Talk:Supernumerary actor

Badly in need of breadth

While this is a worthy topic, the focus on limited specific opera companies and limited specific individuals leads to the suspicion that those individuals and companies have had a heavy hand in this entry's composition. Nearly all major opera companies have a core body of "supers" from which they draw.

As a seasoned opera super with a major company, I feel the discussion would be benefited by the observation that a primary force in the casting of supernumeraries is dictated by how well they fit the costumes available for the production. Often, directors view the role of the super simply as an ambulatory costume. The wise super remembers that humble function. This point is brought out in the following article about supernumeraries with the San Francisco Opera, which should be included to provide breadth beyond the companies mentioned in the entry: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/11/23/PK74779.DTL&hw=opera+super&sn=007&sc=383

However, a super's contributions can supply entire orchestral sequences with their only visual element, such as the lengthy dream banquet sequence from Hansel and Gretel, recently brodcast on PBS, entirely composed of supernumeraries, photo here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2002/11/19/DD61815.DTL&o=0

The presence of supernumeraries are essential for key moments in many operas of the standard repetiore, For example in Rigoletto, Act I Scene I portrays the court of the debauched Duke of Mantua. Most productions use female supers in addition to the men's chorus to add a tawdry sexual element. In 1997, these women provoked the normally tolerant San Francisco audience to protest their (seeming) topless costuming and lascivious excess. See the avalanche of letters here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/10/19/PK16853.DTL&hw=topless+opera&sn=001&sc=1000 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/11/30/PK14807.DTL&hw=topless+opera&sn=002&sc=670 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/11/09/PK72287.DTL&hw=topless+opera&sn=003&sc=616 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/10/12/ED73893.DTL&hw=topless+opera&sn=005&sc=447 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/10/18/ED37497.DTL&hw=topless+opera&sn=015&sc=337

As a newcomer to wikipedia, I do not feel qualified to add directly to this entry, but I ask those more experienced to draw on these and other sources and modify the entry to provide more balance. Marshagalinsky (talk) 09:02, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Uh, the examples section...

...is almost entirely wrong, it seems to me. Those are character types or stock characters, but not supernumerary. Ifnkovhg (talk) 00:22, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Image photoshopped (vandalized?)

Image #2 File:Opera_-_Ariadne_with_judges_on_stage_2.jpg

Unknown face has been inserted (to left of Judge Ginsberg). Original image can be seen on this blog page (direct link to image)

XyKyWyKy aka raffriff42 (talk) 14:43, 14 December 2013 (UTC)