All hail the AFM!

I feel like I took the AFM (American Federation of Musicians) for granted while in America.  For what now seems like a mere $90 a year I had protection against being mistreated by my superiors.  Of course in China, no such union exists.  Up until now our contract has been followed, and I surely hope that every major opera we do won't be like Tannhauser.  Our normal rehearsals start at 9:30am and we're out by 3:30.  That includes two fifteen minute breaks, and an hour off for lunch.  It's usually not a problem, but we've been busting our butts for Tannhauser!  Yesterday we were kept about 20 minutes late at the end of the day, and today was much worse.  The winds played 20 minutes into our lunch break to work on a scene, therefore our lunch was only 40 minutes. To top it all off we were held for an additional HOUR after we were supposed to leave for the day, to work on the same scene!  The whole scene seems to consist of long chords that are supposed to be piano (thanks a lot Wagner). My left arm was hurting by the end of it and I was not in a good mood at all.  Occasionally we'll go over in rehearsal by ten minutes or so, and that doesn't totally bug me.  An hour on the other hand is unacceptable.  It's hard to complain about overtime because (at least for Chris and myself) we had ten days off that ended 5 days ago, and we're getting another nine days off in about 6 days.  We are supposed to be off 8 days a month, so we've been off more then we are actually supposed to be.  I think I got really upset because the orchestra is sounding GREAT, and we didn't need another sectional. We have all been working super hard on this music and it shows.  A little respect is all I ask. Upon my return to America I will never again complain about paying my union dues.

Sitzprobe tomorrow, concerts on the 22nd and the 24th.  I'm sure it will be a great performance and very rewarding.  That being said, I can't wait to be finished with it and move on to something else, something not quite as heavy as a Wagner opera.

Going to bed soon. Gute Nacht alle.

-B