Season

This weekend has truly been a jump-start to audition season. For months I have been working away without any performances or public singing. Part of this was due to a new voice teacher...I had technique to busy myself with (smoothing out the voice top to bottom) and as this weekend proved, it was well worth the self imposed vocal solitude.

This afternoon I had my first public performance in almost a year. As luck would have it, two people who were at last year’s Met auditions were present this afternoon. Both of them had the same comment, “I heard you sing last fall, but this was such a surprise. You have come a long way, even from just a year ago.” Sweet music to my ears. There is nothing like external acknowledgment of hard earned improvement. I am feeling a bit more confident day by day.

It was also nice to sing through three of my arias, learning that I do have quite a bit more work I want to do on the Cenerentola. But, this is an aria that I feel will always want quite a bit of work. In fact, that is a large reason of why opera is so dear to my heart; the never ending process. It is a struggle, but a struggle worth participating in. It is a struggle with great rewards. It wouldn’t be nearly as profound or emotionally poignant if it didn’t require the work, the dedication, the passion, and the dream.

Mezzo(r)-Soprano

There is always that moment of disbelief and hesitation in a new coach’s or teacher’s eyes after first hearing me sing. This is not a moment of complete and utter awe at my technical and dramatic prowess mind you. Rather, one of: “Are you sure you are a mezzo?” Yes, I’m sure, and after a few more lessons, they are as well. I also am sure that I am not the only one who has been faced with this question time and time again. Having an easy top in a traditionally warm rich low fach doesn’t necessarily spell confusion. It was how I was approaching the top, and thus my musical choices that spelled c-o-n-f-u-s-i-o-n.

I would purposefully knock out an aria highlighting the easy highs and coloratura, something to the tune of Donna Elvira’s Mi tradi. My high c, is a strength. The fact that I can run through a coloratura passage that hangs around the dreaded f and f#, is a strength. What wasn’t a strength of mine was connecting the idea of both a high and low voice. Corrected technique aside, my musical choices had a large hand in the confusion.

My first year of auditioning, I fell into the same self imposed trap. I would begin with a zwischenfach (in-between) role, a role often performed by either soprano or a high mezzo-soprano. So while I thought my voice was stating, “I am a mezzo, I sound like a mezzo, even my high notes are like a mezzo’s”, my list of audition music would be screaming, “I may not know what I am, my high notes are simply second nature, perhaps I am a soprano who believes it is easier as a mezzo”. I didn’t include a solid repertoire list. It didn’t only have zwishenfach roles; it didn’t include high mezzo roles with a few zwischenfach roles. It was a bit more slap dash that that. They were arias that I sang well – regardless of what the whole role was like. So when I would introduce myself with the repertoire of both a soprano and a mezzo-soprano, I was not convincing my audience of who I am, let alone getting the point across that I know who I am - big mistake, and admittedly, not my only one.

In a blood sport like opera, where auditions can be made or

A Simple Question

Ah, the life of an almost opera singer...

That nagging question:

"So, what do you do?"

You wouldn't think that this was such a confusing question, but to tell you the truth, it always takes me a while to form an appropriate answer; and my answer tends to change based on who asked the question. If I want the conversation to be quick and dirty, I answer truthfully, "I am a Marketing Director." Unfortunately this tends to elicit a lot more interest that I usually anticipate, leading to a more lengthy discussion than I had planned. If I have a social connection to the asker and am more willing to explain myself, again, I answer truthfully, "I am an aspiring opera singer". Often I use a combination of the two; the Marketing used to offset the fact that I am barely "working" with my singing.

Most often I end up retreating into the depths of my mind, pondering the virtual circus of activities I perform weekly, trying to coherently communicate them to the person who at this point is now staring at me with the deep look of concern in their eyes.

But I honestly don't quite know how to say all the things that I am actually doing in preparation for a career in opera. They are not returning immediate results in the form of performances. They are not measurable by most people's standards. Many of them even sound like leisure activities: watch movies, read books, read magazines, go to the opera, go to concerts, sing, exercise. It is more of a lifestyle that it is a path of study. I suppose that at this stage, my career in opera is about taking the time to prepare for the moment when I do step out onto a stage.

Much of this preparation comes in the form of my many "job interviews" - the auditions. So as I embark on my second audition season, I have decided to keep record of the ins and outs of being an almost opera singer. Bare with me...this could get ugly, or more likely, dreadfully boring.