orchestra pit

plural orchestra pits · alternative orchestra-pit

1. performing artsA sunken area in front of a stage in which musicians, largely hidden from view, play music to accompany stage performances.

   On the stage of the Gotham gloom reigned. . . . Johnson Miller was pacing the gangway between the orchestra pit and the first row of the orchestra chairs.

   1921, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in Jill the Reckless

   2 more examples

   Thirty-four years ago a gaunt young Russian with a crew haircut took over the job as chief conductor in the orchestra pit of Moscow's Imperial Grand Theatre.

   1939 December 18, “Music: Rachmaninoff”, in Time, retrieved 11 Jan 2018

   An audience member at the Metropolitan Opera sprinkled a powdery substance — what the police said may have been the ashes of his mentor — into the orchestra pit during an intermission of a performance on Saturday, setting off a police investigation and the cancellation of the rest of that opera.

   2016 October 29, Michael Cooper, Christopher Mele, “Powder Tossed at Metropolitan Opera May Have Been Human Ashes, Police Say”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Jan 2018

   Synonyms: orchestra stalls