Almost show time!

The build-up in excitement and tension during the final week of show rehearsals is always significant. On this occasion, when we are performing a work by Jommelli that has been performed only a handful of times in the last 300 years, in a new production by the Intendant Jossi Wieler and his directing partner Sergio Morabito which is being seen as one of the biggest events of the season, those feelings are even stronger.

Constants

For the singers, and I guess I include myself in that despite not singing much in the show, the final week of rehearsals is a chance to cement the work we have been doing for many weeks back in the rehearsal room. A chance to settle into the theatres space, acoustic, lighting and so on. It isn’t made easy though. From rehearsal to rehearsal things are added, changed and taken away with the various decision makers doing their final tinkering, for me it can feel a bit unsettling.

The first time we get the complete set and costumes is during the piano-dress, a complete run accompanied by piano. This is the first time you realise that certain costume changes are impossible with the real costumes, or that the real costumes don’t have the flexibility for you to move in the same way when you are, for example, cleaning blood from the stage floor. I tend not to worry anymore when I hear the odd rip in the new costume as it settles into its working life with me.

After the piano dress everything ‘real’ is taken away and we return to using rehearsal props and costumes, in the knowledge that they are quite different to the real thing. For this show we then had 5 stage and orchestra rehearsals. That’s 5 three hour rehearsals continuing to develop the show on stage whilst the orchestra gets used to the piece and the conductor settles into the pace on stage. With so much action on stage the conductor always needs to be alert. Often, early in stage orchestra rehearsals, little pauses that have been rehearsed for weeks in the practise room disappear and the well established pace of the scene is lost, only to return towards the end of these rehearsals.

After each stage and orchestra rehearsal we singers have notes from the Director. In the case of this show, notes have tended to last an hour or so with every little detail noted and discussed. This is not a show that is under-cooked, there has been so much time and care taken to make each scene as strong as possible.  The care and time is extended to the two Imperial guards too, we have been made to feel part of the process throughout, and this week extra time was found to add depth to many of our new silent stage appearances.

Following the end of the stage and orchestra rehearsals we then have the pre-dress rehearsal, which was last night. Back come all the original set and props and on again comes the original costume, though with a few additions to make movement even more difficult though also with an extremely comfortable pillow sown into the jacket which would make leaning against walls a breeze.  

Big team

One of the niceties of these final few rehearsals is that you get to see all the people that go into making the show. For weeks on end the company feels tiny, the 8 singers, Directors and music staff creating the piece miles away from the theatre. Then, as the stage and orchestra week develops, more and more people turn up and you realise how much work has gone in to creating the piece.

I may have mentioned before but Stuttgart is the biggest multi-discipline theatre in Europe, with theatre, ballet and opera all on the same site and over 1000 people working here. Everything is done within house and so when I stand and stare at the stunning art work that is the backdrop of our set I know that someone within our theatre team has created it. I know for a fact that the intricate material used for our jackets in the show was made by hand in the theatre (I’ll show you a picture next week). Its stunning work and we are very lucky in Stuttgart to have such skilled craftsmen.

What else

In addition to all the stage rehearsals this week we had one performance of Nabucco, my 30^th performance of the season.  I also took some time away from the theatre to enjoy the start of the 6 Nations Rugby Championship in which England made a very good start.

Having chosen to watch the match in the Irish bar in the middle of town I was surprised to be the only Englishman. A scattering of red-Wales shirts  appeared just before the match but the bar was mostly full of locals whose response to the big tackles and hard hits was more shock and horror than anything else. They were also quite alarmed by my vocal support and string of expletives when England finally started playing well. This weeks game is an earlier kick off so I imagine the bar will return to being almost completely empty, I hope so.

Next

Tonight is the final rehearsal, or Dress Rehearsal, or General Rehearsal (whatever it is called in the different theatres) for the Jommelli with the opening night on Sunday. I am excited to finally be performing it and to get onto other projects again. I have a couple of auditions coming up and a little trip back to the UK at the end of the month which will come just at the right time!

Hope you all have a good week. Thank you for reading.

Tom 

ps: Weight gone in the right direction this week. Happy face

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Social media?

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.

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Home from Home?

As I was running through the Rosenstein Park last night, trying to grab at some ideas for this weeks post, I realised that I am quite fond of this little corner of Germany, of Stuttgart.

To me Stuttgart feels small, particularly as a Londoner, and if I was here on a year long experiment trying to experience the great German night life then Stuttgart wouldn't be high on my list of cities to visit. It is, though, a well formed city, with strong culture, a few nice places to eat out, good shopping areas and a surprisingly good mix of old and new architecture.  The public transport is good and when it isn’t then nowhere is far to walk to anyway.  

The position of my flat is very convenient, which helps a lot. I am no more than twenty minutes walk from the centre of town, there is a big park 5 minutes away, there are backerei and mini-markts scattered around and if I want to get out of the city, half an hour walk over the hills and I find myself in the surrounding forests.  

Yet Stuttgart is not home and the realisation that I won’t be here beyond the next 6 months doesn’t help this fact.

Boarding School

I am quite good at not being at home. Having first started at boarding school as a 7 year old trainee St. Paul’s Cathedral choirboy, I have had 21 years to get used to being away from family and home comforts. Such experiences as a young child have enabled me to settle quickly wherever I happen to be, something that is useful in this sometimes nomadic life of an Opera singer.

A lot has changed in those 21 years and the internet likes to make us think the world is a smaller, more accessible place than ever before. What the internet doesn’t do is enable you to have those normal conversations you have with family and friends when you are just sitting around, watching Top Gear or having food. Despite all the Facebook posts and hashtags, the internet is no substitute for real human contact and in truth hanging onto what friends and family are doing through social media can make one feel further from home instead of nearer to it.

It was good then, this week, to have some familiar faces turn up in Stuttgart for auditions at the House. Nice to be able to show them Stuttgart, and nice to be able to chat about things back in the UK.

Opera studio auditions

With my friends over in Stuttgart this week, I realised it is a year since my own Stuttgart Opera Studio auditioning experience. What a year it has been, and I still can’t quite believe I am here now having been at such a low ebb for much of 2013. I would encourage any of you who happen to be auditioning at the moment to persevere, not be too down trodden by any rejection and look forward to the next opportunity.

I have to remind myself of this all the time, last weeks audition cancellation being a good example. There is nothing I could have one about it and though I was frustrated such feelings are wasted energy. Now this week three other audition opportunities have come my way, which is great and a great relief, and obviously I feel really excited about it.

The Now

In a career where one is always looking to the next audition, competition, concert, city etc. It is easy not to enjoy the now. My run last night not only helped me realise how much I like Stuttgart, it also helped me realise how much I am enjoying the work at the moment.

The show I am currently rehearsing, Il Vologeso by Jommelli, has a great cast of singers and a really positive production team, including the Intendant Jossi Wieler. With such a small role to play, rehearsals can often feel long and drawn out, yet with Jossi and Sergio Morabito, his long time directing partner, even the two guards are made to feel integrated into the production.  The importance of us guards to develop our own characters through the plot has been emphasised and any danger that we were just going to come on for 2 minutes to sing our little quartet and disappear to be forgotten has dispersed.

Away from the Jommelli I continue to work on learning Cosi Fan Tutte, which I understudy in later in the season. I just love the music so much and in contrast to Jommelli, who was writing around the same time, Mozart is such fun to play and sing through.  I say play, my keyboard skills make the playing of Mozart more comedic than it should be, but fortunately this morning I have a coaching on it so I can concentrate on just singing!

I am also learning music for some upcoming concerts, both here in Stuttgart with the Opera studio, and back in England. I am really looking forward to performing Messiah on the 8^th of March at the Leith Hill Music Festival. This festival, no more than 5 miles from my secondary school,  is 110 years old this year and the conductor of the first concert was Ralph Vaughan Williams. I was always aware of the festival when I was at school and there is a buzz amongst the local musicians when it comes around each year. This year I am singing in it for the first time and am lucky enough to be in two concerts with them, including Messiah.

No Football

There was no football this week. Though I was free to play, the orchestra had a stage and orchestra rehearsal which clashed with their regular football slot. The Opera house must plan better in the future.  Maybe I should send them a quick email, they obviously don’t realise how much I enjoyed it.

In the meantime, hope you have a great week. Until next time,

Tom

Ps. Health check I am fitter than before, but his week the weight hasn’t changed. Must try even harder. 

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Next stumble?

I had an audition cancelled yesterday, which is extremely frustrating. Not postponed, like this particular audition has been three times up to now, but now cancelled because they have decided to cast the role in question from within the Opera house’s Ensemble. Initially I had been going to audition to be a member of the Ensemble on a Fest. (fixed to one house for a season or more) contract but earlier this week this was changed to me just auditioning for the one role as a guest (someone who only does one role at the opera house and is not in the fixed Ensemble). As you can imagine, this is extremely frustrating. I didn’t even get a chance to sing to them and, with this audition having been about to happen for four months now, you can imagine the emotional energy and time I have put in to trying to get my first post-Stuttgart job.

Alien concept

For many British singers, the idea of a Fest contract is quiet alien. There are no ensemble Opera houses in the UK, despite there being many singers who are regulars with particular companies. Over there we are much more used to the idea of being freelance, of jumping from contract to contract, city to city, country to country even. Meeting lots of new people at each Opera house, becoming Facebook friends and then never seeing each other again.

In contrast, the idea of a Fest contract only being two years, which is often what the beginner contract is in these houses, is pretty alien to the average German. Having discussed this with a friend of a colleague after our final performance of Ariadne auf Naxos this week, I was struck with how shocked she was that our jobs were not secure for much longer. How could we live like this, she wondered.

The Fest ‘thing’ has quite a bad reputation in parts of the UK opera community. The idea that a house owns you and might make you sing roles you aren’t ready for because you are the house Lyric Tenor frightens people. Also, the idea of performing all the time, rehearing for 6 hours the same day as a performance, having to do shows on Christmas day etc. This is of course an exaggerated view, and though there are some smaller houses that crowbar their singers into as many roles as possible, the fact is that you have to be aware of what sort of contract you are entering and take good advice before you sign up and most houses here aren’t like that, or so I have been told.

I was astonished to learn from my Tenor colleague, Heinz Göhrig, that in his time at Freiburg Opera he performed 120 show nights a year, for three years. That’s a show every three days, and I still consider my 45+ nights in Stuttgart to be a significant number. Since leaving Freiburg, 28 years ago, Heinz has been in the Ensemble at Stuttgart and he is now a Kammersänger, a title bestowed on a singer, usually who has given long enough service and which practically means he has a job for life. A 31 year career to date and still going, always in a Fest, always guaranteed work and income, maybe not a star at the MET or ROH, but I would consider Heinz to be a hugely successful singer with such a career behind him.

So what about me

So what about me…. with this audition cancelled without even getting through the door. Would a Fest really interest me? Would I want a career like Heinz? Would I rather freelance, guest around Europe and have a better chance of spending some time in the UK with my family, friends and wife!

I have an audition in February which, if I get past the 1^st round, will give me the opportunity to sing to a large number of casting directors and Intendant from across Germany. Hopefully, given the chance, this will open up some doors of opportunity. I am also actively looking for management, and am organising auditions and meetings both in the UK and Germany to try and get this sorted soon.  I have plans for at least two recital discs and plans to enter a few competitions over the year.  All of which is me trying hard to establish some sort of a career.

No golden ticket

Because despite being one of 25+ Tenors to have auditioned for the Opera studio in Stuttgart, and having been the one chosen, the fact that I am on an Opera studio/Young Artist Programme is NO GUARENTEE of success. It may help open a few doors, it is a good learning experience and all the things I have written about for the last 5 months have been good for my career development, but I am not there yet.

The Week

The week started with a performance of Ariadne, followed by a last minute trip to Frankfurt to meet up with three friends, two Bass/Baritones and a soprano who are all based there. We had lunch, which for me meant sharing this massive plate of wurst, sauerkraut and potatoes (can you even think of anything more German!)

And then I got to see, and hear (2nd half sitting next to the stage manager as per above picture), the last night of La Sonnambula, in which my soprano friend, Louise, was singing. It was a lovely show and I really like the house at Frankfurt. Best of all was hearing Brenda Rae in the lead role. An American Soprano who has been in the Frankfurt Ensemble for a number of years, her singing of this fiendish role was amazing, some of the best singing I have ever heard. She could do anything on any note. Some of her quiet super high notes were breath taking, and the audience reacted suitably. I did meet her briefly when introduced by Louise and I mumbled my way through a congratulations in the role of star struck super fan.  

The rest of the week included two performances of Nabucco, the final show of Ariadne, and more rehearsals for Il Vologeso. I also got to sing through most of Cosi fan Tutte with a coach, which was great fun.

Football

The highlight of my week, aside from hearing Brenda and Louise in Frankfurt, was an invitation to play, and subsequent playing of, 5 aside football with some guys from the Staatstheater Orchestra. I am a big football fan and I have missed playing 5 aside, which I used to do most Monday nights in London, since I moved here. I jumped at the chance when Florian, a viola player, asked me and the two hours of Thursday afternoon, in a sports hall in Felbach (NE of Suttgart) were great. Hopefully it becomes a regular thing and the fitter I get the better I will play. Though I think my new German friends were impressed with my solid mixture of silky skills and occasional brute strength, maybe not the Violin player whose hand I almost broke.

Football is a great passion to share and I am glad to have found some people to share it with, even if there is a mild language barrier.

A friend I shared a passion for football with as a child was Nick Wilkes, a big Arsenal fan who I knew from the age of 7 to 13 and then got back in touch with in the last few years via the wonders of Facebook. Sadly this week marked a year since Nick took his own life, on the 21^st of January 2014, having battled with Bipolar disorder. I was grateful to get the chance to sing at his funeral and then, later in the year, sing in two fund raising concerts in his memory. Fundraising is still happening and the money raised is going towards supporting a research fellow with 'MQ Transforming Mental Health', a small but important charity doing great work. https://www.justgiving.com/nick-a-w-wilkes Do consider supporting it if you are so inclined. RIP Nick!!

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

Speak soon!

Tom

ps. Health check, down to 96%, slowly but surely....

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End of a Beginning

Like most people who have been through the UK education system, I love a structured year plan. Also as a massive sports fan, this year plan tended to be based on which sport we were playing that term. Rugby in the Autumn, Football in the Spring, Cricket in the Summer. Long break in the summer and back to School on the 1st of September. 

I am also quite a fan of milestones. This week is 18 months since my first tentative singing lesson after 4 months with no voice, the theme of blog episode one if you are interested. 

In terms of my year in Stuttgart, this week marks the end of Rugby and beginning of the Football term, the end of the beginning. 

The Beginning

This beginning in Stuttgart has been a great learning experience. Performing roles in 4 operas, in three different languages, with 25 performances on the Oper Stuttgart stage, has been exactly what I hoped for and expected in being a member of an Opera Studio/Young Artist Programme. Meeting and singing with long time professionals, picking their brains and seeing how they work has all added to the learning experience. 

Moving away from the UK has also been a learning curve. Learning when to smile and nod and when to run away from a conversation. Learning how quickly one must be ready to pack your bag at a supermarket because German till lady waiteth for no man! Getting used to shops being closed on a Sunday and to public transport being cheap-ish and not overcrowded. 

Stage 2

So what is the next stage in Stuttgart for me. 

The way the roles have fallen across the year for me, with much of the work focused between September and January, means that from now to when I finish in July my work pattern and focus will change quite a lot. Aside from the tiny role at the beginning on Jommelli's 'Il Vologeso' that I am currently rehearsing, and performances of Nabucco, the only other operas I will be working on are two that I am understudying in, with no guaranteed performances of either. 

These operas, and roles, are Borsa in Verdi's Rigoletto, a secondary role which is good for a young tenor to do, a soft introduction into the world of Verdi, and Ferrando in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, which I am really excited about. 

Ferrando is a role that I have always felt attached to. I first sang it, in English, in a church in Cambridge with Shadwell Opera. This was Shadwell Opera's first production and one of my first experiences of singing in Opera, I had a great time. Then in November 2009, now a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, I was given a section from Act 1 to sing in a set of Opera scenes.  I was fortunate enough to be learning with Ryland Davies at the time, Ryland being a great Mozartian tenor in his day and having recorded Ferrando with Solti and the Royal Opera House in the late 1970's he was the ideal person to be learning the role with. 

Next, in May 2011, I took part in a great course with Jackdaws, a Musical education trust down in Somerset, in which we put on Cosi Fan Tutte in about a week, again in English, including working with local school children. I will never forget going into a school for children with severe learning difficulties and being asked to sing Ferrando's aria to them. Their reactions were amazing, they were truly spell bound by the music and the sound of a live operatic voice. 

Then in April 2014 I was invited to be one of the 6 singers on the Solti Accademia course for repetiteurs in Venice, during which we worked on and performed the Act 1 finale from Cosi, including a number of sessions on it with Richard Bonynge,

So you can see how Ferrando and Cosi has always been a thread through my early Operatic life. This meant that when I saw Cosi down on the season list for Stuttgart this year, I was particularly keen to make sure I was involved, and am delighted to be understudying it.

Different challenge

As I enter stage 2 of the year I am aware that the challenges will be quite different to the early ones.

With the roles to date, I have never had to sing for more than 10 minutes in an evening, I have rarely been central to plot developments and rarely had music challenging enough vocally to be a worry.

The learning aspects of the small roles are good in many ways, in getting you onto the stage, developing stage craft, trying to make an impact with each small line you have to do. What they don't do, though, is help you develop the stamina for a bigger role, like Ferrando.

In stark contrast to the smaller roles, Ferrando feels a bit like he is singing all the time and instead of making a mark with every line you have, the challenge becomes the managing of resources. Knowing that in 45 minutes you have an aria, in 90 minutes you have a long duet, that each finale seems to go on forever and so on. If I were singing the role properly, and not the understudy, I would get to sing it in during rehearsals, getting used to the pace of the evening over 6 weeks and knowing how far I can take myself. As the understudy I will need to do this work in a practise room on my own.

I also have the challenge of memorising 3 hours of Italian words, fitting them to music I have previously memorised with English words attached. I would be a fool to underestimate how difficult this process will be particularly, again, since I am the understudy and so I won't have the help of constant repetition with the other voices. Instead I will be in a practise room, on my own. 

Fortunately, since most of my other roles are finished, I have the time and space to really immerse myself into learning Ferrando and so when rehearsals start, in April, I will be ready to jump in at any moment. 

This week

The beginning of this week we had the opening night of Nabucco, having had about 4 days of rehearsals in total as I mentioned last week. Being my fourth opening night of the season, my sense of excitement and nervous energy was not as much as in the past. This was probably not helped by the short rehearsal process. I think I did an ok job though, and the audience were once again very appreciative.

On Tuesday we had the Opera Studio concert in the MusikHalle in Ludwigsburg, 15 mins outside of Stuttgart. This was a great occasion and the only time over the year that the six of us will have performed together. 

Billed as a 300th birthday celebration of Jommelli, who lived and worked in Ludwigsburg, the first half was packed with music from 'Il Vologeso', which we are doing at Oper Stuttgart in February. We also peformed a sextet from Cosi, the finale of Don Pasquale and various arias/duets by Rossini and Donizetti. 

I was lucky enough to be singing Edgardo and Lucia's duet from act 1 of Lucia di Lammermoor, followed immediately by Edgardo's challenging recit. and aria from the end of the opera. As I have mentioned before, the small roles of the first few months don't really prepare you to have the stamina for a long night of singing and I was aware that these 20 minutes of Donizetti were going to be quite a challenge. I am a big fan of this music and often listen to great singers singing it, in-particular Pavarotti and Sutherland. They both sound so at ease singing it and I found it a big challenge to stay calm enough to maintain the sense of Bel Canto, and not Can Belto!! In a practise room and in my singing lessons this music is always a joy to sing, but I know myself and my past tendency to want to impress in performance, to tense up and to make such music a battle instead. Happily, on this occasion, I had a great time singing it. It wasn't as easy as in a lesson, and I was excitedly nervous, but I feel we gave a good account of the music and that I am genuinely an Edgardo, as opposed to just singing this music in a one off concert. The experience will I'm sure help me when I perform the whole role one day.

The audience were very appreciative of our concert, and we were hosted at a local Italian restaurant afterwards. This was followed by a couple of drinks in the middle of Stuttgart with just the six of us from the studio. Again, this was the first time all of six of us had been together properly, it made for a lovely evening.

Away from the opera

Away from the stage, I decided to take my German studies to the next level and went to see the quintessentially English film, Paddington, at the cinema..... in German..... Happily I understood more than I thought I would. Some of this language is obviously filtering through. 

I continue to try and eat healthily and exercise, though the concert on Tuesday put a delay to my exercising too heavily earlier in the week. 

Next

Tonight we have the penultimate performance of Ariadne, with the last one on Tuesday next week. We also have a couple of Nabucco performances over the week. These performances aside I will mostly be spending time learning Ferrando and trying to run through the big park without stopping.

Hope you all have a good week,

Until next time,,,,,

Tom

ps. Health check, slower progress this week. Down to 97% of weight from 97.5% last week, Must do better....

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Step by Step

The surprise in his voice as I repeated the words: 'I am an Opera singer' was exactly what I expected. The offer of many pints of bier and a few shots, which I politely turned down, was not so much expected, it being a quiet Tuesday night in early January and Stuttgart not particularly being known as the party capital of Baden-Wurtemburg.....

You see, the Irish pub is the ideal place for a massive football fan like me to catch up, legally, on my team and on this occasion we were playing a third round FA Cup game against Everton. The game turned out to be a bit of a drab 1 -1 drawer but the evening was made more interesting by the two Americans, and one Canadian, I met there. These three generous men are in Stuttgart to deconstruct, ship to the US, and reconstruct in the US, machinery from the Mercedes factory. So whilst they were fascinated by what an English guy was doing singing Opera in Germany, I was also learning many details about  the US car industry.

Generous Stuttgart

No one had yet told these Americans about the 'tipping' in Baden-Wurtemburg. I'm not sure what the situation is in the rest of Germany, but I have been assured that the standard 'tip' to give a waiter in Stuttgart is just the number rounded up. So for 8.70 you would pay 9, for 18.40 you would pay 19 etc. Someone particularly generous might pay 20 for a 18.40 bill but not many.

I took it upon myself to explain the local tipping tradition to the guys, as the barman shot daggers at me across the table. Fortunately for him, the American way is the American way, and my new friends gave a 20 Euro tip on an 85 Euro Bar bill. The barman left the table with quite a grin.

My new American friends also took my email address and have assured me that they will attend Monday's opening night of Nabucco 'as long as we can hug the soprano at the end'. We'll see about that....

Chalk and Cheese

Talking of Nabucco, this week rehearsals started for the revival of Rudolf Frey's WNO/Stuttgart production of Nabucco. This week rehearsals will also have finished for Nabucco. It being a revival, any new members of the cast are given DVD's to watch and then the lucky revival director has the enviable task of ensuring that everyone knows where they are meant to be and when over about 4 rehearsals, after which the Chorus join for a day, followed by two rehearsals with Orchestra and then its the first night.

Contrast this to the production of Jommelli's 'Il Vologeso' which also started rehearsing this week, and in which I am in the first ten minutes of. This is a brand new production with a rehearsal period of about seven weeks, including a 90 minute concept-introduction, a 6 hour read through of the libretto and the first two three-hour rehearsals allocated to just 8 pages of music.

The difference is quite stark.

For a revival like Nabucco, where each of my roles actions are very specific, the rushed process can be quite stressful. Only last night I was going through a scene for only the 2nd time ever, worrying about 20 army coats about to fall, from the fly-tower, inches from my head and trying to remember where and when I should kick the little chain in order to pick it up to give to Nabucco at the right time so he can sing his line, which lets face it is significantly more important than mine, in the right direction. Sure enough, such worries enabled the first time to be a bit of a mess, though I didn't have any coats land on me, but the second time was 'perfect', so Dimitri, performing Nabucco, said and he is a Verdi Baritone, no one is going to disagree with him.

Inspired learning

Being on stage with someone like Dimitri Platanias, the Nabucco who has also sung Rigoletto at Covent Garden, is what being in an Opera studio is all about. Standing next to world class singers, spending rehearsals noticing how much they sing out, how they deal with direction, with their strengths and with their limits. How they interact with other cast members and the conductor. Both Dimitri and Catherine Foster, a British soprano who has been based in Germany for 12 years or so and who sings Brunhilde all over the world, are also generous with advice. Dimitri gave me a little Verdi recitative masterclass on stage during a little break, whilst Catherine shared her experiences of being both Fest. (fixed to one opera house) and freelance in Germany along with many other bits of advice.

Its all good stuff, things I should write down and remember.

The most interesting and inspiring chat I had this week came at the end of last nights rehearsal and was with Brazilian Tenor, and member of the Stuttgart Ensemble, Atalla Ayan. 

I have mentioned Atalla briefly before. He is the house lyric tenor, a guy who has had a huge amount of success very early on, including Rodolfo in La Boheme with Glyndebourne on Tour when he was only 25, lead roles at the MET and Covent Garden, and Nemorino in L'Elisir D'amore at LA SCALA later this year. I'm not sure he is much older than 30. He is singing Ismaele in Nabucco, and we bow next to each other at the end of the show.

I took the opportunity, whilst we were rehearsing the bowing, to ask Atalla about Ismaele, a role that I may well do at some point. After explaining his view that Ismaele is probably for an older, bigger tenor, we then discussed many more roles, he asked me about my singing, told me he had enjoyed what he heard so far. He also told me about his feelings about various composers, the differences between Verdi, Puccini and Donizetti for the young Tenor,  the challenges he feels he has and son on. I ended up sitting in a dressing room with Atalla for about half an hour, chatting away as only Tenor's know how. It helps that we have a mutual love of the Bel Canto repertoire and that I see myself singing similar repertoire to him in the not too distant future, and also that Atalla is a really friendly guy. It also helps that he has an amazing voice and I am a sucker for a great Tenor. God forbid I should ever meet Jonas Kaufmann. 

What else

Aside from the rehearsing of two operas and the talking with singers, I have also been preparing the music for next weeks Opera Studio concert in Ludwigsburg, just north of Stuttgart. In this I will sing a duet and aria from Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, a sextet from Cosi Fan Tutte, some music from a Jommelli opera and the finale from Don Pasquale.  Unfortunately, being the time of year, a few of the studio haven't quite been 100% health wise  but I am looking forward to us performing as a group for once, as apposed to sing in separate operas and only seeing each other occasionally. 

I have also been having a solid start to my health 'look like David Gandy - naked' drive. My Garmin Vivofit has, as predicted, encouraged healthy day to day competition with myself and my weekly count has just reached 137'500 steps, which Garmin reckons is 66.34 miles. I have also been running a few times and have invested in, and used, a few home gym things. 

Light at the end of the tunnel

After tuesday's concert my schedule at Stuttgart suddenly eases up. Aside from the Jommelli, which premiers in February, I have a few more Ariadne performances, all the Nabucco performances, and am covering two roles. Compared to the madness of the first 4 or so months, which included many concerts and 4 operas,  this will give me more time to focus on the German, really learn the roles I am covering well, and enjoy trying to get fit. 

Wish me luck....

Have a great week!!

Tom


ps. As promised: health check down here. This week I am 2.3 % down in weight. Which at my weigh is not an insignificant amount. Only the odd lapse, must keep going!!


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Great expectations!

Must be quick, I am just off for a 10 mile run having nailed my breakfast of a 'three egg white omelette and fresh celery juice'. After which I will learn German and Italian and then memorise the whole of Cosi Fan Tutte and Roldofo in La Boheme, just in case.

Tomorrow, having failed to run more than a mile today, having struggled to get past page two of the first trio in Cosi and still struggling with the past tense in German, I will revert back to what I was doing a few weeks ago and the rush of New Year hope and drive will disperse quicker than you can say 'zwei pils und zwei pommes mit mayonaisse, bitte'.

Of course, this scenario is greatly exaggerated, and I am not going to tell you all that I stick religiously to the regular resolutions I make. Far from it in fact. Like many people I have been trying to look like a swimwear model for the last ten years, whilst simultaneously being a big fan of burgers, beer and brownies and not actually ever swimming. Our hopes and aims need to be realistic and attainable, but still ambitious and positive. 

Positive Outlook

When I look back 366 days, to January 1st 2014, and consider my hopes and aspirations for the year I think I can be very positive and grateful. As regular readers will know, 2013 was not good and any hope I had at the beginning of 2014 was married to a real sense that things couldn't get much worse and there were some big decisions to be made about my future, particularly my future as a professional singer. I'm not sure how close I was to giving up on the career I wanted so much, but I am quite certain I didn't expect to find myself, one year later, living in Stuttgart having performed over 25 times on the Oper Stuttgart stage, having spent over a month of 2014 in Italy having Masterclasses with great singers and having written the best part of 30'000 words, about these experiences, in this blog.

As I wrote at the end of my first blog post, this is not to show off, to pat myself on the back and make you all jealous. This is to highlight that tides can turn and a bit of hard work, perseverance and some good fortune can completely change ones outlook.

The future

So what of the 2015. What are my ambitious and positives aims?

As a singer I want to become better and better all the time. For my technique to enable my artistry to flourish and for this to be recognised by as many casting directors, agents, competition panels and audiences as possible. I want to continue to develop my career in Germany and the UK, to start solidifying my plans beyond my year in Stuttgart and get onto having a career proper.

Physically, I want to get fit. Properly get fit. To be able to go to costume fittings and not be constantly embarrassed by the massive mirrors and people watching as I squeeze my 'rugby player' thighs into the third pair of suit trousers. I want to see pictures of myself on Facebook and not want to un-tag them instantly. Of course, being fit will aid many aspects of my singer life too.

I want to be able to speak German semi-confidently as soon as possible.

I want to have more time with friends and family in the UK.

How?

and how am I going to achieve these?

Singing: work hard, practise well, continue having my lessons, keep being ambitious, give myself the platforms and opportunities for my career to develop. 

Physically: Exercise more regularly and successfully, eat more healthily, stay focused and realistic, don't give up after the first lapse.

I will speak German more with other Germans, I won't allow German people to practise their English on me.... or for me to be lazy about it.

I will make sure that I have time at home and in the UK, that my life/work balance is a healthy one.

I'll let you know how these go.....

Last two weeks

So what have I been doing for the last two weeks?

The week of Christmas day itself was spent here in Stuttgart with my wife and her parents. I had three performances in the Opera house, the last two Khovanshchina's and then Ariadne on Christmas day itself. It was great to have visitors here and I showed them all Stuttgart, the Christmas market and also Esslingen and Ludwigsburg. 

We had a lovely Christmas meal in the hotel which my wife's parents were staying at. The sight of the four of us wearing hats from our Christmas crackers made quite a few of the locals laugh. Christmas crackers aren't a German tradition yet.....

On the 27th I flew back to London, despite the weathers attempts to delay us, and I spent the last days of 2014 catching up with a number of people in London. This included time for a singing lesson with Gary, lunch with a sponsor, an evening in London with friends and beer, 2 mince pies, a New Years party with my wife's colleagues, lunch near Leighton Buzzard, brunch in Windsor Castle, hugs with all three of my nieces, a boat trip around the Olympic park, a day with my whole immediate family including my little sister who I hadn't seen since August 2013..... and some time just being at home with my wife.  

So quite a busy few days, and the room in Stuttgart is feeling all the more empty because of them.

Next

No time to wallow though. This morning we have the production introduction for Il Vologeso by Jommelli, in which I am performing as an 'Imperial servant', and then this evening I have my first music call for Nabucco in which I perform as Abdallo. 

I also have my Christmas gift to play with, a Garmin 'Vivofit' band from my wife. I am both competitive and a bit of a statistics addict so hopefully the challenge to improve my stats each day will go some way to helping me look like this:

We can but hope. Anyway....

Next week I'll tell you more about my plans for the year. In the meantime: Happy New Year!!

Tom


ps. To keep me in check getting fit I will update you with my % weight loss each week down here in the ps section. I won't give you the real figure, but the aim is to be 80% to 85% of my current weight.... wish me luck.

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