Friday 20 February 2015

Brits abroad

I had a very interesting audition yesterday afternoon, just before the second performance of Jommelli’s ‘Il Vologeso’. A lady, who had been sold to me as extremely influential  and busy in the German opera market, had offered to hear the Opera Studio members before she saw the show and I jumped at the chance.

On the advice of colleagues and coaches in Stuttgart I started with Verdi’s Questa O Quella from ‘Rigoletto’ and then was invited to sing Belmonte’s last aria from Mozart’s ‘Die Entführung’ as my second aria. I felt I sang both of them well enough and rushed off to my performance. During the interval of the show I received feedback from the audition and I found it very interesting and useful.

The best

Various points were made including: Why as an Englishman do I not have an aria in English down on my list? Why don’t I offer Tamino? Aria X may be good for you in the future by why not try aria Y and Z now because you could be sold as that more easily now. Why not add some Operetta? You need to offer the things that you are the best at.

These are all good and interesting points. That I will quickly address…..

Why no English? – Because I don’t want to not be considered for other work just because I sing in English. Though it strikes me that actually in the German market, having an ability to sing well in English as well as do the Mozart operas really well may actually be a good USP. (Unique Selling Point – business jargon).

Why don’t I offer Tamino? – Everyone offers Tamino in auditions here, I instead offer the aria from Die Entführung which is harder anyway. Interesting to note that the agent asked specifically for Tamino in the audition even though it wasn’t on the list. I guess from an agents perspective knowing whether or not your Tenor can sing Tamino is quite important.

Aria X may be good in the future – Very good point. How much do we as the singers try and guide our listener to where we are heading in the future. If the listener is worth their position on the panel they should actually be able to hear potential for other roles further down the line and so maybe singing arias that you would perform on stage tomorrow is a better idea, however conservative a choice that may seem to you.

Why not Operetta? – I have never considered offering Operetta. Maybe I should.

Offer the things that you THE BEST at – For this point I am particularly glad to have sung to this agent. There was no beating around the bush. The feedback I received stated quite categorically what she thought I should offer in the future in order to be ‘the best’ person for the job at any audition. From her point of view she wants the best odds for getting the gig, inevitably. For her I am a strong Mozart singer and I should offer three Mozart arias in audition, not to say I won’t sing the other repertoire that I offered in the future, but right now offer Mozart.

Stereotype

I tend to find feedback of any type useful. So to receive feedback from someone who is in the business of trying to get singers work is particularly helpful.  

It is easy sometimes to forget that you can’t just work for the future, be it towards singing Rodolfo in Boheme or the title role in Eugene Onegin. Actually working towards to gaining employment for what you can do NOW is very important. It is probably one of the differences between Music college and Opera studio/being a young artist.

That is not to say you can’t be studying the roles of your future, of course. But if they are for the future what are you going to do to earn a living in the present….

For me, I have to accept an ounce of stereotyping and use it to my advantage, not feel it is preventing me do other work. If, as a British Tenor, I am higher up the list of potential Britten and Mozart singers in Germany than I would be for the Bel Canto repertoire, which I love, then maybe I should embrace that. Not to say I’ll never do the Bel Canto repertoire, I think I could do that very well too.
I have another audition, this Monday in Munich. It will be interesting to see if their response is similar to this agents.

The week

We started the week with the final dress rehearsal and then opening night of ‘Il Vologeso’ by Jommelli. An extremely well received premier and enjoyable do afterwards at which I met a number of interesting people including an Englishman over to review the show.

On Tuesday Stuttgart sent me off to Zurich for a coaching with Jane Thorner, a lady who has previously been here giving the Opera studio masterclasses which I wrote about before. I had a very good 90 minute coaching in an amazing building in which the Zurich Conservatoire is based. We continued the work we had previously done together and it was useful particularly with these auditions coming up.

I managed to meet up with a friend from the Zurich Opera studio while I was there, we compared Opera studio notes and also our experiences of being ‘Brits abroad’ albeit Brits working abroad.


Routine

The routine of daily opera house life continues. For most people it wouldn’t seem like a routine, every day is different and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring until our 1pm ‘tagesplan’. But I am used to it now.

This afternoon I play football again, get in! And I have the end of next week to look forward to, when I am flying back to the UK for some auditions, lessons and time with family and friends. I can’t wait!

Hope you are all well.

Thanks for reading.


Tom


ps: Lost 4 pounds in Weight this week. That is a good thing. 


Read about me: www.thomaselwin.com

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