Instrumentation

Allegro con fuoco

It shouldn't be too tough to figure out what work has the following orchestration. Let's just say that some day I'd like to hear it in person with every instrument its composer calls for.  The six to eight harps would be mighty tough to wedge into the pit, I know. For St. Francois, San Francisco Opera built out a couple of platforms on the sides of the theater to house the three Ondes Martenon and the three additional mallet instruments required by that score; such a solution could work here as well.

• In the orchestra:
• Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn), 2 clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), 4 bassoons
• Brass: 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 valve cornets, 3 trombones, ophicleide or tuba
• Percussion: timpani, triangles, bass drum, cymbals, tenor drum (caisse roulante), drum without snares (tambour sans timbre), tenor drum (tambourin), tam-tam, 2 pairs of small antique cymbals in E and F, 6 or 8 harps
• Strings

• Offstage:
  • 3 oboes
  • 3 trombones
  • Saxhorns: sopranino in B-flat (petit saxhorn suraigu en si♭), sopranos in E-flat (or valve trumpets in E-flat), altos in B-flat (or valve trumpets in B-flat), tenors in E-flat (or horns in E-flat), contrabasses in E-flat (or tubas in E-flat)
  • Percussion: pairs of timpani, several pairs of cymbals, thunder machine (roulement de tonnerre), antique sistrums, tarbuka, tam-tam