There may not be a more demanding job in the music world than that of the opera conductor. Among the challenges: the orchestra must be kept together; the singers (who cannot hear the orchestra) must be explicitly cued, and sometimes need the words mouthed to them from the pit; the audience expects a brilliant and original interpretation, while the orchestra doesn’t want to be taken too far outside their comfort zone; egos must be massaged without appearing to suck up; oh, and everyone involved in the production will have already made up their mind about whether the maestro knows what he’s doing within thirty seconds of the start of the rehearsal, so watch those first impressions, hmm?