Celeb Shot: Sam Torres
The Troy-based musician and mastering engineer is gearing up for an ambitious, one-of-a-kind project: An outdoor opera in the Saratoga Spa State Park.
On Wednesday and Thursday, May 28 and 29, Opera Saratoga will present the first performances of its 2025 season: Four showings of In a Grove, a 54-minute, two-part murder mystery opera. "Unlike most murder mysteries where no one wants to claim ownership, here, everybody says they did it,” says Opera Saratoga General and Artistic Director Mary Birnbaum. “And the only way to get at the truth is by hearing the testimonials of each person.”
The opera, based on a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and composed by Christopher Cerrone, is, as the name suggests, set in a grove. And while it’s been performed on stages from Pennsylvania to Illinois, this week’s shows mark the first time it will be performed physically in a grove.
That’s right—this is an al fresco opera that will be performed around dusk by mic’d-up singers in several locations in the woods behind Ferndell Pavilion at the Saratoga Spa State Park. To the casual fan, it sounds like fun, quirky idea. To those who know how much work would go into a production of this magnitude even if it were performed in a theater built for live performances, it sounds like a logistical jigsaw puzzle. So, Mary, who knows better than anyone what it takes to pull off an operatic production, called in backup.
Enter Sam Torres, the Capital Region’s resident expert on all things sound. When he’s not making his own music or hosting concert series at both Troy Music Hall and his own home, Sam is a mastering engineer. I could try to explain what that means, but it’d be better if I let him do it:
I’ve heard of songs being “remastered,” but what exactly is mastering?
It’s the last step in the process before a recording gets released into the world. It’s equal parts quality control and equal parts “how can this be made that last 5 percent more impactful or emotional for a listener?” When I’m mastering, I’m really thinking about how the music feels. Obviously, how it sounds is part of it, but I’m really thinking about the impact of it. And then there’s other boring administrative stuff—like, I embed the metadata into the file and make sure it’s going to sound good on different platforms.
How does your experience as a musician impact your mastering work?
I’m a musician first, even though the way I earn my living has been through sound engineering of various forms. So I really do think about engineering from a musical perspective. How can I get the artist’s vision to translate to the audience? My experience playing on other people’s projects has helped me to figure out what the artist’s vision is.
What recent mastering projects have you worked on?
Three things that I mastered were nominated for Eddies recently. Two of them won [two of them were in the same category, so both couldn’t win]. One was a single by Girl Blue called “To The Bone” that’s about being a mother. That was produced by her husband, who I work with a ton. The other one, which I would probably be talking about even if it hadn’t just won an Eddie, is Zan & The Winter Folk’s record New Morse Code.
How did you get involved in the upcoming production of In a Grove?
I’ve never worked with the composer directly, but I’ve been involved with a lot of performances of his instrumental music. He connected Mary with me. Mary was telling me about the project and her vision for it and asking me, basically, if it’s possible. And I was like, “Yeah, I mean, it’s possible.” It’s a huge puzzle that requires a lot of creativity and as well as technical expertise, but I really enjoy those kinds of creative puzzles.
Have you run into any challenges?
The biggest challenge is that there is essentially no infrastructure in the park for performances. With things like this, you’re absolutely starting from scratch. I’ve worked plenty of outdoor shows where there’s a stage that comes in on a truck and you’ve got a diesel generator. But that’s been done—people know how to do an outdoor rock show. This is really like we’re reinventing several wheels. It’ll be a huge departure from what the singers are used to and from what any of us have done before.
How have you adapted to the challenges?
We got pretty far along thinking that it was going to be done in one way, and then it was like, this is going to be very expensive to rent all the stuff that we were going to need. Everything was spread out, and I was like, we’re not going to be able to run an extension cord 800 feet into the forest to where scene 7 was originally going to be. Then I was like, OK, well, it’s opera—I’m not going to bring a gas generator out here. Then I’m Googling solar camping batteries. And then I was like, maybe there’s a way to simplify this. So we did condense it geographically.
What is your role on the nights of the show?
I'll be there for all the performances, because I'm also mixing it live. I'm going to follow the audience around with an iPad that I can use to remotely control my mixing board, which will be in the picnic house. I'll be able to balance the singers amongst each other as well against the music. That’s a little bit unusual—well, all of it’s unusual for an opera—but even for theater sound design, usually you have a designer and then you’ll have someone who operates it and several people who will actually mix or trigger the cues for the show to run. This is a little bit different in that I’m doing all the design, but also going to be there for all the performances. That’s largely because it’s so specialized, and most of the equipment is going to be mine.
Do you feel ready?
May 25th is the tech rehearsal, which is the first time we’re doing the full production. So, less than a week before the show, we’re going to see if my plan works. And if it doesn’t, I’ve got one day to figure out what I’m going to do. But I like that, in a weird way. I like planning something for months and having contingency plans and being so prepared that I can pivot if I need to.
What’s something you wish more people understood about your work?
I feel like not everyone understands what it takes to produce live music at a high level. It’s always tricky, because I never want to come off like a snob or condescending or elitist about what I do. I think that dive bars that are doing rock shows are fantastic and wonderful, and I think that that's such an important outlet. But I also really love when things sound, look, and feel amazing for the audience and for the artist. It's so rare that people experience something where they're like, “this sounds so good.” Those are the experiences that I'm like trying to cultivate.
—Natalie
You have four chances to see In a Grove this week: Wednesday at 5pm and 7pm, and Thursday at 5pm and 7pm. You can purchase tickets here.