Chemists familiar with the history of the periodic table may be aware that Dmitri Mendeleev gave the prefixes eka, dvi, and tri (Sanskrit for “one,” “two,” and “three”) to eight then-unknown elements.

During a sitzprobe (or “sitz”), the production cast and orchestra musicians run through the performance together as a single unit for the first time. The focus of a sitzprobe is solely on the musical ...