Not long after I left you with my last post I arrived at
Stuttgart Airport in plenty of time to make my Easyjet flight to London
Gatwick. This flight would arrive at 1015, leaving me 3 ¾ hours to get through
security, pick up a hire car and drive the 45 minutes from the airport to the
venue of the wedding I was singing at.
This was planned well in advance, the mother of the bride
specifically wanted me to sing, she knew I would have to fly on the morning of
the wedding and this was the first flight I could get.
Of course, due to Mr Murphy and his law, the flight was
delayed. Initially by an hour, then 90 mins, then 2 hours and then once flying
we had to circle the south east of England about 10 times before landing at
exactly 13:02. This gave me 58 mins to get out of the plane, through the
airport, through passport control, find the car hire, cue for car hire, get
car, drive 45 minute journey to church and then sing Ave Maria and Panis
Angelicus to a Church full of people.
It was like a scene from a film as I ran through an empty
Gatwick in my grey pin stripe suit, my wheelie suitcase struggling to find grip
behind me, innocent bystanders giving me looks of bemusement. Of course I had
to wait at passport control, and of course there was a ten minute wait at the
Car Hire place. ‘I am in rush’ I told the man, ‘no I don’t want any extras, I
have 35 mins to get to a church 45 minutes away’. He smiled, told me not to
drive too fast, of course not, and sent me on my way.
I had emailed the Vicar of the wedding from Stuttgart and
also tried to contact the mother of the bride, just to let them know I would
get there to sing, but may be a tiny bit later than I had planned. I didn’t
want them to worry, they had many more important things to worry about than the
singer. The message had got through but by 2pm, the wedding start time, I wasn’t
there and received a panicked
call:
‘Hi, it’s the brides sister, we
are waiting outside the church, are you nearly here?’
I wasn’t.
‘Yes, I
am just a few minutes away…..’
I lied.
‘Great,
we’ll wait.’
My lie had back fired. I was ten minutes away, stuck behind
an old man who insisted that the 40 mph speed limit should in fact be 25. I
overtook him and eventually made it to Petworth and within 500 feet of the
church only to be stuck behind traffic. My phone rings:
‘Hi, we
are waiting outside the church, are you….’
Before he could finish I power-slid around the corner in
front of the church, parked where I could, apologised profusely for keeping the
Vicar, the Bride, the whole wedding party and a church full of guests waiting
and rushed inside.
The singing went fine. They were very happy with the job I
did. There was nothing I oculd have done to get there any quicker and sometimes
even the best made plans don’t come off.
Career planning
For anyone who likes to know what the future holds in their
career, who likes to know how much money they will have coming in at the end of
each month, to be able to plan next years holiday etc. Opera singing is not the
career for you.
Of course I can have an idea of where I want to be in 5
years time, how much money I will try and be earning, what point of the year I
will try and take off to spend with family but this can and will all change.
I am the CEO of my own company, Thomas Elwin the Tenor, and
as with any company I rely on the market forces around me and how I react to
these. These forces are changing all the time.
Take next season: by early April 2015 I had nothing offered
in terms of work for the 2015/16 season. I was looking blankly at the future,
hopeful but realistic. I had had cancelled auditions, opportunities passing me
by. I knew I had auditions in the pipeline, but one can never rely on future
auditions meaning guaranteed work. I had put myself in a shop window by coming
to Stuttgart to be in the Opera studio, but nothing quite yet.
Then Stuttgart offer me work, three roles as a Guest next
season and covering in one opera. Fantastic! Work! Also, work that means I will
be able to home with my wife for a much more of the year than this year. I hold off signing the contract for a few
weeks just in case something else amazing turns up….. I sign the contract at
the end of April.
At the end of May I audition for ZAV, the state agency, and
a room of casting agents and Intendant. A room of opportunity and potential
work. As a result, five opera houses express interest, two of them serious
interest in hiring me. Typical, why be interested now. Of course now I am not
free for the whole of 15/16, I am signed up for Stuttgart, now I am not in the
position to tell these interested parties that I am instantly employable. In my career game of poker I stuck, in April,
when I could have twisted in May/June.
In truth I am still waiting on these potential opportunities
to come back to me with or without concrete offers. But if they do come in
suddenly there are other questions.
Do I want to be in Germany almost non-stop from September to
July again? Do I want to get throw away some quality time at home? Is this role good for me in this house? What should I be looking to do in terms of
season 2016/17 and beyond? Will these smaller roles at Stuttgart mean they
might take a chance with me in bigger roles soon?
And many many more questions.
Next stage planning will have to wait a bit longer….
The now
Whilst I wait for the future to become clearer it is
important not to lose sight of the now. I am still here in Stuttgart, still in the
studio, still sitting politely at the back of the theatre watching Rigoletto
rehearsals (it is going to be a great show I think).
Now 11 days into June there is a definite sense of the end
season at the House. The announcement of the next seasons programme earlier in
the week has many looking to September and beyond and coachings have started
appearing on the daily schedule for next years shows.
Given that two of the roles I perform next season are ones I have
done this season (one performed, one covered) I wasn’t expecting any ‘next
season’ coachings. I was wrong, I have a language coaching for the third role, Nathanael
in Contes D’Hoffman, this afternoon. The opening night of Hoffman is March 19th
2016…. No I haven’t started learning Nathanael yet.
Other rehearsals this week have included a few more individual
sessions on Cosi, just in case, a coaching on Rigoletto, just in case and a
lovely coaching yesterday in which I sang through 7 arias (Mozart x 4, Gluck,
Bellini and Verdi) partly in preparation for an audition here on Sunday (yes, Sunday
morning!!) and partly just for the fun of it.
Away from the music
After the wedding on Friday, it was great to be able to
spend a weekend at home with Mrs Elwin. We will not see each other again before
the 27th of July.
The weather in Stuttgart has been odd, I returned on Monday morning
to almost arctic conditions but we have ended the week with clear skies and
sunshine. Ideal weather for a BBQ, which some of us had last night in the park.
The Mercedes Cup, a tennis tournament, is in town including
Rafa Nadal, so I am considering heading along to that this afternoon as well as
possibly going to see the new Jurassic Park film (I was a massive fan as a
child).
Beyond that, its five weeks left in Stuttgart, just the four
more Fridays on which to write about life in the Opera studio and as a hopeful
Opera singer. Thanks for sticking with me,
Until next time.
Tom
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