I would never write anything horrible about other people on Facebook or Twitter, I would never jeopardise my work with an Opera company or Orchestra by expressing stupid views or insulting someone for everyone to read. Yesterday evening I was in a terrible mood, and I could quite easily have written something on twitter about it, for all 953 followers to read instantly.
It is this immediacy and potential reach that can scare people about 'social media', two things that are also great about it. The ability for 'John Smith' to tweet about delays on the London Underground and for that to be read, within minutes, by hundreds of thousands of people across the world, not just in London, is quite remarkable and useful if you happen to be heading to the Underground. More seriously it can give power to people to spread important news quickly, mobilise, even fight oppression like in Egypt during 2011 or the Iranian election protests of 2009/10.
In a world where good PR and being perfect is imperative, large organisations are petrified of being found out through social media. Of having an employee speak honestly about the goings on in the company, or have an employee say something controversial and potentially detrimental to their public face. They only want social media to help spread the news of their great work and all the positive things they have done. Further to that, we as individuals are scared of not seeming perfect, fun, busy, successful. The amount of self congratulatory Facebook statuses or Tweets often far outweigh the negative and if I compared my life to the life I think my friends are leading through their social media stories then I'd be quite depressed.
Social art form
Arts organisations are just as afraid of social media as any one else. Famously a soprano was recently sacked in Australia on the back of a post she had written, on Facebook, expressing some unsavory views. But like other organisations they want to use it to increase their reach,
People could learn a lot from The Wigmore Hall, the wonderful recital hall in the middle of London. They have a great social media presence and approach, a selection of people from their office take it in turns to man the twitter feed and due to their relaxed engaging tweeting they have created a real personality. Occasionally funny, often interacting with others, the occasional adverts for concerts make more impact as a result and I would suggest that they are doing more than most to champion classical music through this modern medium.
So what about Social Media as an Opera singer. How does it help? Whats the point? Why do some agents encourage their artists to have twitter and instagram and a facebook page?
Social media is not compulsory, but assuming you do sign up for it there are no obvious manuals for how to be. There are, though, some people who do it very well. Like Mezzo-Soprano extraordinaire Joyce Di Donato. Through her instagram and twitter, and particularly through her vlogging, video blogging, she has developed a fan base who feel like they know her. She has become a darling of the media in fact and she does it very well. Then there is Scottish Bass-Baritone Iain Paterson, who blogs eloquently and intelligently, often addressing serious issues within Opera with well thought-out arguments and, at the same time, tweets about his frustrations with South West Trains and the challenges of memorising a role with 5000+ words in it. In contrast there are people with twitter accounts who are terrible at it. One particular artist who was recently launching a book had his twitter account set up so that it re-tweeted every tweet that mentioned him, which just annoyed his regular followers and made it obvious that he didn't really care. And we all know that its easier to lose someones interest than it is to get it back.
My experience of using Twitter in particular has been positive. On the back of Tweets and retweets, as well as shares on Facebook, my blog has now had over 25'000 page views. That's on average over 1000 views for each post I have written. I find that quite remarkable for a guy who is just writing a little blog about trying to be an opera singer. Yet despite 950 Twitter followers and 5'000 hits a month on my blog, my personal website gets about 400 per month on average and I have 'only' 160 likes on my Facebook page and 100 listens to my soundcloud clips a month. All in all though, any of those views on my website via social media results in more people knowing about me and the hope is of course that that will lead to people coming to hear me, becoming fans and buying my (yet to be made) CD's or even for agents and opera companies to be interested in me. In the wider scheme of things it is also a hope that more people will be interested in Opera as a result.
The balance
For me, I think there has to be a good balance with using social media to further ones career as a singer. A balance between selling and engaging. I hope to follow good examples like the Wigmore, Iain and Joyce, interact well with followers, write interesting posts, not just about music, engage with society and genuinely trying to extend the reach of our art form. I try not to bore people, let alone myself, yet try to actually tell people about what I am doing. As I have mentioned before, honesty is very important to me and a lack of honesty on Social media is as much as a turn off as retweeting every time you get mentioned. I try to show some of my personality yet also keep a lot to myself, for the important private side of life.
Take this blog, I didn't contrive to write it as a way to become famous. Far from it, I wrote it originally as a way to let friends and family know what I was doing and also for anyone who may be interested to read about life in an Opera studio. That is it being read in many countries by quite a few people is a product of its honesty and not of me trying to sell myself. That is may be helping increase interest in Opera among Facebook friends and Twitter followers is a really good by-product and if I can get more people interested in this world of Opera which I love then that's great.
This week
That brings me, finally, onto this week. Don't worry Oper Stuttgart, I am not about to write a load of negatives about the place and my life here. In all honesty, there is no need. I think Oper Stuttgart is a great house and place to work. Anyone who has read all twenty of my posts so far will know how positive I feel about the house and my colleagues.
If I glossed over my frustrations this week, though, I wouldn't be being honest with you all and would be giving any future Opera Studio members a false sense of happy contentment. The truth is that, as I was warned, sometimes being the opera studio guy can be annoying. I want to be Pavarotti, at the front of the stage singing great arias, in great opera houses and to great crowds of people. The current Opera I am in I am not that. I am the guy at the back of the stage, clearing the table and playing the statue, and making sure the floor isn't slippery for the next scene. Sure enough I sing a bit in the show, not very much, and it has been great to be part of the process of creating a new production, but I sure can't wait for my next chance to get my hands on a proper role which I can live in and develop. Given that the only calls I have had this week have been for my role as the servant you will understand my frustrations even more. It is my challenge to not allow those frustrations to show, to do a good job, take from it what I can and move on.
As a result of this my other current focuses feel even more important. The role of Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, which I cover later in the Stuttgart season, continues to settle into my voice well, which is good. I am preparing the music for three choral society concerts I am doing back in the UK in March and April and I am also trying to piece together the repertoire for a UK competition I have entered for around the same time. Choosing repertoire for competitions, and in fact recitals, can be bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle and it takes time for the final picture to emerge.
The early planning for some recital CD's continues, a more complicated jigsaw puzzle than that of choosing competition repertoire which includes thinking about programmes, collaborators, venues, timing, costs and fundraising etc. I am, though, very excited about the potential end products and the process as a whole, and will keep you all updated as this develops.
Away from the Opera
Outside of the Opera life (what... there is a life outside Opera??) I have been enjoying running through the local park, despite the freezing weather. I have also laughed at the reaction I get from other park users when they see my bare legs whilst it is minus 4 degrees Celsius. They obviously haven't played Rugby on frozen pitches in a howling gale or sung Christmas carols when its so cold that you can't read the music through the thick fog your breath is creating. One guy stopped and started shouting at me and pointing at my legs..... maybe he liked my knees, I didn't stick around long enough to find out.
I had a lovely evening with some of my opera studio colleagues and a member of the ensemble, and his wife, last Saturday evening. Sharing food and wine, watching films and generally having a normal evening. Just what the doctor ordered. I returned to the same house later in the week to join a friend of mine from the Royal Academy who is here covering the main tenor part in Il Vologeso. Away from Opera he is a massive Board game fan and he introduced me to some of the most complicated and actually most enjoyable Board games I have played, though I didn't win any which annoyed me. I'll have to read up on strategy before the next time.
Happily this evening I am free to watch the start of the 6 Nations Rugby championship, which will keep me well occupied over the next few weeks. Come on England!!
So in the meantime, hope you all have a great week.
Tom
ps: Fitter again, 95.5% of Starter weight.... Next week will be better.
follow me: https://twitter.com/tomelwin
Read about me: www.thomaselwin.com
Contact me: thomaselwin@hotmail.co.uk
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