For AIDA I would want to hear an excerpt of “The Gods Love Nubia” for the soul and conviction, and “Dance of the Robe” for intensity and passion.

You CANNOT leave out drums, bass, percussion, keyboard one. I would strongly suggest the Oboe and Flute. For my production we skipped the French Horn which I regret. I guess if you had to you could cut the Keyboard 3 (we had 3 keyboard players, was one of the keyboards covering strings? I don’t recall). AIDA has some very nice textures which you can get from the combination of percussion, keyboard 3 and woodwinds. It’s what gives it that “Nubia” and ancient type feel – especially the percussion and woodwinds.

I’ll tell you my current status on orchestration – I will not do a show unless it is full orchestration any more. It’s just no fun. I’ll even take a severe pay cut in order to have full orchestration. Maybe that’s something you’ll want to shoot for after you get some shows under your belt.

I don’t make nearly what I’m accustomed to when I do semi-pro musicals, so for me it has to be a rewarding experience to make up for all the long hours and low pay. A full orchestration makes me completely satisfied, I always learn new orchestration techniques (which improves my ear) and makes the long hours invested more than worth it. Just my personal experience.

I often also work as a rehearsal pianist before the orchestra kicks in – so by the time we do orchestra rehearsals I know the music very well and have worked with the vocalists quite a bit. The experience of unravelling the music from piano rehearsals to gearing up the orchestra is a very unique one – it’s actually one I would pay for, which is why the full orchestration is so important to me. It’s like a private college course – and every production with full orchestration I come away so much richer in my knowledge of sound textures, working with various ensemble temperaments, what semi-pro players can and cannot perform, and of course orchestration techniques. To me, this experience is the best thing on earth. Worth more than gold.

I went ballistic on our production because the kick and snare were not compressed, eq’d and gated (which I was told in pre-production would be part of the sound design). The rock/pop sound to the drums is important in my opinion. You might be better off going with a sound engineer who does live rock concerts, rather than someone who just does theater sound reinforcement.

PS – Our oboe player was very savvy and transposed some of the oboe parts for English Horn – it was a really great sound for some of the more intimate passages.

I’m a first time musical director for a semi-pro toupe, and my first show is AIDA. Pretty adventurous, but I’m very excited. Was wondering what songs you think would be best to ask for auditions for the parts of AIDA and RADAMES. Also, haven’t received my budget yet, but I’m expecting a very small one. What instruments do feel are essential and can not be left out in the pit? Thanks for your help!
Dan