Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A month of auditions

It has been quite a month.....started with our production of Turandot......after that went to New York for an intense weekend of new opera, plus a few auditions, then followed that with a trip to Detroit for the Met Auditions. Judged with Ben Malensek from the Met - we've done this together several times now, and Patricia Wise - wonderful soprano and voice faculty member at Indiana University - who I had not met before. We all had a grand time together and finished that weekend off with a production of The Marriage of Figaro at Michigan Opera Theatre, where we were graciously hosted by General Director David DiChiera. - No wonder I'm exhausted!!

During this month, I've gotten to hear a wide variety of singers in audition, and it has put me in mind of something that I have said before - You of course have to have the vocal goods, and you have to present professionally - vocally, visually, and dramatically. But, in addition to that, you have to say something with your singing and show us who you are - both who you are in reality, and the character you are portraying. I know that that is a bit of a cypher - how does one concretely do that? The best I can say it in this short post is that I am left with a certain feeling at the end of an audition like that - the feeling that the artist left it all out on the stage. I don't mean that they blew themselves out vocally or that they wildly gesticulated. I mean that the artist auditioning opened up their soul, and gave us a glimpse of the character - made us feel what was happening. It's as though I have experienced an entire opera within the scope of one aria.
Think about the performances that have moved you the most in your life, and I think you will agree that those performances were permeated by that sense of opening up, sharing, and intimacy with the artist.
Thoughts?

1 comment:

  1. You seem to have quite a busy schedule, Bill! It was fun to talk with you in NE at the MET District Auditions this past weekend. I'm excited to see who will be singing at the Grand Finals on March 18. Great voices this year
    Margaret

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