Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 10 Madama Butterfly II

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 80 Backstage life: Christine Janicki WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT LYRIC, AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU HELD THE POSITION? I originally came on board in December of 2010 as the stage band contractor, the person who hires and manages any musician who plays backstage or onstage. Since the 2015/16 season, I’ve been a combination of orchestra personnel manager and stageband contractor. The orchestra personnel manager deals with the orchestra proper, making sure all the right people are hired, rehearsals start and end on time, and breaks start and end on time. I do a lot of timekeeping! WHAT’S LED YOU TO WORK AT LYRIC? I started out as a freelance musician, but because summers are always quieter for freelancing, I worked in the production office at Ravinia. I realized I enjoyed using both sides of my brain – the creative side performing, but then also my very structured, organized side for managing. A few years later, a position opened up at Grant Park for orchestra personnel manager and chorus manager, so I took that on in my summers. Then, when the stageband position at Lyric opened up, I applied for it and that’s how I ended up here. By the time I became stageband contractor, I knew I would stop playing horn because I was getting married and suddenly having an instant family. I wanted a little more normalcy, so that’s when I ended my playing career. I’ve just done management since then. WHAT’S A TYPICAL DAY LIKE FOR YOU? I don’t know that there is a typical day! We always go into every day hoping it’s normal, where I get to work an hour before rehearsal, take attendance, and make sure everything starts on time. But more “normally” my phone starts buzzing at 6 a.m. with emails and text messages about that day: people calling in sick, working out substitutes who can come in at the last minute, making sure the conductor and section leaders know what’s going on, and making things run as smoothly as possible. It sometimes can even be someone calling in right before a performance saying they’re sick, and then moving people around to fill in a hole. Some days are very peaceful and everything goes according to plan, while other days are more interesting and fun! WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF YOUR JOB? It’s the last minute, getting someone to play a performance. There have been performances where someone called in sick, specifically a wind or brass player, where there’s only one person on a part, and someone will have to sight-read a performance. It’s then the process of hiring them, keeping them calm, letting them know I can get a copy of the part emailed to look at before they arrive. A touchy aspect of that can be informing the conductor, conveying it in a calm way, so that they feel comfortable knowing there’s a brand-new person in the pit. I think a lot of my job is just being calm, cool, and collected! WHAT KEEPS YOU COMMITTED TO THE WORK YOU DO? I absolutely love being a piece in the big puzzle of Lyric. The things that I get to do to make a production go on so that an audience has an amazing experience and they never know any of the behind the scenes. They get to see an amazing performance, and to see our musicians get to do their job. WHAT’S SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR JOB THAT PEOPLE MIGHT NOT KNOW? People always ask me about watching the performances: “Oh, you get to see opera all the time?” Yes and no. I get to hear it all the time. Once a performance starts, that’s my time to collect myself and clean up the pieces from what happened getting ready for that performance. So I don’t get to watch a lot of performances, but I get to hear them all. A FAVORITE LYRIC MOMENT? In The Passenger a few seasons ago, there was a scene where a violinist was playing onstage for the commander who got very upset with him, taking his violin and smashing it up. So they had this whole system where the audience couldn’t see what was going on. They took his real violin, protected it, gave him a fake violin at the last moment, and that’s what was smashed. It was so meticulously choreographed. Before every rehearsal and performance they had a brush-up of this scene, to ensure that the real violin, which is quite valuable, was never harmed, but the audience knew nothing of it! I was always a little nervous about the real violin, but I watched them do it so many times. Hearing the audience gasp every performance when they smashed the violin, I always thought to myself, “If only you knew!” BEYOND OPERA, WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER PASSIONS? When I’m not working, my other passions are my family, cooking and gardening. My weird one is that I have house rabbits! I haven’t played in about nine years, but I’m okay because I get to be around music all the time!