Everyone, who attends Astana Opera, first of all turns to hospitable professionals – a hostess group, or, as they are also called, a spectacular ‘team of ladies in high heels’. They can help you navigate the halls of the opera house and offer a program with the names of the performers who will take the stage that night. We decided to tell you about one day from the working life of the specialists from Astana Opera’s Audience Services Department.
After all, it is administrators and specialists from this department who create a comfortable atmosphere for the audience from the opera house’s entrance to its auditorium. They have gained tremendous experience over the nine seasons. Looking at the team’s charming smiles, people often ask themselves the question of what are the difficulties of the job of checking the tickets. However, in substance, this department represents the link between the stage and the viewers. Without their command: “The audience is assembled, you may begin,” the curtain will not open.
The cloakroom attendants, porters, specialists of the Audience Services Department are the opera house’s non-staff employees, who arrive at Astana Opera 1.5-2 hours before the start of the event. During this time, they need to do their hair and makeup, put on their uniforms and go over the information about the performance or concert. After that comes the most important part: the meeting with the audience. As ‘traffic controllers’, the specialists show the way to a certain sector of the auditorium, suggest which floor to go to. Each of them is responsible for the sector assigned to them and makes sure that the guests are in the right place, in alignment with the ticket.
It is worth noting that this kind of work is convenient for students. Although this profession does not require a special diploma, it has its own conditions. The emphasis is on knowledge of the Kazakh, Russian and English languages, and a pleasant appearance. Most importantly, the vacancies may be filled by people with great self-control. Since the opera house is a centre of high art and culture, there is no place for conflicts.
During the event, the viewers can be distracted: if someone wants to take a photo or video of the moment of performance they like, the smiling girls politely warn that this should not be done, and if someone in the auditorium coughs, the administrators bring water. In a word, specialists have a lot of tasks during the performance.
Sometimes, the viewers come to the opera house in a bad mood: someone got lost and could not find the entrance, and then lost their cloakroom ticket, got upset and now has the resentment ‘boiling’ inside them. The Audience Services Department has witnessed such moments more than once and has always been able to solve any problem in a civilized manner.
The hostess administrators also supervise the work of the aforementioned cloakroom staff and porters. Most of them started their careers at Astana Opera while still studying at the university, checking tickets at the entrance. Today, they organize excursions for guests in three languages and conduct “Theatrical Lessons” for high school students as part of a joint new project with the Nur-Sultan Akimat.
“In the summer, foreigners often come and we organize the opera house tours for them. With the lifting of restrictive measures, viewers can see all the halls of Astana Opera, the marble fairytale foyer and a cozy theatrical museum. We often see that people view the museum exhibits with great interest. It happens that guests come to Astana Opera for the first time, and they are interested in seeing the building. After that they clarify information about the productions, and we try to tell as much as possible about operas, ballets, concert programs, to cover our entire repertoire. The viewers show interest, and then attend evening performances and even come from other cities to see the operas and ballets. In addition, we meet important officials who come to the capital as part of delegations. The program of almost every visit includes a visit to Astana Opera, and we try to meet guests at the highest level,” the administrators say.
According to the rules of visiting the opera house, guests cannot enter the Parterre after the third bell, so as not to interfere with the performers and viewers sitting in the hall.
“People often lose their tickets, but even then we try to help them. We call the partner company and give them the viewer’s phone number. After that our colleagues send the viewer an electronic version of the ticket. It should be noted that the opera house has age restrictions for some performances. Unaware of this, many bring their young children to adult performances, or want to bring children 10-12 years old without any tickets. At such moments, we tactfully explain to them the rules of attending the opera house and also tell them about the availability of other programs for children in Astana Opera,” the employees of the Audience Services Department say. According to them, sometimes elderly and disabled people find it difficult to enter the building on their own, in which case the specialists meet them and see them off from the opera house to a taxi after the performance ends.
By the end of the working day everyone is understandably tired, especially when the evening performance turned out to be very eventful. What do you think inspires the heroes of our material? Of course, it is the viewers, who come to them and express their gratitude for the fact that they have become their ‘guides’ into the world of high art.