Just keep swimming

I have benefited a lot from being a Young Artist in Stuttgart. I would recommend it to anyone who is even considering the German Opera studio route. Forty weeks into the season though, and currently being involved in my 8^th production here, I have a mild yearning for the freelance life I have experienced a bit before. The fact that this run of 8 different Operas has been almost non-stop since September 15^th 2014 doesn’t help matters and, having been used to being in different cities and countries week on week in my life as a freelance Choral singer, this one house dwelling is starting to feel a tiny bit claustrophobic.

Of course, if I was freelancing at the moment I would possibly be complaining about having to move around every few weeks and a yearning for a more fixed place of work. Some people are never content!! (at least I am aware of this….)

Away from home

One aspect of this young artist experience that is quite specific to me is my personal situation. The decision to come to Stuttgart was a decision also to spend the best part of 45 weeks on the trot living away from my wife, a hugely talented and dedicated Music teacher in a school in Hertfordshire.  It was never an option for me to pull her away from that job just for a year in Stuttgart. This means that there is an even stronger sense that I am only in Stuttgart for the job and that yet again I am delaying the rest of my life just for the singing.

I guess that only being from England, just a short hop away, made me think that the distance wouldn’t be an issue. I’ve done trips away before and I spent 11 years at boarding school. Maybe if Mrs E and I were from the USA then I wouldn’t have made the choice to come here, though of course that throws up a load of other questions about Europe and specifically central Europe being the hub of the Operatic working world.

Of course we didn’t make the decision lightly, but it is fair to say that I am now very much bored of not being at home with Mrs Elwin. I won’t see her for another five weeks…. These can’t go quickly enough.

Plugging away

The work here hasn’t changed hugely in the last few weeks. I continue to attend and watch rehearsals of Rigoletto. Borsa, the role I am covering, is not the biggest but I will sing 6/7 performances in the run next season so even if I don’t get on this season the work will not feel wasted.

I continue to have coachings on Cosi Fan Tutte. Tonight I will be running through as much of the piece as possible up in the Probenzentrum, our huge rehearsal venue about twenty minutes from the Opera house, with just me, one of the assistant directors and a pianist. I will have to imagine the other five singers, the chorus, the set, the costumes, the orchestra, the audience…. And the nerves of course, but it will be a very useful exercise should I end up going on in any of the last three performances.

Aside from these rehearsals I continue my daily routine of practise and voice work. I see it very much like an athlete doing their daily training schedule. Daily exercises to keep myself in shape but also improve my singing. My voice has changed a huge amount in the last five years, from choral ‘English’ Tenor with potential to develop as a soloist to a hopefully promising young Lyric Tenor. At times my psyche doesn’t believe that I am what I have become and will throw doubts into the path in front of me. These are inevitable and working on having a true confidence in what I am doing is another area ‘in progress’.

More inspiration

I’ve been listening to a remarkable young Brazilian Tenor here in Stuttgart all week. Atalla Ayan is singing the Duke in Rigoletto and his is a voice that just makes you smile. It is brilliant, ringing, classically Italianate, beautiful and so on. He is a hugely committed singer too and someone I am inspired by.

More inspiration has been on show in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition as put on by the great BBC. It’s been good to see some Tenors who are at the Mozart end of the spectrum (I would say that) doing well and also to hear some quite fantastic singing. One singer who has caught much of my twitter feeds imagination is the Mongolian Baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat. The BBC analyst, Mary King, was quite emotional after his performance and spoke of the visceral reaction in the hall to the unamplified voice.

I will always champion Opera as an art form and I think it is important for us to remember such reactions to a single voice who, in this context, is ‘just’ standing still in the middle of a concert stage. No special lighting or costumes or actions. Just the plain voice. The public goes mad for a voice that touches them, we all do, and for me this reaction to a voice is what I am looking for when I go to the Opera. I’m not going to attack Regie Theater or Directors but I think this most appealing aspect of Opera, the voice that people will travel miles to hear, is sometimes forgotten.

It is also important to note that Mr Mongolia is no model, he isn’t David Gandy with a voice, and he isn’t buff like a swimmer. Did that stop the audience reacting with a massive ovation? No.

What next

Opportunities on the back of my audition for ZAV, the state agency, continue to trickle in. A couple of auditions in Germany and one in Austria to look forward to. I would obviously be delighted if I got all three of them, for the time being though it is just great to be considered for audition.

Now…. Back to watching Rigoletto in the 2^nd stage and orchestra rehearsal.

Hope you all have a good week.

Tom