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Clearly, Lockhart is a guy who is comfortable with and clearly likes working in the pit, and he
says so. "I love working in the pit, not always in the opera pit. In the 80s most of my musical work
was in the musical theater. Like Sweeny Todd. And I always enjoyed that." When I asked him about
the enormous amount of work involved in preparing for an opera - divas, Prima Donnas,
temperamental tenors, complex sets, the very dark mood of Tosca, the whole opera thing itself, as
if I have to remind him of what he is getting into, he answers, "You have more balls in the air, that's all." He pauses for a moment and produces another metaphor. "It's like riding a bike."
He views it as simply doing his job. The orchestra has its part, the singers have theirs, the set
designers theirs and so forth, and how a rehearsal progresses is a process that is both
"notoriously vague and extremely exact". Many decisions "are judgment calls" that need to be
adjusted as you move forward, he says, "and the conductor is the person who makes those
judgment calls." He's used to the pressure, he says, exhibiting the kind of confidence in his abilities
and the professionalism of others that has earned him the title, Maestro.
And so it is, when you're Keith Lockhart. It's what he does.
