Christmas Time!

For as long as I can remember, singing at Christmas has been a major part of my life. 

As a choirboy at St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, the Christmas singing felt endless. From Advent sunday, a spectacular service attended by 2'000 people, to Christmas day, we would be singing in services, at concerts and at Christmas events around London every day. It was a highlight of my year, the annual Messiah, the annual Britten Ceremony of Carols, the annual Lloyds Carol concert and so on, all coming to a glorious end with Christmas Day evensong (Evening service) which ended with the opening chorus from Bach's Christmas Oratorio.  

In more recent years, December would either be singing at or travelling to carol services/concerts across the UK, numerous performances of Messiah (over 20 one Christmas!!) and trying to keep at arms length any of the colds half of my colleagues would be battling through. 

So you will understand me when I say this year feels a bit odd. 

German Christmas

Not that being in Germany is strange, by now living in Germany feels relatively normal. Singing in the lead up to Christmas and on Christmas day, when we will perform Ariadne auf Naxos,isn't odd either. 

It is what I am singing that is strange. I haven't sung Hark the Herald once this year, or Away in a Manger or, in fact, any carols. 

Earlier this week I sang Bach Magnificat for the Robert Bosch choir and Orchestra Christmas concert. An enjoyable evening which featured some of the slowest tempi I have ever experienced with Bach, helped in no small way by the Orchestra featuring three Double Basses. In addition to the Bach, the orchestra performed a few orchestral works by Vivaldi and then everyone, including childrens choir and the audience, sang some German Christmas carols. 

With the soloists sat almost on top of the front row of audience, I didn't attempt to sing the carols. Partly because I would have been guessing the tune and also because, where as guessing the tune might be OK, the idea of sight reading German text within ear shot of a few hundred Germans terrified me. 

Aside from this Christmas concert, the pattern of daily life continues like normal. The Opera house will only be closed for a couple of days between now and the beginning of January and the only sign of anything Christmas-y was the Opera studio Christmas get together yesterday afternoon, as hosted by Bettina Giese. Otherwise I have been having coachings as normal and more performances of the Mussorgsky and Strauss. 

Decorations

One aspect of being a choirboy at Christmas that I remember very fondly were the decorations. As we all lived at the school, it being a boarding school, each dormitory would compete in having the best Christmas decorations. It was quite astonishing sometimes, the amount of money some people had spent on tinsle was crazy. It meant, though, that while we were working hard singing all hours of the day we would get 'home' and be able to act like kids again.

This year, with the room in my WG (flat share), I came quite late to the decoration party but did buy a little tree and some candles which are lighting up the corner of my room. 

The Germans are very keen on the Christmas look too, with the stairwell of my block of flats having been decorated by someone and every other stall at the market selling various styles of Christmas decorations.

Family

Over the next week we have the final two performances of Khovanshchina and one more Ariadne, on Christmas day itself. 

Very happily, my wife and her parents arrive on Sunday and will attend the final Khovanshchina and the Christmas day show. If I wasn't sharing the week with my wife I think the idea of Christmas here would not have been such an attractive one. 

Then on the 27th we all go back to the UK, where I will be for 5 days in which I will see my whole family, including my sister who lives in Japan. I will have a singing lesson, catch up with some friends and have a few meetings and then fly back to Stuttgart to start work again on the 2nd of January.

Happy Christmas

I won't be blogging next friday, the 26th, but will instead next great you on the 2nd of January. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, whatever you are doing. 

Thank you all for keeping with me on this Opera Studio journey, thank you for those that continue to contact me directly and offer support or ask questions. 

All the best,  Bis Bald!!

Tom 

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Songbird

However tempting it might be to write a blog about 'Songbird', the less well known, and underrated, Oasis single from 2002, I'm not sure I am quite ready to go so far off track. In fact 'Songbird' refers to a recurring theme in this, my 14th week in Stuttgart.

Still here

In a week that only featured two performances and no official coaching sessions at all, I was glad for an informative audition, on Friday morning, and a weekend of masterclasses. I was also delighted to have my parents here, to be able to show them a bit of Stuttgart and my life in Germany and be able to spend some time with non-opera folk.

I guess the nature of moving to a new country to work is that one tends to immerse yourself in your work and also to socialise almost exclusively with colleagues. Many of my good friends in the UK are also singers or other sorts of musicians, so I am used to socialising with Music folk. The difference is that in the UK I also have non-music friends and non-opera friends. With absolutely no slight on my friends here, I really appreciated talking about life outside of Stuttgart and Opera with my parents. 

God has ---- in your throat

The audition last Friday morning, not long after I published last weeks masterpiece (!?), was to Georg Fritzsch, the conductor of our production of Ariadne auf Naxos. Due in part to the fact that I only sing NINE words in Ariadne, I was aware that Georg didn't really know my voice before hand. Also listening was Bettina Giese, the head of the Opera Studio here. 

As ever, there were positives and negatives. The never ending journey of trying to be the best I can continues and so inevitably there are aspects of the audition that I am frustrated by. It annoys me that I never sing my best in these situations and it upsets me that my breathing apparatus seems to disappear almost immediately as soon as I walk in the room. My breathing/support in auditions has improved over time but on Friday it wasn't where it is normally in non-audition situations. It is almost as if the work I do in a practise room on such things is irrelevant. Of course, it isn't irrelevant, it can just feel like that.

To Georg I sang a long Mozart aria from Die Entfuhrung, this is an aria I have auditioned with about 20 times, a stunning Gluck aria called 'unis des la plus tendre' which I have never auditioned with, and the Duke's first aria from Rigoletto. I won't turn you all off with the minute details of the performance, it already bores me in my head most of the time. What made this a great audition, though, was the time immediately after I sang. Georg took the time and care to work with me, briefly, on one of two specifics and then he invited me to have a chat.

The chat I had with Herr Fritzsch was extremely useful. In the same way as in January when Bettina Giese rang me to discuss my Opera Studio audition, I was extremely grateful for his honest feedback and to have the chance to discuss things with him. 

He was pretty brutal about my Mozart, it being an aria in German that has only three sentences that repeat for 6 minutes, Georg felt I was lacking in German nuance. He suggested I sang Tamino's aria, from Magic Flute, instead at future auditions as I am 'a great Tamino'. He was very complementary about the singing of the Gluck, though wanted me to fight for the character more and to enjoy the beauty of the music. The Rigoletto aria he felt was very interesting, a future role for me but not to audition with it yet and that it didn't sound grounded enough (that wretched support failing me!)

After rushing through the assessment of each aria he then spoke to me quite seriously. He said it all sounded too easy, as if I could always do it and have never had to fight for it. It didn't feel like that as the singer and for me, someone who had spent 4 long months in 2013 with almost no voice, who has spent the last year working hard to rebuild my voice and confidence as well as trying to make ends meet, it was a funny thing to hear. It almost made me laugh, and I explained why to Georg. Happily he said that he could hear nothing that might remind a listener of my past vocal problems. He said that I needn't worry about the voice anymore, those things are in the past and now I can engage and invest more in the performance. Useful feedback.

One odd thing he said to me was that 'God has shit in your throat' (excuse the language). An odd expression that I initially thought was an insult but is actually a German expression used as a compliment, suggesting that someone has a very beautiful voice. I now know that for the future....

Masterclass

I was very happy to follow up this informative audition experience with, on saturday and sunday, a Masterclass with Jane Thorner, who we had worked with back in September. 

Having previously worked with Jane, I felt at ease immediately and able to ask for help in specific areas. In particular I asked to work on trying to irradicate the negative affect auditions have on my support and therefore voice. The work we did was very useful, Jane is very positive and had really noticed an improvement in the 10 weeks since our last sessions. She is quite a good people reader and I feel like I was definitely singing better at the end of our sessions compared to the beginning.

One simple thing Jane did with me was to get me to perform each aria as a lively childrens story, to read the text in different ways and then to maintain the energy into the singing of it. I sometimes find that when I sing an aria, when I am wanting to impress people, to show how good I am and trying to convince people to give me the gig, I actually stop expressing. It can become unattractive to be told to like something, whereas when one relaxes, frees up and communicates positively everything is easy and more attractive to the listener. Obviously you need to have the voice there to be able to sing this music, that is a given, but as soon as the decisions you are making are positive ones the voice follows suite. This is what Jane suggested, and it worked for me then, and has done all week. 

I found this particularly difficult when I was singing an aria from Lucia di Lammermoor, when Edgardo has lost Lucia and is feeling sorry for himself. The part of my brain that was telling me to stay to true to the sad and angry aspect of the story telling was in fact acting as a block to the expression. As apposed to being like Eeyore in such situations, what everyone really wants to listen to, really is effected by emotionally and physically, is a songbird. A voice full of sparkle and life, positive in its expression, whether that be positively sad, positively angry, positively joyful, positively questioning. Positive decision making. 

Such a small change and realisation, or re-realisation, will have hugely positive results on my future auditions and performances I think. I am sure I have been told to do it in the past, in someway, but, partly because I had quite a long time one to one with Jane, this time I really feel it has made a mark. Maybe I just need to quote the Joker from Batman: The Dark Knight before each performance: 'Why So Serious?'

We'll see if that works....

Busy busy Stuttgart

As with previous weeks, Stuttgart is very busy with the Christmas market. If anything, it is much busier than before, I don't know where all these people have come from and I am looking forward to January when Stuttgart returns to feeling like a small, friendly city again. 

The cold weather, and prospect of it being such for a few months to come, persuaded me to buy a few new sporting clothes. As I have mentioned before, I am a bit of a sporting garment geek, specifically football boots, so I enjoyed exploring the winter running gear options. I ended up with some quite revealing Adidas ClimaHeat running tights and an Adidas hoodie, with those thumb holes in the sleeve. And oddly enough I have been on three runs already in the gear, and feeling much better for it. The health drive continues....

This coming week I have a few more performances of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, two concerts of Bach in the middle of Stuttgart and plenty of time to continue learning music for January's productions and concerts. Then it'll almost be Christmas, I can't wait.

#Carols4Cancer

With Christmas in mind, and in particular carol singing, I am keen to share with you the Tenor, David Webb's. charitable initiative #Carols4Cancer. https://www.justgiving.com/carols4cancer/ If you search YouTube or Twitter you will find videos, mostly of David, singing a different carol each day leading up to Christmas and in turn trying to raise money for Cancer research.

David is a young British Tenor who I have met a few times in London. He was a couple of years ahead of me in the London music college scene and this year has been performing with, among others, Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera. This fun and thoughtful charitable initiative is a great idea and maybe some of you will post videos and/or consider donating to the cause.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a lovely week.

Tom 

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Star struck

By this time, week 13, of my journey in Stuttgart you may have thought that things would become repetitive and dull. And in truth, it is sometimes a challenge to inspire oneself when you are only singing one line in an Opera and the auditorium is only half full on a cold and wet Tuesday evening. 

At this early stage in my career, though, with the apprenticeship-like nature of an Opera Studio limiting the size of roles ON stage, I really enjoy the process of working OFF stage. Of being in a practice room and learning a new role, or doing exercises to improve my technique, of working on characters and interpretation and of memorizing....... actually that is a lie. I hate memorizing. Memorizing music, I find, can be one of the most frustrating and time consuming of tasks. But we have to do it.

January Concert

This week I have spent much of my time memorizing the music for an Opera Studio concert in January, which takes place in the beautiful town of Ludwigsburg. Excitingly I will be singing Edgardo's duet with Lucia from Lucia di Lammermoor, and then his aria from the end of the opera. I feel more and more like this repertoire and my voice were made for each other so to get chances to perform some of it will be great. 

The programme inevitably took a long time to put together. With all six of us from the studio performing, it is important to get a good balance. It is also important that we all sing music suitable for our voices, and Bettina Giese, the Head of the Opera Studio, took a lot of care considering the music for each of us. This care and consideration is one of the biggest positives about Stuttgart as an opera house. 

As I have mentioned before, the friendliness and support shown to me by everyone in the Opera house has made it a very easy place to feel settled in. In light of this, and if you are considering applying for an Opera studio, I would point you towards the Opera studio web site, with the deadline for applications being the 15th of December: http://www.oper-stuttgart.com/opera/operastudio_1516/

Home time

Despite it being a supportive place to work, the easing up of my schedule had allowed for me to miss home more than I had realised. Having been at boarding school from the age of 7 to 18, I am very much used to being away from home. I have never been away from home for this long in one go, though,  

So when I received my daily plan for Monday, on Saturday afternoon, and saw that I was free all day, I decided to fly home for 48 hours. With the help of a few thousand loyalty points, and having been paid for the Messiah I did the other week, I just about afforded the flights. To be home for a few days was worth every penny. To be able to sit with my wife and relax, have a curry, watch British TV without it buffering every 6 seconds, have a Pret-A-Manger Christmas sandwich, get stuck on a delayed train, was great. I look forward to being back again at the end of December.

Mercedes

On Saturday morning, before I had decided to fly home, I attended the 'Stars and Cars' event at Mercedes Benz in Stuttgart. This yearly celebration of their Motor Sports teams was made all the more special this year due to the success they had had in Formula 1. Both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were in attendance, as were many thousands of fans.

Having bought a T-Shirt and a cap to remember the day by, and having missed the interviews with Lewis and Nico I'd planned on catching, I decided to head home early. As I wandered towards the nearest U-Bahn I walked past the garages where they were preparing the show cars, including the F1 cars which I stopped to take a picture of. 

Two minutes later, and with me now in prime position at the front of the crowd, both Lewis and Nico turned up and I found myself shaking hands and chatting with Lewis, who also kindly signed my t-shirt. 

For extra proof that I met Lewis, I was unfortunate enough to be caught by the TV cameras and shown on British morning TV, as you can see here. In my defence it was very cold and the grey thing I am holding is the T-Shirt.

Family

Following the excitement of meeting Lewis and then heading home, I am now delighted to have my parents here until Sunday. So please excuse the shorter blog, but I must dash out and show them around town.

Hope you all have a great week.

Tom




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First night politics

I am not going to patronise you all with a potted history of German culture over the last 100 years, I am not qualified to do so for one, aside from a very interesting course entitled ‘Music between the World Wars’ I took whilst at University. I was particularly interested, though, to read Peter Brathwaite’s article in the Guardian yesterday (Guardian Classical Music article), about the suppression of culture under the Nazi’s, in the same week as our production of Khovanshchina opened at Oper Stuttgart.

This production is directed by Andrea Moses (in the English sense of Director, ie. Regie auf Deutsch), a child of the GDR, or East Germany, and her show highlights the conflicts between East and West, capitalism and communism, and, as Andrea has us observe, Coca –Cola and Spirituality. Whether Khovanshchina is an ideal fit for Andrea’s political message or not, the sense of her own conflict, as someone driven to create art for arts sake yet who finds herself battling the economic forces of our current situation, shines through. Her respect for the writings and practises of Bertold Brecht is also quite evident here. It is also quite evident in her production of La Boheme which I saw here earlier in the week, a production which has a Christmas tree with the Mercedes badge as its star….

Andrea’s situation intrigues me. Unaware that there was still a sense of divide some 25 years after the reunification of Germany, I have instead been delighted by the openness and engagement with culture that occurs here. There doesn’t seem to be that sense of reverse snobbery that high art in the UK suffers from. Yet for Andrea, Stuttgart feels conservative, unengaged, lacking the liberal edge of Berlin or Leipzig (the new Berlin apparently).

I look forward to learning more about the politics and culture of contemporary Germany in the next few months……

First night

As mentioned, this was the week Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina premiered. A show we have been rehearsing for almost 7 weeks and Andrea Moses’s last production in Stuttgart, having been here as full time Regie for three seasons.

I always find first nights strange. The closer one gets to the opening night the more people tend to be around. As I listed in a previous blog, there are hundreds of people working on this show and it is only in ones dressing room that a moment of quiet can be found. That is until opening night. On opening night, particularly for a ‘new’ production, the dressing rooms are like Piccadilly Circus (that’s very busy for the non-English who don’t get the reference). Every two minutes another person knocks on the door to offer their best wishes for the performance. Fortunately I don’t have a set routine pre-show, not yet anyway, but if I did such disturbances would be a nuisance.

The show went well, I think. I enjoyed myself, partly due to the fact that I knew we wouldn’t have to rehearse the piece any more, but mostly because I am an Opera singer and I love performing on stage. All the performers received positive curtain calls, I even got a few cheers which was nice.

The production team, Regie (director), designer and two other guys, I have no idea what they did, took a bow and received a mixed response including a few boos which was exciting.

First night party

The show, lasting just under 3 ½ hours, was followed by the premier party. Taking place in the first floor foyer of the Opera house, it seemed like most of the audience were in attendance.  Here Jossi Wieler, the Intendent or Big Boss, talked about the performance, thanked people and introduced Andrea to the stage. Andrea then talk about the performance and show, about her time in Stuttgart, and then introduced each member of her production team who, one by one, came up to the stage and took a bow. Then Eva Kleinitz, the Director of Opera, introduced each of the Soloists, one by one, each of us heading up to the stage and taking an individual bow and applause.

If I have learnt anything over the 12 weeks here, which I hope I have, taking a gracious bow and kind words of audience members is something. I no longer bow like a shy, embarrassed Englishman. I don’t yet bow like a proper Tenor, hand to heart slowly leaning forward, the nod of the head, slowly back up etc. That may come, one day.

Once the formalities had finished it was then lovely to have a drink with colleagues from the cast, orchestra, chorus and those who had attended the show. To be able to finally relax after what had not been the easiest of rehearsal processes was great.

Take care

An aspect of my performance in Khovanshchina I need to improve on is falling over. Not randomly falling over I might add. Without wanting to ruin the excitement for you all, I get pushed or thrown to the ground three times in the show. Each time I am pushed harder than the last time and the third fall is meant to be quite dramatic, with my gun flying across the stage and there being quite a loud bang.

I have been taught how to fall on stage, there is a technique to it and for the first two falls I do that quite well. Unfortunately, the third fall has become an issue. In the pre-dress rehearsal I fell awkwardly on my left elbow, lightly bruised, it is now fine. As a result, on the dress rehearsal I tried not to fall on my left elbow but instead fell heavily (I am getting thinner but am not light-weight yet) on my right forearm and elbow with an immediate sharp pain following. Of course for the opening night this was a worry so I put a pad onto my right elbow and landed square on it, making it worse again. Will I ever learn….

Four shows – easy week

Despite having four performances this week, two Ariadne’s, two Khovanshchina’s, it has felt like an easy one. The KBB, or administrative core of the Opera House, tend not to give you anything else to do on a show day and often leave the day before a show free. This has meant time to myself for the first time in a while.

I have been able to go on a few nice runs through the big park, started to learn some music for future concerts and also caught up on sleep.

As I mentioned last week, lack of sleep and dehydration are the major voice killers for me. So, stupidly, I arranged to record some arias last Friday night, at the end of a busy week when I was suffering from ‘Opera-lag’, a term I will continue to use.  Not surprisingly the session didn’t go very well and I cancelled it 15 minutes.

Importantly, with the time and space this week ,I have been able to get back to doing my daily vocal exercises. These vary day to day but are based on the work I do with Gary Coward. For me they are just like the training sessions professional sportspeople do every day, they are that important. Shock horror, a few days in and I feel a hundred times better vocally and in myself (there is always a correlation between the two).  

Busy Stuttgart

The massive Weihnachtmarkt, or Christmas Market, finally opened in the middle of Stuttgart this week. I was expecting it to be big but not quite as big as it is. This means the centre of Stuttgart is heaving with people, all walking very slowly. I haven’t yet spent any money in the market, being in the opera studio I don’t actually have much money to spend (that topic is for another week) but my parents  visit next week and I will no doubt share a Gluhwein with them at some point.

With no production rehearsals until early January I now have some space to learn German better, exercise well, learn music and continue to build my voice. I really enjoy the process of working on my voice, most of the time, and will enjoy getting fit and being able to speak German too, so it should be a good month or so.

Wishing you all a great week.

Tom

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Opera-lag

It was a pretty mad start to my week. 

Having enjoyed a post show bier, or two, on Saturday night, followed by some light dancing at the ShauspielHaus's  opening night party, I arrived home sometime after midnight. Struggling to then get to sleep, I was awoken at 1030 the next morning with an SMS alert:

               'Have you heard from the Bach Akademie Tom'

From Bettina Giese, my opera studio boss in Stuttgart. I hadn't heard from them, so I thought, but I plugged in my phone, an iPhone 5 which I had forgotten to charge over night so was diving towards zero % battery. I then checked my emails and sure enough had two emails from the Bach Akademie Stuttgart, in German, with a phone number. I rang the number and was greeted by a friendly voice, excited to hear from me, who asked me immediately whether I might sing Messiah solo's, that evening, in the Liederhalle, in Stuttgart. 

My initial thoughts are not transferable to a family blog like this, but after minimal consideration, and having heard that my rehearsal would be at 1700 and the fee would be the most I have ever been paid for a concert, I said yes. 'Of course I'll do it, I'd love to, I have sung it 100 times'

Following the phone call I slept again. There being two real voice killers: Alcohol (dehydrates) and Lack of Sleep, I was now on a mission to drink plenty of water and get some proper sleep. 

I succeeded!

The rehearsal went really well, I was given a lovely dressing room, the concert was a big success and the conductor is keen to work with me again. The chance to sing in the Liederhalle, the main concert hall in Stuttgart, was great. The opportunity to sing with a wonderful choir, orchestra and some top soloists was a lot of fun. Most of all, having been singing the odd bar here and there on stage in Stuttgart, it was just a relief to be able to sing a few arias and recitatives, to really warm into an evening singing and be treated like a real soloist as apposed to being the 'opera studio' Tenor. It was also lovely to have two of my opera studio colleagues in the audience, supporting me. 

Appreciative audience

After the concert, all the soloists were invited to a post-concert dinner club, in the restaurant at the Liederhalle. Here a selection of paying audience members could eat and drink with the soloists and conductor, ask questions about the performance and listen to a brief talk from the conductor himself. Despite taking place in German, I quite enjoyed the event. It is often nice to meet an audience after concerts but on this occasion they were not just appreciative, they were given a chance to actively discuss the concert. To engage in the musical decisions, the choice of counter-tenor over Mezzo soprano, the cuts, the use of modern instruments and so on.

This sort of thing is not unique to the Liederhalle. At the Opera house there are numerous events which act as an introduction to each show. The public really is given a great chance to appreciate and engage with the culture on offer. As a result they care about it, a lot, and they make the most of it. From old to new, from the almost sold out 1980's production of Der Freischutz I was in to the equally popular Wolfgang Rihm opera, 'Jakob Lenz', to 'Messiah' at the Liederhalle, the public here attend, appreciate and engage with what is on offer. I really like that about Stuttgart.

Khovanshchina final week

Following the whirlwind sunday-Messiah jump in, I again got to bed quite late. With the concert done at 10/1030, and then the dinner and talk, I was in bed after midnight. This was the final week of rehearsals for Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, and our third stage and orchestra started at 10 am, Monday morning. 

Inevitably I was quite tired. The weekend aside, 7 weeks into a rehearsal process can breed mental fatigue and it must be hard for the director when the principal soloists are in this way. By this stage there can be a sense that one is going through the motions, saving yourself for the dress rehearsal a few days later and then the first night at the end of the week. Particularly for some of the larger roles, where conserving as much energy during the week leading up to the premier is vital. 

After the rehearsal I had an afternoon nap, which turned into a long sleep, waking up around 6, the dark of night having descended on Stuttgart. As a result, when I eventually tried to sleep I couldn't until quite early in the morning.

The next day was the same, a 10 am rehearsal. An afternoon kip. An evening wander. Another late night trying to sleep, aided by YouTube, iPlayer and AmazonPrime. 

Fortunately Wednesday and Thursday were evening rehearsals. Wednesday was the HPO, or House Dress rehearsal, rehearsing all aspects of the performance, including the ushers and front of house staff. Then yesterday was the GP, 'General Probe' or General rehearsal ie. dress rehearsal. The first time with a audience and the last rehearsal before the first night.

Whereas a monday morning stage and orchestra can be tough work for the director, the final rehearsal must be a bit of a gift. Most singers seem to suddenly raise their game for such an occasion. With full costume and make up, and it being so close to the first night, the energy among the cast always seems to increase at this stage. I gave by far my best account of 'Kuska' and now I just can't wait for first night, this sunday.

I will tell you all about it next week

Opera-lag

Thankfully I have a free day today. The mixture of late nights and early mornings means I almost feel jet-lagged. My body clock is a bit scrambled and a couple of days to settle it back down are well needed. The hours for singers can be odd and this is something I will always have to deal with.

In my early 20's, when I was working on the pro-choral singer circuit and also doing the odd oratorio solo gig, I found this aspect quite difficult. It was highlighted more by the fact that I was living with my parents in East London and that my fathers office is in the house. One never wants to seem lazy, getting out of bed late and seemingly wasting the early hours of the day. Yet when work was often 2 to 5 rehearsal then 730 to 930 concert and home after midnight it is difficult to then be a morning person too. I often felt bad walking down the stairs to grab breakfast whilst my father was already onto his third meeting of the day. 

Fortunately, here in Stuttgart where I almost never see my flat mates anyway, I don't have that sense of guilt when waking up late following a show. 

Changing season

With the nights closing in and a definite chill in the air, we are well on our way to my first German winter.

As many of you will know, Christmas markets are a big feature over here and any pedestrian space you can think of seems to be being filled with wooden huts as we speak. I have always enjoyed advent, and the lead up to Christmas. As a choirboy at St. Paul's Cathedral, December was filled with special concerts, services and carol singing events. Being at the centre of London always felt exciting and sharing the experience with 30 other choirboys was always fun.

Now in Stuttgart, I am looking forward to sharing the time with my Opera colleagues. Having the occasional gluwein and performing on Christmas day.

I am also excited to show Stuttgart to my family at this time of year, with my parents visiting in early December and then my wife and her parents popping over a few weeks later. Almost three months in, their visits will be very much appreciated!!

Questions

Some of you have been sending me questions on Facebook/Twitter/Email. I am very happy to answer anything that you have to ask, though I am no fountain of knowledge. I hope you all continue to enjoy reading and sharing my experiences in Stuttgart.

Until next week.

Tom



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Let's go outside

I am just back from a lovely walk in Degaloch, up hill in the South Eastern part of Stuttgart, Three colleagues of mine, from the Opera Studio, and I spent an hour or trying to get away from the traffic noise filled centre.

Despite the traffic, Stuttgart is growing on me as a town. The relatively small nature of Stuttgart means that the surrounding forests are easily accessible, and 15 minutes after Dominic, Eric, Karin and I (check us out on the Opera Studio website.. http://www.oper-stuttgart.de/musiktheater/opernstudio/ ) had left the Opera House canteen we were already strolling amongst the trees. 

LONG rehearsal

The idea of going for a walk together was mine. I have always enjoyed walking, it helps me relax and if I had a dog here I would be even happier doing so. It is also obviously great to get outside for a bit, particularly this week when we had the technical and lighting rehearsal for Khovanshchina, Wednesday afternoon/evening.

My initial call was at 1530, for make up. So as one is expected to be in costume for the make up I was getting ready at 1515. I was released from the rehearsal after receiving some notes just before 2300, almost 8 hours later. During that time we of course had a break and I wasn't on stage the whole time, but it was tiring. Waiting, like a coiled spring, to jump into action is quite draining. Also, however nice a theatre is, being stuck inside for 8 hours can turn you a bit crazy.

The scale of the rehearsal was quite remarkable. With all the chorus, extras, childrens choir, principals, the director and her many assistants and assistant-assistants. The conductor, chorus master, assistant chorus master, repetiteur, head of props, costume supervisor and assistant, the dressers and make up artists, stage manager and assistants, the stage crew, the designer, the lighting guys and more people I can't think of. It really is a huge team and that is before the orchestra have turned up. One can see why Opera isn't cheap to put on. 

Orchestral boost

Earlier in the week, on Monday and Tuesday, we had the Sitzprobe for Khovanshchina. Literally translated as seated rehearsal, this is the first time the singers and orchestra meet and work through the piece, having to this point relied on the skills of a repetiteur to accompany us in rehearsals. I love these sitzprobe, and I get the feeling most singers do. Any chance to sing with an orchestra is enjoyable and, six weeks into rehearsing a piece, the change in musical colours and textures always tends to bring out the best me. 

One is also nervous on these occasions, of course. Being faced with a huge hall filled with orchestra, chorus and fellow soloists can be a daunting time. Not only for me. I had a momentary lack of consideration for a colleague when I complained about the apparent change in tempo for one of my sections. I should have remembered that it is also a daunting task for a conductor, to bring all these musicians together for the first time and, in this case, to get through a 5 act opera in a couple of rehearsals. 

This morning it was all change again as the orchestra accompanied us for the first stage and orchestra rehearsal. The moment of tempo change had happily settled down and I am fortunate enough to be stood down stage centre (middle at the front) for the whole overture, which sounded stunning.

Chalk and Cheese

The orchestra we have here is extremely good. In addition to the Mussorgsky, I am very lucky to hear them during Ariadne auf Naxos, which I wrote about last week and for which we had the opening night on Sunday. Having enjoyed so much my experience in the dress rehearsal the opening night was even better. Some of the singing on show was truly world class, I can say that since I only sing one line, and the audience lapped it up. 

In stark contrast to the Strauss, I attended a performance of 'Jakob Lenz' by Wolfgang Rihm the night before on Saturday. Written between 1977 and 1978, the opera focuses on the mental struggles of German Poet, Jakob Lenz, played by Georg Nigl. In addition to Lenz there are 6 solo voices and only two other named roles, performed by fellow British singers Henry Waddington and John Graham-Hall. Having got to know both Henry and John over the last couple of months it was great to be able to watch them on stage. It goes without saying that they both sing extremely well, but more than anything they are both top class singing-actors, inviting the audience into their characters worlds as any great actor does. Such performances are a masterclass for young singers.

'Jakob Lenz' is not really an enjoyable opera to watch, it is intense and challenging, not just in subject matter. The music is difficult to access at times and the moments of beauty are more so because of that. I was glad to be able to watch it. If we only allow opera to be music written hundreds of years ago the art form will die and it is great that a house like Stuttgart are performing Lenz.

The future

This week I have started to plan properly for aspects of my time beyond Stuttgart. I have some exciting plans for a potential debut solo CD, which I will keep you all informed about as they develop. I continue to knock on doors both here and further afield and am assessing the various options that I have as I look to establish my career properly. The ever allusive  'artist manager/agent' is still to be nailed down properly and I look forward to, once an artist manager is in place, developing my career as a team. 

My German is improving. Helped in no small part by colleagues who have put up with my slow sentence composition. I have been challenged by one of these people to only speak German here from January onwards. It is a good aim to have, though I will miss having almost every single one of my terrible English jokes being laughed at...... Better learn some jokes in German, if there are any.

This next week brings the Dress Rehearsal for Khovanshchina, more performances of Ariadne, and some space in the schedule to go on some more walks I hope.

In the meantime, hope you all have a good week!

Tom  

Check me out on social media:

@TomElwin on Twitter

and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ThomasElwinTenor

Inspiration

Please excuse the delay in getting this online. You see, I was buzzing with excitement this morning. I really couldn’t wait to get back into work and onto the stage.

It was my third rehearsal for Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, in which I sing the Officer (all 9 words: ‘Laß er das sein und geh er zum Teufel’). Not the most inspiring role but in this production, where the prologue takes place AFTER the opera, I get the chance to sit on stage and listen to some of the most glorious singing I have ever heard live, for about 30 minutes. It is truly inspirational stuff. The marriage of Strauss’s romantic writing with some world class singers makes for numerous spine tingling moments, I almost have to stop myself laughing with joy.

Healthy inspiration

Such moments as this mornings on stage act as a healthy inspiration to keep working, keep striving to be better, keep aiming to be the person who is having such an effect on an audience. I say healthy inspiration because I have had to be careful about my inspiration in the past.

As a young Tenor in my second year at University I knew I wanted to be singer, in fact ever since I was a Choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral I had some sense that I wanted to sing as an adult. I didn’t really know in what capacity though and for me the world of professional choral music was very easy to access. By the age of 20, having just left University, I was singing with some of the top professional choirs in the UK. My singing heroes were the English Tenor school, Bostridge, John Mark Ainsley, Gilchrist, Padmore and of course Anthony Rolfe Johnson. I tried to sing like them, I tried to sing the music they sang and I hoped to one day emulate them. I also found young singers a few steps up the ladder from me to be inspired by, namely Allan Clayton and my good friend Thomas Hobbs, both successful soloists at a young age. The problem with this, though, is that I am not any of these singers. It is easy with hindsight to realise this, but at the time I was trying to crowbar my voice into a sound world that it doesn’t naturally sit in. For Tom Hobbs in particular, it seemed to me that he could sing so easily in a small consort setting like the Cardinals Musik or Tallis Scholars and also be able to develop a strong concert soloist career. It wasn’t until I had got a place at the Royal Academy of Music that I realised this wasn’t going to work for me, that despite being so keen for it to work out, the path to my career was not going to be the same. When I got to music college I was the same though. I saw other singers doing well and wanted to copy them, I saw them impress people I wanted to do the same. To an extent I got lost in trying to be someone else because I thought that was the only way I was going to succeed.

As I sit here now, with a burgeoning career, and so much wiser (?!?) I am still inspired by Thomas Hobbs (Tom), and other singers, but no longer do I want his career. I want my career. I don’t want to be the next Rolfe Johnson, Clayton of Hobbs, I want to be the first Thomas Elwin (though I also want to be the next Pavarotti, Wunderlich and Gedda). Tom is now one of my best friends, was my best man and we speak regularly. I trust his opinions and ears, we share a singing teacher, a love of cars and curry, and I am proud of the success he has. If anything, I am inspired to be the best I can be more because he strives to be the best he can be.

The Week

One singer Tom introduced me to early on in our friendship was Fritz Wunderlich, the great German tenor. Fritz has been a constant throughout the last 8 years of my singing life. It is a rare week that doesn’t include me listening to him singing something, usually Mozart. I was delighted on Sunday, therefore, to find myself in the dressing room here in Stuttgart which has Fritz’s picture on it’s wall.

It was in Stuttgart that Fritz was in the soloists Ensemble, and as I left the dressing room, to go onto the stage and sing Ferrando in a Sextet from Mozart’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’, I pictured myself following in his footsteps.

The Cosi sextet was the first item in Oper Stuttgarts 5 year Opera Studio Anniversary concert and was sung by the six of us who are in this years studio. It was the first chance that the six of us have had to sing together and I had a great time. The concert also featured about 20 other singers from the 5 years of the studio and they sang various arias and ensembles in a what was a great evening for everyone involved.

Inevitably there were drinks and photos afterwards, I met numerous supporters of Oper Stuttgart and the odd agent/artist manager. I couldn’t stay too long though because on Monday I was on stage again at 10 am for a Khovanshchina rehearsal and then in the evening was the final performance of Der Freischütz.

Careful what you say

Probably because I was so tired after a crazy 9 days, the last show of Freischütz was by far the worst I did. Though this was not helped by a member of the music staff warning me, before the show, to be careful because often the last show is the worst. Suddenly all I could think of was what I was going to do wrong and in a self-fulfilling prophesy I scrambled the words of each verse in my song, virtually making up the last line. Though I know she was only trying to be helpful, there is something to be said for getting yourself into a zone and virtually ignoring the people around you before a show. The other six shows were absolutely fine and there really was no need to worry about it.  

With Freischütz finished the rest of the week has been a mixture of Khovanshchina and Ariadne rehearsals. The Mussorgsky continues to use up it’s luxurious 6 week rehearsal process with little urgency, which can be frustrating, but I think it will be a great show. In contrast, I was only introduced into the Prologue of Ariadne on Wednesday morning 4 days and 3 rehearsals before the opening night, this Sunday.

Settling in

I feel pretty settled here now. I have finally started to eat more healthily, despite being keen to experience the local kebabs and ice cream, and have been running a few times through the big park. The weather has been changeable, one day it was like Manchester in February but today it is clear and crisp. My colleagues continue to be kind and supportive. In this sense I feel very lucky to have landed in Stuttgart.

I have managed to work out how to watch UK sport on my laptop so I have caught up with West Ham United’s quite remarkable start to the season and this weekend I can’t wait to watch England beat the All Blacks at Twickenham.

Thanks

Thank you again for you who read this, who have commented or contacted me. Without that I doubt I would have reached 9 weeks of blogging and I will endeavour to reach the end of my time in Stuttgart with this blog.

Those of you so inclined to do so check out my new Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/ThomasElwinTenor where you will be able to read little posts and see photos of my day to day singing life.

I’ll leave you with this link to some great new tracks from The Wealden, featuring a friend and former colleague of mine on Vocals, Tim Dickinson. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/the-wealden

Hope you all have a wonderful week,

Tom 

Honest, Driven, Selfish!

Hello. It's Friday again. My 8th Friday in Stuttgart and I am in the middle of the kind of week I was warned about before I came here. I am aware that, by writing this blog on a Friday, there is a tendency for me to be tired and focus on some negatives more than positives but I am keen to be honest and give a true account of life here and as an opera singer, not a sugar coated one. 

It being eight weeks in, I have some thoughts about why I am here in Stuttgart and what aspects of my personality have contributed to me living on my own in a foreign country when my wife, family and friends are mostly based in the South East of England.

(As I say, I want to be honest, as you will know from my previous posts but an important point to make is that I really love singing, I love being on stage, I love communicating the music and words to an audience. I do love the music of Opera, in particular Verdi, Mozart, Strauss, Donizetti and Bellini. I also love the challenge of trying to make the best of what talent I may have. If I didn't love what I am doing then I wouldn't be here)

Honest

Honesty is very important to me. The virtues of the 'honest' performer are often extolled by reviewers and the search for such a performance acts as an inspiration to improve in all aspects of ones life as a singer. Honesty in learning is important, honesty from coaches and teachers, directors, friends, colleagues. As long as it is constructive, and not destructive, of course. Because we singers can be quite sensitive souls. More so than other musicians, we can feel that any comment on our performances, our voices in particular, are deeply personal.

This aspect of the singers psyche can create a minefield for those coaches/teachers/ directors etc. which they do well to negotiate whilst also trying to give constructive help. Which is why as a singer it important develop an armor around that precious psyche which can deflect some of the flack if the occasional mine is trodden on (excuse me for extending that metaphor). It is also important to find the people who you trust and who can be totally honest with you and I find that I am particularly sensitive to those who are not honest and beat around the bush.

I very am happy to have a core of people I feel I can trust, I can go to them for lessons or coachings and I know they will be honest with me and we will do good honest work. None of them massage  my ego and I feel that their end goal is the same as mine.

Driven (and Selfish)

You may have noticed that I occasionally use language one might associate with sport or business life. Such terms as 'end goal' and 'value added' evoke memories of 'The Apprentice' and not necessarily the world of Opera, this world of art and music, where we perform for the love of it.

Whereas I am not a singer in order to become rich and I do indeed love it, the business aspect of being a performer is extremely important. A realization I didn't make until quite recently. Because when it comes down to the bare facts of the matter, I wouldn't be able to be here singing if they weren't paying me. I also wouldn't be in Stuttgart unless I thought it would aid my future career prospects. Further to that, in order to continue such work and move up in the operatic world I need to create a business that is attractive to opera companies, concert promoters, agents, and one that is employable and sustainable. A 'Thomas Elwin plc'

As with any business there are many aspects to it succeeding and balancing these is always going to be a challenge. Ideally one would have an agent/artist manager to aid in this (more about that another time) but either way there is much to consider. There are all the financial management aspects, as with any small business, decisions about how many lessons/coachings you can afford, whether you can afford to travel to an audition, or whether you can afford not to travel to it.  There are also all the PR aspects, trying to sell your business, the way you look, present yourself, online presence, whether it is good PR to have worked in a certain Opera house or for a certain company. Then of course there are all the artistic aspects, the voice of course, the acting, languages, interpretation, the actual thing you are trying to sell. And not forgetting the personal aspects, the relationships, personal and emotional well being of the employee (me).

When you are on your own in a small flat in a foreign country having rehearsed/performed for 30 + hours in 4 days it is quite difficult to maintain all these aspects but that is where the selfish drive to succeed comes in. Because without a drive to be the best Opera singer I can be I would probably be back in England, singing for fun and working in a job unrelated to Music, and in many ways that is a much more attractive proposition. I would see my wife every day, my family and friends more, I would have more money, I would go and watch West Ham play and maybe take up golf.

This selfish drive has brought me to Stuttgart. This selfish drive will I hope give me a good long career in Opera, I also hope I will have the honesty to admit when things aren't going well and when aspects of the business need considering.

Anyway.....I digress..... what about my week.....

Busy week

As I have mentioned, this week is the sort of week I was warned about. From Monday to today I have been in stage rehearsals for one opera, music and stage rehearsals for a second opera, music rehearsals for a concert on sunday and had performances of a third opera. Each day I look at the schedule and assume that any time I might have for myself will be filled. This doesn't leave much time for tending to many aspects of 'Thomas Elwin plc' life.

Happily, one aspect of 'Tom Elwin plc' was made easier this week with my wife visiting from England. As a teacher she is on half term so we were able to spend the weekend together and then she spent a few days exploring Stuttgart alone whilst I was working. It was lovely to see her and I am looking forward to sharing a German Christmas with her and her parents when they come over in December.

Production rehearsals for Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina have now moved onto the stage. The production uses most of the space Stuttgart's stage has to offer and with the large chorus scenes and various sets it promises to be quite a spectacle. The voices on show are also quite spectacular, I have never heard the volume of voice that one of the Russian singers has, I'm surprised some of you people in the UK haven't heard him from over there.

On Tuesday evening I performed in the 150th performance of Achim Freyer's production of Der Freischutz. A production that was created in Stuttgart in 1980, it was lovely to be on stage whilst the boss, Jossi Wieler, gave a speach which included inviting all those who have been involved with each one of those 150 performances to the stage. We finish the run of performances on Monday, and I will always have fond memories of my debut role in a German Opera house.

Rehearsals have started for Sundays 5 year Opera Studio anniversary concert which features most of the Opera studio singers from that time. Those who aren't already in Stuttgart are arriving in the next day or so and it will be great to see two Tenors who were at the Royal Academy of Music with me, Stuart Jackson and Roberto Ortiz. It will also be great to meet and learn from more singers who are further down the line in their careers. Though I hope the concert will be a great success I am sure the party after will be....

Thank you

Before I leave you for another week, may I thank those of you who have emailed/facebooked/tweeted/phoned me about the blog, asking questions or offering support or advice. I am always glad for the contact and more than happy to meet new people.

Should you want to email, my address can be found under the contact page of my website www.thomaselwin.com .

I leave you with a clip from a Masterclass I took part in during the summer, just to prove to you all that I don't just blog about it but I do also actually sing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wflfq23xxjE

Have a good week!

Tom

Don't talk about the weather

The deathly silence of the lift was horrible. As I stood there, painfully close to the lovely admin lady who was charged with showing me to my warm up room, I could only think of one thing to say:

“das Wetter gut ist, in Stuttgart es ist nicht gut”

Oh dear. That’s all I could think of, talking about the weather. What a terrible cliché! I basically just asked the taxi driver if he was busy…..

At least I spoke though, because one of the biggest barriers to settling here in Germany is the language and at times I feel like I’m on mute.

If only they knew

This feeling of being in ‘mute’ mode is frustrating. Particularly when you don’t want to sound stupid, don’t want to use the wrong word, or to mess up the grammer, it’s just easier not to say anything. In doing so, though, people don’t really get to know me, my true character. For all the chorus know, I am a quiet Englishman who can’t pronounce quick Russian but does a mean Cusack dance. Yet, if I was fluent in German I’d be Mr Chatty by now, talking about anything and everything (probably Football), having a joke and getting to know people.

I can do something about it, though, and I have made it my aim to have more and more detailed conversations in German each day. Most importantly,  not to worry about mistakes.

Here again

It was after deciding to have more German conversations that I arrived for my audition, yesterday afternoon. The lovely lady in the lift, having responded passionately to my weather statements by telling me how nice it was for the time of year, was the first recipient of my conversational goal. She was quickly followed by another administrator, who gave me a form to fill out, and then by the repetiteur who came to run through my arias with me. He turned out to be Irish so I reverted to using my mother tongue. These German conversations, though aimed at helping me learn the language, had the additional benefits of calming my nerves.

As I mentioned, I was here to do an audition. ‘Here’ was Hanover….. Yes, Hanover.

Those regular readers of my blog may remember that Hanover was the first place I ever auditioned at in Germany, in January 2013. It was an occasion I try to forget about and in preparation for this weeks audition I hoped to block it from my thoughts. This time was different though. Instead of coming as an unknown, new to the German system and lacking any German skills, I was here on merit. I had been invited back by the same people who heard me sing so badly 20 months earlier and whom I had rejected. I was coming up from Stuttgart, where I am actually in employment as a singer and I was confident enough to use what little German I have picked up over the last few weeks. I was also aware of my past, aware of what I have written in this blog about talking myself out of singing well and destroying my confidence, aware of the ‘journey’ I have been on to this point and how much happier a position I find myself in.

Supportive Stuttgart

In addition to these things, I was also very well prepared. Like any athlete, and yes, I believe singers should treat themselves like elite athletes, I had a pre-match routine sorted. In the days leading up to the audition I arranged a series of coachings and practise auditions which allowed me to arrive in Hanover confident that I was going to show my best.

The first of these pre-match training sessions was a coaching with John Graham Hall, the English tenor who is here in Stuttgart about to perform a fiendish role in Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm. I have got to know John over the last few weeks having shared one or two, or more, beers with him. In preparing for this audition, I knew full well that I would be singing some of the same arias I have sung at auditions for the last 18 months and the last thing I wanted them to do was to sound stale. The work I did with John was ideal, we worked in detail on text, on telling the story and really portraying the characters through each aria. He was also very honest with me. In true tenor fashion, or maybe it’s just me,  I had brought the Italian Tenor’s aria from Rosenkavalier ‘Di Rigori’ with me as a show off aria. I am not a showing off sort of person but I can sing this aria and it will be good for me in the future. At the moment it is too new, not totally in my voice and a dangerous choice for an audition. John told me exactly that. ‘Don’t do it unless you could walk out at the MET and sing it’ is what he said. Good point and exactly what I needed to be told. He also told me to be confident, almost arrogantly confident, about what I was singing. To look at the panel and show them that I know exactly what I am doing, I can do it very well and they better take notice.

The other main pre-match session I arranged was a mock audition to two of the three casting decision makers here in Stuttgart, Bettina and Veronique. Doubling up as a chance for them to hear me sing a few arias for the first time since March, it was a great opportunity to get immediate feedback from people who sit on panels all the time and who have first hand experience of the sort of audition I was about to do.  Sure enough, their feedback was extremely helpful. They were positive and constructive in their points and I left the session feeling very lucky that I am working in such a supportive opera house.

By the time I got to Hanover, following a 4 ½ train journey, I was very much in the right audition zone. I sang them Belmonte - Mozart and they asked for Duca - Verdi, exactly the same arias I had been asked to sing the day before to Bettina and Veronique. The audition was on the main stage and for once I almost enjoyed myself, even hoping that they might ask for a third aria and being so relaxed as to make a joke with the repetiteur as I walked onto the stage.

My relaxed persona spilled out into the waiting area too. The five other singers, happily waiting there in silence, probably didn’t expect to have to deal with a chatty Englishman, asking questions every two seconds, talking about the weather, travel, singing, football and Indian food. So much were they surprised by this that there was a comedy moment, as the panel left the theatre and walked through us. There I was, mid-story about singing one night in a restaurant, and I turned to see the Bass awkwardly grinning at me and then running down the stairs.

What else

Aside from the audition, the daily routine of the opera house continues. The numerous rehearsals for the big Mussorgsky opera, with and without the chorus, have been enjoyable. Following my lessons last week I have started to ask more questions and to challenge decisions made about my character. Particularly when I have a few key scenes to establish who I am, it is extremely important to the arch of the piece as a whole that I am confident of my characters thoughts, feelings and motivation.

I have performed two more nights as Kilian in Der Freischutz and was delighted to have my opera studio colleague go on as Ännchen as the soprano she was covering was unwell. This was a fantastic opportunity for her and one she grabbed with confidence. I only hope I would react in a similar way and rise to such a challenge if it was presented to me.

The same soprano, Josefin Feiler, and I have found a joint love for table tennis and have started to play in the crews tisch tennis room, in the basement of the opera house. So regular are our games that various members of the crew have begun to challenge us to matches. More about that another day.

Must try harder

I am yet to be totally used to the daily routine here, with some rehearsals starting at 10 and some at 1830, often with a 5 hour space in the middle of the day.

If I am totally honest, which I try to be, I need to work harder at eating well and exercising regularly. There is always an excuse so I’ll start that on Monday, or maybe the 1^st of November….. or after Christmas. No! I need to bite the bullet and just do it.

I am looking forward to spending the next few days with my wife, who visits during her school half term (she is a teacher, not a student), and then preparing for a big celebration concert here in Stuttgart on the 2^nd with all the Opera Studio members from the past five years.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Tom 

Opera Geek

Obsessed, totally obsessed. A proper geek.

There are a number of topics I can claim ‘geek’ level on. As a child I was car mad, could name almost any car, spec level, age, model, engine etc.  I am also a sport obsessive and in particular a massive West Ham United fan, though I no longer have the squad numbers memorized. It is quite normal to be football and sport mad but I also have an obsession with sports shoes and specifically football boots. Check out my twitter feed and you will find pictures from my trips to football boot shops, retweets of numerous articles about Adidas Predator’s (my personal favourites), Nike Magistas and general football boot-obsessed behaviour.

Despite all this, my highest level of obsession is with Tenors. Not just singing, though obviously I am into that quite a lot and music as a whole is quite awesome, but specifically Tenor singing. I am a true Tenor geek, and not afraid to say so. I happily spend my time listening to and watching endless videos of great tenors, from Pavarotti to Wunderlich, Gedda to Bjorling, Caruso to Larui – Volpi. My obsession also seeps out into my day to day life.

Modest Mussorgsky  Tenor

It was yesterday evening, during another three hour rehearsal for Oper Stuttgart’s forthcoming show ‘Khovanshchina’, stood in a large, rotating, wooden box with three ‘prostitutes’ and Andri Khovansky, that I realised the extent of this obsession. For Andri is played by a Tenor and we have the lovely Estonian Tenor, Mati Turi, performing the part.  Having been in the box for about ten minutes, and despite the smiles and general friendly atmosphere in there, I left knowing nothing about the three ladies playing the prostitutes but could almost write a book about Mati.  

Mati is a very interesting man. From 1988 to 1990 he spent two years in the Russian Secret service followed by some time at University and then twelve years as a professional choral singer in Estonia. Only becoming freelance in around 2006, he has since performed, amongst many other works, both Siegfried and Parsifal for companies across Europe including ReissOper in the Netherlands and Opera North in Leeds, UK. In the musical run of the opera last week, when I was in awe of the selection of singers on show, it was a ringing Top A from Mati that gave me the biggest smile. He has a great voice and is a lovely man, he is also a great colleague to learn from.

During the rehearsals this week, of which there have been many, Mati has been great. Friendly, jovial, and then ‘on it’ when needed. Committed and genuine as a performer, he asks questions, a lot. This is the thing I have learnt most from him. Last night, during a scene where I am basically his slave, he was asking questions of the director and assistant all the time. ‘Why here?’ ‘Why now?’ ‘Why am I doing this?’ and so on. I have no doubt that he has put a lot of work into the character himself and now he is constantly searching to make it the best he can with the help of the staff at hand.

It’s easy not to ask questions, of course. Easy to stand there, wait to be told where to go, how to do it. Not to slow things down. That’s useless though. Particularly in a role like mine where I sing so little but am on stage for so long. Questions must be asked, ownership of my character must be had so that wherever I happen to be standing on the stage there isn’t a black hole, with nothing happening, but there is a live character enhancing the piece.

Russian – German – ouch

As I mentioned last week, these small roles are a challenge. Particularly in the case of the Mussorgsky where I am on stage for most of Act’s 1 and 3 yet don’t sing very much at all.

The other big challenge with the Mussorgsky continues to be the language. With rehearsals being conducted mostly in German my concentration is constantly tested. Add on top of this my struggles with a language I have only sung in once before, Russian, and it makes for a challenging week. Sometimes it feels as if my brain can’t take anymore language in and I feel a bit like a 32gb iPad 2 when ideally I’d be a 64gb iPad Air.

My main song, Kuska’s song, in Act 3, is my biggest challenge. Not vocally. Vocally it’s very easy. It is fast though, with no time to think and 4 pages of almost non-stop Russian. It takes place straight after I’ve Cossack danced across the stage for a minute. ‘Higher, higher’ the director said. Higher, higher I tried. I stopped, I tried to breath, I tried to remember my first line and….. nope, gone. De ja vu. So many Russian words rushing through my head and none of them the one I needed.

Mati was kind, though. ‘Such a difficult role to do, Tom, nothing for ages, then running across the stage and singing that fast thing’. He has a point.

In my defence, this was the first time through this section. It will be fine, I will make it as good as possible. We do have another four weeks before first night.

Full time opera house

Over those four weeks Stuttgart are showing me exactly what life at a full time opera house like this can mean.

Der Freischutz performances continue, production for Khovanschina continues, plus 8 days of production rehearsals and opening of Ariadne auf Naxos and also the rehearsals for and performance of an Opera Studio anniversary concert on 2^nd of November.

It really is great to be involved in so many performances and at a house like this. I imagine I may be quite tired at the end of November though. I am also more aware than ever of the use an opera studio has for the Opera house itself.

I am not complaining here, but my voice is my voice. It is a young lyric tenor voice, suited to the tenor roles of Mozart and Donizetti and others. Yet here I am singing Kilian, a character low tenor (baritone) part and Kuska, a character Russian Tenor part. Both parts that in another generation would be sung genuine character tenors who are suited to the roles. For the opera house I am a cheap way to fill these small parts yet when it comes to the directors and the conductors they ultimately want someone who is suitable for the role. ‘Don’t sing it too beautifully’ ‘Make it sound more like a drunk old Russian soldier’ ‘It’s not about your voice’'Make it more character tenor like'. All phrases that I’d hope not to hear if I were singing roles more suited to what I can offer.

Such is the way in an opera studio though.

Next step

I must remember that the Opera studio in Stuttgart is only for a year. I am enjoying myself and it is a good finishing school before my next step, preparations for which continue, starting with an audition in the coming week a four hour train ride away from Stuttgart, in Northern Germany. (that is as much as I am giving you in terms of destination….)

As I have mentioned previously, I am ambitious. I want to be singing the main tenor roles, the Ferrando’s, Nemorino’s, Edgardo’s of the operatic world and ultimately in the best opera houses possible. Hopefully the next step will take me closer to realising these goals.

This brings me back to my Tenor geek-ness.

I often wonder when listening to various singers, current or from the past, how they gained their success. Which doors opened for them and when. I wonder who inspired them as singers, if they went through difficult moments or had to sing a load of small roles somewhere before they were given the opportunity to shine.

Take Mati Turi, a busy singer, singing major roles in good houses across Europe. He didn’t start performing operatic roles properly until he was into his late 30’s.

I remember talking to Welsh Tenor, Dennis O’Neill, about his early career. At 28 he took part in a competition at the Wigmore hall, singing Schubert, Britten and Handel. He says he hadn’t yet discovered he true voice, yet a few years later he was understudying Alfredo Kraus and Nicolai Gedda in Italianate Lyric repertoire and then eventually became the Verdi tenor of choice.

Then there is Joseph Calleja, the Maltese tenor, who competed in the final of the Operalia competition in his early twenties and has been working pretty much non-stop ever since.

My old teacher, Ryland Davies, performed Count Almaviva is Rossini’s Barber of Seville with Welsh National Opera aged 21 and before he was 30 had recorded Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was generally considered to be the leading Mozartian tenor of the time.

Own path

All this information is very interesting, to me at least. What it really shows though is that the path to success is different for everyone. The path to a sustainable operatic career depends on so many things and all one can do as a singer is be prepared and make the most of every opportunity.

In the meantime, I will continue to listen to and be inspired by great tenors from every age. My tip for this week is Piotr Beczala singing ‘Di Rigori’ from Der Rosenkavalier. Enjoy!

Have a lovely week,

Tom