Conducting opera and surviving

A conductor writes about his recent bout with opera on Sticks and Drones . . . a conductors blog pointed out to me by Richard Sparks:

Still, even with something as wonderful as Porgy & Bess things start to get a wee bit silly. There are the moments when I look up and silently ask "why did you pick this particular night to have no rhythm?" Or there's the sudden jolt when a prop offstage comes crashing down in the middle of a scene. In the pit things get even stranger.

There's the occasional missed entrance (very rare), or the sudden challenge of following a singer who has decided to "experiment." Funny things happen as well--our percussionist accidentally struck the gong during a particularly funny moment Wednesday.

Then there's the famous English Horn solo in act II. Our EH player, who has been very reliable, had a slight bobble and added an extra descending note to the passage. Not to be outdone our Principal Flute, who has the same passage a few bars later, promptly added said extra note to his solo. There were a couple of shaky moments when I thought we all were going to fall over giggling. I know some people out there consider stuff like this "unprofessional." My answer to them--lighten up fergodsakes.