I am fascinated by how WICKED conductors (along with PHANTOM conductors) cope with all of that dry ice. It's neat to see it crawling off of the state into the pit.
I know that people closely examine Idina's vocals, but I just have never, ever thought Helen sounded good in any WICKED audio I've ever heard. Consistent - yes. Good - no.
I like that the cam is obviously by the guitar's foldback for the conductor, so I can finally here the great guitar part that I knew was in there, but was barely audible in performance and on the recording. Thanks for posting.
The conductor clearly loves his job. The audio is obviously recorded from within the pit so the different mixing is a really cool aspect of the video too!
Are the musicians' music stand lights going off at the end of the song an artistic choice?
i.e. Is the pit so visible to the audience that the lights going off would make a difference? Is that a decision the lighting designer and/or production team would make?
I'm just curious since I've never noticed that happen before at a show. Or perhaps I just don't pay attention to it enough.
"I'm seeing the LuPone in Key West later this week. I'm hoping for great vocals and some sort of insane breakdown..." - BenjaminNicholas2
Defying Gravity ends with a black out, so the whole theatre goes dark. The audience wouldn't normally notice the pit lights (and video screens) but they would if they were the only lights in the auditorium, and would ruin the effect of the black out.
The lighting designer would ask for it, but could be suggested by any creative (director, set designer etc). Bit difficult to do, as the video feeds are normally sorted by the sound department (stupid tradition but that is the way it s), so requires cross department interfacing to do.