Не то чтобы дирижёр сердился, но после репетиции он попросил ансамбль ещё раз повторить куплет и припев.

This is a very common Russian pattern for softening what you are about to say.

Не то чтобы X, но Y means something like:

• It’s not exactly that X, but Y
• Not that X, but Y
• It’s not quite true to say X; rather, Y

So in this sentence, Не то чтобы дирижёр сердился, но... suggests:

• the conductor was not openly angry,
• but something about his behavior showed dissatisfaction.

It is a hedge. The speaker avoids making a strong claim like The conductor was angry, and instead gives a more nuanced description.

Дирижёр is the subject, so it is in the nominative case.

Сердился is the past tense of сердиться (to be angry / to get angry in an imperfective sense). Since the subject is masculine singular, the past tense form is masculine singular too:

• он сердился
• дирижёр сердился

Russian past tense agrees with gender and number:

• сердился — masculine
• сердилась — feminine
• сердилось — neuter
• сердились — plural

So дирижёр сердился is simply the conductor was angry / was getting annoyed.

This is an aspect and nuance question.

• сердиться / сердился = to be angry, to get annoyed, to be in an angry state or process
• рассердиться / рассердился = to become angry, to get angry at a particular moment

Here, сердился works better because the sentence is deliberately soft and vague:

• Не то чтобы дирижёр сердился...
  = It’s not that the conductor was angry...

If you said Не то чтобы дирижёр рассердился..., that would sound more like:

• It’s not that the conductor actually got angry...

That is possible in some contexts, but сердился is more natural here because it describes a general emotional state rather than a sharply defined moment of becoming angry.

Because после requires the genitive case.

The base form is:

• репетиция = rehearsal

Genitive singular:

• репетиции

So:

• после репетиции = after the rehearsal

This is a very important pattern to remember:

• после урока = after the lesson
• после концерта = after the concert
• после встречи = after the meeting

Whenever you use после, expect the noun after it to be in the genitive.

In Russian, after просить / попросить (to ask), it is very common to use:

• просить + someone + infinitive

So:

• попросил ансамбль повторить
  = asked the ensemble to repeat

This is a normal and very common structure.

Breakdown:

• попросил = asked
• ансамбль = the ensemble
• повторить = to repeat

Russian often does this directly, without чтобы.

You can sometimes also see a чтобы clause, especially in slightly different structures, but here the infinitive construction is the most straightforward and natural one.

Compare:

• Он попросил меня подождать. = He asked me to wait.
• Она попросила детей сесть. = She asked the children to sit down.

It actually is in the accusative case, but for this noun the accusative looks the same as the nominative.

• nominative: ансамбль
• accusative: ансамбль

That happens because:

1. ансамбль is masculine singular
2. it is inanimate

For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative usually matches the nominative.

So in:

• он попросил ансамбль повторить...

ансамбль is the direct object of попросил, so it is accusative, even though its form does not visibly change.

Compare with an animate masculine noun:

• он попросил музыканта повторить...
• nominative: музыкант
• accusative: музыканта

Here you can see the change clearly.

Ещё раз means one more time / again.

In this sentence:

• ещё раз повторить = repeat one more time

It is close to снова, but not always identical.

• ещё раз emphasizes an additional repetition
• снова means again / anew

In many contexts they overlap, but ещё раз is especially natural when you are asking for one more performance or one more repetition of something:

• Прочитай ещё раз. = Read it one more time.
• Скажи ещё раз. = Say it again / one more time.

Here, because the conductor wants the ensemble to repeat the verse and chorus once more, ещё раз is exactly the natural choice.

Because the request is about a single completed action: repeating the verse and chorus one more time.

• повторить = perfective
• повторять = imperfective

Perfective is used here because the conductor asked for one specific repetition:

• попросил ... повторить = asked ... to repeat

If you used повторять, it would suggest a more general, ongoing, or repeated activity, which does not fit as well here.

Compare:

• попросил повторить куплет = asked them to repeat the verse once
• просил повторять это упражнение каждый день = asked them to repeat this exercise every day

So повторить is the natural choice for a one-time request.

They are the direct objects of повторить.

The conductor asked the ensemble to repeat:

• куплет = verse
• припев = chorus / refrain

So they are in the accusative case. But both are masculine inanimate nouns, so their accusative form is the same as the nominative:

• куплет → куплет
• припев → припев

That is why there is no visible ending change.

So:

• повторить куплет и припев = to repeat the verse and the chorus

Но means but.

The sentence has a contrast:

• Не то чтобы дирижёр сердился
  = It’s not exactly that the conductor was angry
• но после репетиции он попросил ансамбль ещё раз повторить куплет и припев
  = but after the rehearsal he asked the ensemble to repeat the verse and chorus once more

So но introduces the evidence that something was still not quite right. Even if he was not openly angry, his actions showed dissatisfaction or strictness.

This kind of contrast is very natural in Russian and English.

Yes, in some contexts it could be omitted:

• ...но после репетиции попросил ансамбль ещё раз повторить...

Russian often omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context.

However, keeping он is also natural. It can help:

• make the sentence clearer,
• maintain flow,
• explicitly connect the second clause back to дирижёр.

So both are possible, but он is perfectly normal and not unnecessary.

The word order is fairly natural and neutral, but Russian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The given sentence flows like this:

1. soft qualification: Не то чтобы дирижёр сердился
2. contrast: но
3. time phrase: после репетиции
4. subject: он
5. action: попросил ансамбль
6. infinitive phrase: ещё раз повторить куплет и припев

This order sounds natural because it presents the situation step by step.

You could rearrange parts for emphasis, for example:

• Но он после репетиции попросил ансамбль ещё раз повторить куплет и припев.
• Но после репетиции ансамбль он попросил ещё раз повторить куплет и припев.

The second version is much more marked and sounds less neutral. So while Russian allows flexibility, the original order is the best default wording here.

These are standard music/lyrics terms:

• куплет = verse
• припев = chorus or refrain

So if a song has a structure like:

• verse
• chorus
• verse
• chorus

then in Russian that is:

• куплет
• припев
• куплет
• припев

These words are very common when talking about songs.

Дирижёр means conductor, usually in a musical setting: orchestra, choir, ensemble, etc.

In this sentence, it fits very naturally with:

• репетиция = rehearsal
• ансамбль = ensemble
• куплет и припев = verse and chorus

So the whole sentence belongs to a musical rehearsal context.

Also, note the spelling and stress:

• дирижёр

The ё shows the stressed sound yo. In careful writing, ё is especially helpful for learners.

Because the sentence has two clauses joined by но:

• Не то чтобы дирижёр сердился,
• но после репетиции он попросил ансамбль...

Russian normally uses a comma before coordinating conjunctions like но when joining clauses.

So the comma here is standard punctuation, just like in English:

• It’s not that he was angry, but he did ask them to repeat it.

The main actions are in the past tense:

• сердился = was angry / was getting annoyed
• попросил = asked

The infinitive повторить is not a tense form; it is just to repeat.

So the sentence describes a past situation:

• first, the speaker comments on the conductor’s emotional state,
• then, still in the past, says what he did after the rehearsal.

This is a common Russian pattern: past-tense verb + infinitive.

Example:

• Он попросил их подождать. = He asked them to wait.
• Она велела детям уйти. = She told the children to leave.