production. Management supported us by giving us money for not only new speakers and microphones but also a new control booth.
By now, we had established that one of the stocks in trade for any Opera sound department was thunder. Roger contacted Randy Thom of Skywalker Sound (Apocalypse Now) and got copies of tapes of real thunder. Remember, nothing was digital then! All of our sound cues had to be prepared to run on reel to reel tape machines. Roger did all the prep work creating those cues.
In the Ring, Roger and Ponelle used our speakers and microphones to modify the sounds of some of the singers who sang from offstage. This was the type of thing that had been anathema to the previous General Director, Kurt Herbert Adler. Roger successfully managed the transition to a more modern outlook.
I don’t remember the exact year, but I believe it was 1983, that the Opera produced a concert in the SF Civic Auditorium featuring the Opera Orchestra and Luciano Pavarotti. Roger handled all the details of the sound system and micing techniques resulting in a very successful presentation in a large hall. Pavarotti and his manager were very impressed – as was Opera management – and soon Pavarotti, with Roger handling the sound systems, were presenting concerts in very large arenas around the world. For the most part, I was not involved in those.
My memories of the second half of the decade are not as strong. The 1985 complete Ring cycle was the high point. We had a stable crew and facility. Sound requirements for a particular opera would arise and, if Roger was unavailable as he more and more was, we were importuned to come up with a ‘design’. Roger had established the criteria and we followed them.
I left the Opera in 1990 to move to Grass Valley. Roger hung on for a while but he was eventually deemed unnecessary by Opera management. I was busy with my young family and the need to make a living so we lost touch with each other.
*** Eventually, I hope to add a Part III, which would be some detailed comments about some of the significant shows Roger and I did in the 1980s. ***