CarolineS_drums Day 16

Played an opera today.. I played Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with the Thames Philharmonia Orchestra and some fantastic singers. We rehearsed it during the day and then performed it after. The orchestra have hand-tuned timpani (where you change the pitch by tightening/loosening the screws around the drum) which is always a challenge when there are tuning changes, but Mozart tended to double the timpani with the brass so it's nice to have other people playing similar things to compare the tuning with. In general I'm trying to get the notes from the orchestra (or my tuning fork) as opposed to a pitch pipe.. But it's a work in progress. The timpani themselves are lovely, I'm told they are over 100 years old, and they have nice calf skin heads on them.