I spent years singing in the chorus at Opera Australia, and I can tell you — the relationship between what happens on stage and what happens in that sunken rectangle of musicians below is one of the most fascinating dynamics in all of live performance. Most audience members never think twice about the pit. But once you understand it, you’ll never watch opera the same way.

First, the Basics

The orchestra pit (or just “the pit”) is the recessed area between the stage and the front row of the audience. It sits lower than both, which is intentional. The design serves two purposes: it keeps the orchestra out of the audience’s sightline, and it creates a natural acoustic blend between singers and instruments.

In a typical Opera Australia production at the Sydney Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre, you might have anywhere from 40 to 80 musicians down there, depending on the work. A Mozart opera might need a relatively compact ensemble. A Strauss or Wagner production can pack the pit to bursting.

The Conductor’s Dual Role

Here’s something most people don’t realise: the conductor in an opera pit has a fundamentally different job from a symphonic conductor. In a concert hall, the conductor faces the orchestra and that’s that. In the pit, they have to simultaneously lead the orchestra and coordinate with the singers on stage.

This means the conductor spends the entire performance looking in two directions — down at the orchestra and up at the stage (often via a small monitor showing the stage action). The singers watch the conductor too, usually through discreet monitors positioned around the set. It’s a three-way conversation happening in real time, entirely through gesture and eye contact.

I remember one performance of La Traviata where our Violetta was having a rough night — fighting a cold, struggling with a particularly exposed passage. The conductor slowed the tempo by just a fraction, giving her room to breathe. The audience never noticed. That’s the magic of a great pit conductor.

What the Musicians Deal With

Let’s talk about conditions. The pit is cramped. Depending on the venue and the production, musicians might be sitting elbow-to-elbow, with minimal ventilation and limited visibility. String players sometimes have to modify their bowing to avoid hitting the person next to them. The brass section, tucked at the back, can barely see the conductor and often rely on the section leaders in front of them for cues.

Temperature is a constant battle. Pits get hot — all those bodies, all those lights overhead, limited air flow. Woodwind players will tell you that temperature changes affect their instruments’ tuning, which means they’re constantly adjusting during performance. The oboist, who gives the tuning note, has a particularly stressful job.

And then there’s the noise. Sitting in a pit under a full Wagnerian orchestra is genuinely loud. Many orchestral musicians now wear custom-fitted ear protection, though this was controversial for years. Some older players resisted, arguing it changed how they heard themselves. The Musicians’ Union and hearing specialists have thankfully pushed the industry toward better protection.

The Acoustic Game

The way sound travels out of a pit is carefully calculated. Most pits have an overhang — a lip of the stage that extends over part of the pit, acting as a partial lid. This deflects some of the orchestral sound back, preventing it from overwhelming the singers.

Sound engineers and conductors work together to find the right balance. Too much pit coverage and the orchestra sounds muffled. Too little and it drowns out the voices. In some modern productions, subtle amplification is used to assist the singers, though this remains contentious among purists. (I have opinions on amplification in opera. Strong ones. That’s a topic for another day.)

The Invisible Drama

What I find most remarkable about the pit is the invisible drama that unfolds there every night. Missed entries, broken strings, turned pages that stick — the audience never sees any of it. I once watched a cellist break a string during the prelude to Act III of Tosca, hand their instrument to the player behind them, take that player’s cello, and keep playing without missing a beat. The audience was none the wiser.

There’s also the relationship between pit and stage. When everything clicks — when the orchestra breathes with the singers, when the conductor holds everyone together through a tricky ensemble passage — it’s one of the most thrilling things in live performance. You can feel it in the house. The air changes.

Next Time You’re at the Opera

Arrive early and look into the pit during warmup. Watch the musicians settle in, tune up, arrange their music. During the performance, notice how the sound rises from below — how the strings shimmer under a soprano’s high note, how the brass can make the floor vibrate during a big ensemble.

The pit is where the heartbeat of the opera lives. It deserves your attention.