Case in point --
The Cathy Rigby PETER PAN was an incredibly wonderful and joyous production, and I'd be hard put to envision anything finer than what I experienced there.
The orchestra was wonderful, too. They listed the musicians in the program and, as always, I checked out the pit beforehand and saw the mikes in front of each stand. As this was a large professional theater (the WONDERFUL Proctors Theatre in Schenectady), that didn't cause any particular shock or dismay. It is what it is, etc. For keyboards, the conductor had a 61-key mounted next to his stand, and there was an 88-key below. I figured he'd be playing the solo celesta cues on the small one, and that the regular keyboardist would be providing fill and support here and there, especially since there were only a few string players listed. (As it turned out, the conductor played some "Tink" cues, while the keyboardist played others. Which seemed strange, but whatever.) The players were excellent and provided a full, rich sound -- I forget the number, but let's say twelve or maybe a couple more? It was beautiful, and I had to give some credit to whatever the keyboard was bringing to the table.
Then, shockingly (okay, let's all say it: I'm naive!), as I stood over the pit to watch them play the Exit Music, I suddenly realized that the little table with a computer on it, kind of far off in a back corner of the pit, was NOT there for some technical reason other than music. It was a gal tapping that fu- infernal little keyboard in time with the conductor. They were utilizing what MTI calls OrchExtra (or maybe that's what it's called everywhere), and the large part of the sound filling the theater was being produced by software. This won't be news to some here, and it wouldn't be so shocking to me in 2013 if I got out to more shows. But that was just disheartening to discover -- disheartening to find it being used in the first place, and perhaps even more so to have had the wool pulled over my own ears.
And all the while, the program touts the local musician's union. Shame. For shame. I don't have a horse in this race, but how is that being allowed to happen?
But I digress..
EDIT: 12 local musicians (Schenectady Local 85-133), plus 4 touring ones: Conductor, Keyboard I (the full sized one), "Keyboard 2"(which would have to be the euphemism for the computer one), and Drums/Percussion.
