first audition of the season

I had my first audition of the season yesterday. After 2 hours of driving and magically finding a free parking garage tucked away under buildings and roads and between streets, I arrived an hour early. This was just enough time to change into my dress, warm up #2 to make sure the notes were moving (the real warm up was that morning at 10am) and sit quietly and read. "The Hitchhiker's Guide" seemed the reasonable if not convenient choice, it was sitting on my car seat when I left. It was quite an odd experience though to sit down outside of the auditions, begin to ponder what it was that made 'that' difference between, "they have a great voice" and "we must hire them" and then open up a chapter that was all about how completely small and insignificant we are. In fact, the total perspective machine that was discussed in the book had been known to scramble the brains of anyone unfortunate enough to sit inside of it and realize just how tiny they are. Somehow it worked for me. I was relaxed. I was so relaxed in fact, that when the accompanist began to drop measures and the right hand in places, my thoughts of total and complete fear at getting lost and not able to recover were mere thoughts. I held it together vocally and if anything, came through blazing. I'm sure there was some terror that flitted through my eyes but not so much that it caused a stir. I truly feel bad for the accompanist. What a tough position to be put into; sight reading all sorts of crazy arias for hours. It just had to be her luck that of all my arias I chose a slightly up tempo Handel aria, "Sta nell'Ircana" from Alcina. I did however go out and make an even larger copy of the music. If it helps the next accompanist even a little, it is worth it.

The second aria they called did have me a bit flustered. It was probably residual 'holy crap' adrenalin running through my system from the last piece, but I don't recall as much from the small portion of "Non piu mesta" that they asked for. I am almost wholly sure that one reason they asked to hear the beginning of that piece following the Handel was to hear my range and a higher and lower coloratura. The third page of the "Non piu" flies through two runs that encompass two very fast octaves. I can't say I was as pleased with this performance...but it is progress. I can now say that under the circumstances of an audition, I feel decent with how I performed. I can however do better - that is my total perspective for the night.