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 

Well made plans

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 19^th 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 27^th 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 

Not quite

Well that’s it then. Last night was my final performance this season. Time to go home!

Well... sort of.

I am indeed flying back to London today to sing at a wedding relatively near Gatwick, thank you Easyjet, and then spend a couple of days with my wife, but I am not finished. Far from it in fact.

When I return to Stuttgart next week I will have some more rehearsals for Cosi, just to make sure I know it really well in case I go on as a cover, and I am also now back in my familiar ‘cover-watching’ auditorium seat (row 15, 10 seats in from the left since you asked) for the stage rehearsals of Rigoletto, in which I am covering the role of Borsa.

Cosi

Last Sunday was the premiere of our Cosi Fan Tutte, an experience I found far from relaxing. Having sat through 6 weeks of rehearsals, and done a few myself, I was so keen for it to go well and to be received well. The gentleman sitting next to me, who turned out to be a good friend of our casting director, even commented on my nervousness afterwards.

The show was received well, thankfully, and I stayed for a brief drink afterwards to congratulate my colleagues. At that point I was definitely back to feeling like a ‘cover’, a sort of awkward dinner party guest that no one really knows what to say to, so I disappeared quite quickly!

Rigoletto

There isn’t a huge amount to say about the process of me covering in Rigoletto, apart from I have missed the first few weeks of rehearsals because of Cosi, so any hint that I will get on stage would, currently, terrify me. I’m sure that will change over the next few weeks and by the Premiere which is at the end of the month.

Stuttgart

Stuttgart has gone crazy this week, it is now quite hot (up to 32 Celsius today) and, being in a valley, the heat doesn’t escape and it becomes very humid.

There are also an extra 200’000 people in the centre of town for a thing called ‘Kirchentag’, a Christian arts and music festival which happens annually but in a different city in Germany.  This time it is Stuttgart’s turn and its crazy. Every public space in the centre is completely full of people, everywhere you turn there are stages with choirs/bands on performing and thousands of people joining in.

I’m not overly fond of spending time in large crowds of people, particularly not in 32 degree heat, and so this weekend hop over to the UK has come at a good time.

Speaking of which, I must rush to the airport…..

Hope you all have a good week.

Tom  

ps Next week I hope to have more to say about future plans.... 

The Schmooze

A relatively relaxed week in Stuttgart started with a last second step-in to a Stage and Orchestra rehearsal and finished with an audition in Potsdam. Between those I was very happy to be able to spend a few days with Mrs Elwin here in Stuttgart and also excited to visit Berlin for the first time.

Cosi

The rehearsal process for Cosi is now at an end. The opening night is tomorrow evening and so over the last week we have had the last two stage and orchestra rehearsals, the House Dress rehearsal and then the General Rehearsal (otherwise known as the Final or Dress rehearsal).  There was also a matinee event, introducing the new production of Cosi to the public, at which the three of us covers sang.

Luckily for me, stage and orchestra rehearsal 4, on Saturday morning, fell close enough to a performance of Rosenkavalier for the main tenor that he only sang the first two hours of it. So I was called upon from the auditorium, and had an extremely enjoyable hour of singing the finale of Act 1 Cosi with the Orchestra. I was then somewhat surprised but equally excited to have the chance to sing Ferrando’s aria ‘Un aura amorosa’ with the orchestra, a really great experience.

Having finally been confirmed as a full cover for the show, not just musical cover as initially planned, I had two addition rehearsals. A great coaching with a lady I have taken some time to warm to as a coach, and a three hour staging rehearsal on the rehearsal set with just me, one of the wonderful assistant directors, a pianist and the language coach (and the wife watching).  I have a huge amount of respect for the assistant directors, they are often the glue that sticks the piece together. They are always at hand, writing down everything that happens, trying to interpret what the Director shouts at them during run-throughs, dealing with the chorus, dealing with the covers, dealing with the set and props and so on. Everything seems to go through them to an extent. We are lucky to have a team of great assistants here in Stuttgart.

More travel

At the end of the week the final round of auditions for ZAV finally arrived. As those who have been following this blog may remember, I auditioned for ZAV in Munich back in February, this was then followed by a second round of auditions in Cologne in March. Having then been selected as one of the final ten singers, the final round happened yesterday in Potsdam.

On the way to Potsdam I stayed in Berlin, my first time in this most historic of cities. As an unashamed history –geek I was very happy that my bus from Tegel airport passed through the centre of the town, past the Recihstags building, the Brandenburg gate, the Berlin Dome, the TV tower, Deutsche Oper and many more places. It is a shame that I did not have longer to explore.

ZAV

ZAV stands for Zentrale Auslands- und Fachvermittlung, with the other title of Bundesagentur für Arbeit. They are a state agency who coordinate potential employers with potential employees. In terms of an Opera singer, they act as an agent for singers who audition for them, and have strong contact with most of the opera houses in Germany. Having made it to the final round meant that I sang in a concert-audition in front of a selection of Invited casting directors, Intendant (Heads of Opera houses) and conductors.

For many reasons this is a fantastic opportunity.

Despite having the cost of having auditioned in Munich, Cologne and Potsdam, the equivalent cost of singing to each of the 20 or so opera companies present would be huge. Conservatively I would suggest that each audition trip from Stuttgart costs about 150/200 Euro in travel, accommodation and so on. So whereas getting to the final round of ZAV will have cost me somewhere in the region of 500 euro in expenses, traveling around Germany singing to all 20 opera companies would have cost me thousands. This is not money I have and I am fortunate to have raised enough support to afford to do any auditions.

Cost aside, it is very difficult to actually get auditions, particularly without an agent. Inevitably casting directors and intendant go through agencies to find singers so to have a state agency like ZAV who can do this work for people like me is great.

The set up of the audition is very much pro the singer. I know that I have been pre-selected, through two rounds of auditions, I am being put forward in a positive light from the start. I also knew that not all the opera houses will be looking for a young tenor, some may, some may specifically look for a young Lyric like me.

For me I also knew that this was not the end of the world. I have work next year in Stuttgart, I also have an early but developing relationship with an agent, so all good. In stark contrast to the auditions of 2013 where I strangled myself with fear of failure, this time I felt liberated by the opportunity.

The music

The repertoire chosen for the audition was done so in consultation with ZAV themselves. They had liked a Verdi aria I sang to them, some Donizetti too, they had disliked a Mozart aria which Stuttgart employed me on the back of. So there were quite a few options.

In the end I settled for following the advice of an agent who auditioned us all in Stuttgart a few months ago, that being that at the moment I would be ideally cast across Germany as a Mozart specialist. This is fine with me, I love Mozart, I have loved being involved with Cosi and enjoyed singing Die Zauberflote a few years ago. So if that is how to best sell myself at this stage that’s great.

With this decision in mind, I chose to sing Gluck’s beautiful aria from ‘Iphigenie en Tauride’ – ‘Unis de la plus tendre’, an aria that was introduced to me by a very good friend about 6 years ago and one that I have been waiting to use. The other aria I sang was Don Ottavio’s ‘Il Mio Tesoro’ from Don Giovanni. Neither aria is particularly taxing, neither challenge me like some of the Bel Canto repertoire that I am so keen to sing, but both can show the beauty of a voice, the legato, coloratura, ease (or otherwise) of the upper middle register of the voice. So good, safe, audition arias.

The Schmooze

Following the concert-audition, all ten of us singers were taken to the foyer of the Hans Otto Theater 

(a beautiful, modern theatre, set on the water front) to meet any Intendant or Casting directors who wanted to talk to us.

This moment of the process I call the schmooze (an American term!). The schmooze also occurs after opening nights of shows, after concerts, at competitions and many other events. There are singers in the world who excel at the schmooze. The ability to charm potential future employers with wit, intelligence and so on. There are naturals who everyone loves to talk to and then there are those who hate it, look uncomfortable, want to go home as soon as possible.

In a world of building relationships and networking, schmoozing is an important skill to have.

Unfortunately my German is not good, so I relied on some of the ZAV team to introduce me to the houses that were interested, and I stood there nodding along, answering the questions as best I could but without any of the charm that a native speaker would have. (note to self, must improve my German!!)

Excitingly, though, and without the skills of German schmoozing, a number of opera houses expressed an interest in me, one is even looking for a Mozart tenor, so a successful day.

Friends

It was lovely, as ever, to meet some more new singers at this audition day. There were singers from all over the world, me being the only English native speaker. There were two South-Koreans, one Chilean, a Swiss-Italian girl, one Romanian, three German singers, me (the Brit) and a Portuguese soprano.

In fact the Portuguese Soprano was Sonia Grane, who I studied with for all 4 years of my time at the Royal Academy of Music. She was Pamina to my Tamino (Die Zauberflote), was Gilda to my Duke (in a scene from Rigoletto) and it was lovely to hear and see her again. She is about to jump-in to Ariadne at Deutsche Oper, where she is in the Opera Studio, and just performed Blonde in Die Entfuhrung aus Serail. It’s great to see things are going so well for her.

Next

With Cosi performances starting I now move onto the last project of the season, covering Borsa in Rigoletto. This week there are also the final two performances of Jommelli’s Vologeso, including tonight.

I’ll let you know how it all goes.

See you next time.

On the Bench

To use a sporting analogy, something I have been trying to steer clear of for the last 8 months, this week I have been back on the substitutes bench, hoping for my team to continue well without me but also itching for a chance to show more of what I can do. I guess one could some up the whole year like that and it is fair to say that I am looking forward to being first pick, main team, even the star striker, in the future. This is an opera style apprenticeship after all and it would be odd for me to not want to develop from here.

Don’t blink

With my place in the reserve team firmly established this week, I have almost exclusively been watching rehearsals on stage. Stage and Piano rehearsals first, then the Piano Dress rehearsal and in the last couple of days Stage and Orchestra rehearsals.

As with other productions here, the last couple of weeks, in the theatre itself, are a chance to see the many people who together create the production. 4/5 weeks in a rehearsal room with 6 soloists, the conductor, director, a few assistants, a pianist, occasionally the design team, stage managers and of course the covers (woohoo!!) can easily make one forget that there are so many other people working on the project behind the scenes. Many of these people will watch the Piano Dress before once again sliding into the shadows of their costume department or lighting box or stage technical department and so on.  

One difficulty for a cover when the rehearsals go on stage is the lack of rehearsal intimacy. In the rehearsal room one can always hear whats happening, decisions being made, changes in staging, character discussions and the like. Once on stage these changes and discussions happen less frequently, and less obviously until some point in a rehearsal you suddenly notice that your character is not where he should be from your notes. Is this a change? Has he made a mistake? Did I write the wrong thing down? And the pencil and rubber are rapidly put into action to update what you have.

Next week

Away from Cosi, I have been preparing for the final ZAV audition in Potsdam a week today. As you may remember, I have done two auditions for ZAV, the state artist agency, this year, a first round in Munich and a second in Cologne. Now, finally, we have reached the final round which takes the form of a concert and features ten singers. I’m delighted to be joined in this concert by a friend from music college, she was my Pamina when we did the Magic Flute in fact, and look forward to hearing her sing again.

I will be singing one Gluck aria ‘Unis des la plus Tendre’ and one Mozart, ‘Il Mio Tesoro’ from Don Giovanni. Quite solid, safe choices, firmly placing me in the middle of my current voice classification, or Fach. I felt this was important, particularly as the audition is in front of a large selection of Intendant and Casting Directors from across the German speaking Opera world. Though I can sing heavier repertoire, and will do in the future, I felt on this occasion that these choices were the right ones. It is also not a bad idea to let people make their own choices about your future.

Four left

Unless I get on stage as cover for Cosi Fan Tutte or Rigoletto, I have only four performances left in Stuttgart. All four are the Jommelli opera, Berenike, including this evening.

It will have been 41 performances in the season after tonight. That’s a lot of time spent wearing make-up. It is also a lot of time learning ones craft through actual performance. Not to say that music 

college isn’t useful, but in four years at music college I performed on the theatre stage no more than 15 times. I am very much match fit these days, back to the sporting analogy, no lack of match practise here, and it’s a good feeling!

Whilst I mention music college, another friend from my studies has a survey for classical singers about their training. If you are a fellow singer, why not have a look and fill it out.Classical Singer Survey

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

Tom 

Inspirations

This is the first chance I have had to write the weeks blog, some 36 hours later than usual!! I have, though, been immersed in the world of Mozart/Da Ponte and Houvardas (our Director) with rehearsals for Cosi Fan Tutte.

Following yet another May national holiday on Thursday, I had planned for a relatively relaxed start to Friday morning. This would include a 10.30 rehearsal watching a Stage and Piano rehearsal of Cosi and then a relaxed afternoon learning a bit of music, doing some exercise and maybe grabbing food with friends/colleagues.

In practise, the 930 call from the Opera House on Friday morning, informing me of the tenor’s sickness, meant for a far from relaxing day as I rushed to work, quickly looked through my notes, jumped into whatever costume I could find and performed a run through of Act 1 on the main stage, with a run of Act 2 following this morning.  This having only rehearsed a few scenes from Act 1 about four weeks ago and having missed a week of watching rehearsals due to rehearsing and performing two other productions during this same period.

Production Challenges

As I have mentioned before, there are many challenges to jumping in as a cover and so I am happy with how the two rehearsals went.

The biggest challenge in this production is that most of the characters have very little time off stage. This is a challenge for the main cast anyway, with little time to rest between scenes/big arias, but as a cover it means there is no chance to split the opera up into sections and be reminded of what is coming in the following scene by an assistant director in the wings. In fact it means that a cover has to try and remember over 3 hours of relatively specific movements having often only ever seen them being done from a distance, in the rehearsal room.

Inevitably I found this prospect quite daunting. Added to this, it was the first time I have tested my ability to memorise three hours of music and Italian words. It is also by far the most I will have had to sing on that stage, with the other roles sung this year being so small. And then the casting director , head of the opera studio AND intendant were all sat in the auditorium.  Inevitably I was a bit nervous, it was hard not to see this as a great opportunity to show that I can sing the bigger roles on the main stage.  

With the acts split over the two mornings I was able to fit in an additional coaching for Act 2 yesterday afternoon and then many hours trying to make sure that Act 2 was indeed memorised, including the infamous Mozart finale! I was also able to speak with some of those who were watching Act 1 and get a bit of feedback.

Addictive feedback

I have such an addiction to getting peoples approval, hoping to impress them, hear they like my singing, thought my acting was great and so on, that it is often the first thing I do after a performance or, in this case, rehearsal. I have been like this ever since I was a boy.

It was probably ingrained into my personality when I was a choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where our Director of Music was always demanding of perfection. He demanded a lot of us as 7 – 13 year olds, telling us that he treated us like professional musicians when we were in the cathedral and that it was our job to justify that treatment. He would recognise hard work, praise good singing and get angry when things went wrong. There was a hierarchy, a number system in which everyone knew where they stood. The Director would give solos to the best singers and good marks to those who worked hardest, and then bad marks for such things as making mistakes and messing around in rehearsals or the services. All in all it was a system that encouraged competitiveness and a drive for positive feedback. I was obsessed with getting good marks and getting solos and of just impressing our Director of Music. I remember being quite distraught when the whole choir was given a bad mark, my first one for years and a negative against the 80+ good marks I had accrued that year. I also remember exactly the number of solos I did as a boy, and most of the feedback the Director of Music gave me after each one.

Cosi Feedback

So straight out of the costume and rehearsal stage, I went to the head of the Opera Studio for some feedback. It is not her place to speak about the production, that’s for the Director and his assistants, but she gave me some useful notes about how I sounded in the auditorium: ‘A bit quieter than everyone else’, and made a few comments about how my character came across: ‘I could tell when you were Ferrando and when you were Thomas’.

This meant that this morning, when it came to the Act 2 run through, I had some personal goals to aim at. Firstly, make sure I am not holding back, or under singing in the space and, secondly, make sure my characterisation comes out more throughout the rehearsal.

Sure enough, when the Act 2 rehearsal finished I again rushed out for feedback.

This time: ‘the voice sounded much fuller in the auditorium and I could read your character more’.

Result!

Colleagues

In such an ensemble piece as Cosi Fan Tutte, having a weak link doesn’t really work. I know this full well, and so was extremely grateful to the five other singers for pushing a pulling me into the right places at the right time. I was only too aware that this was an important stage of the rehearsal process for them, a run through a few days before the Piano Dress Rehearsal and the start of Stage and Orchestra rehearsals.

I felt very lucky, as ever, to hear these people singing up close and, if I wasn’t already going to be attending, I would definitely get tickets for the show to hear some very beautiful Mozart singing.

One colleague who I am particularly grateful to, and have had to get used to, is the prompt. As I wrote very early on in my time here, we have a prompt in most rehearsals here in Stuttgart and they are really great. It took my some time to get used to and the initial shouting at me with my next line usually resulted in confusion rather than being more sure of my lines. Now, though, I am delighted to have them there. They usually sit very near to the stage, with a music stand, light, and a score, quietly speaking the first couple of words of lines when they are needed, or when the singer gives them the nod, or if there is an awkwardly long pause. For Cosi this is an amazing help. Ferrando probably sings on 250 of the 400 pages, there are quite a painful number of words to memorise in addition to trying to remember the staging, so to have the security blanket of the prompt is really a life saver.

What else

Away from Cosi, the busy life of the Opera house continues.

Last weekend we had the fourth performance of Jommeli’s Berenike, following a two month pause.  Unfortunately our counter tenor was taken ill so we have the assistant director acting the role and a jump-in singing from the orchestral pit. This weekend the tenor is unwell, so the same assistant director will be acting a different role and my old friend, Stuart Jackson, who was in the Opera studio here last year and studied with me at the Royal Academy of Music, will be singing the role from the pit.

Stuart had a few jump-in’s whilst he was in the Opera studio last year and is becoming quite an expert on such occasions. He is also quite an expert at serious board games, such as Agricula, Dominion and Spartacus, and I joined him and two other friends to be beaten by him at these on Thursday. A nice relaxing evening.

Inspriation

The blog week (Friday to Friday) started with me attending the final performance of Rameau’s Platee in an amazing production by Calixto Bieto here at Stuttgart. It really was quite a spectacle and it is obvious to me that Bieto demands a huge amount of his performers.

I was most struck by the remarkable and inspirational performance in the title role by Scottish Tenor, Thomas Walker. This is fiendish role, with High C’s all over the place, coloratura, huge dynamic range and all whilst in a dress and high heels. It was really a great performance and I was only too happy to tell him so afterwards.

One link that Thomas Walker and I have is that he also studied under my old teacher Ryland Davies, another inspiration and someone who I have been listening to a lot this week in his recording of Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte from the 1970’s. It is a shame I can’t have him here in Stuttgart coaching me through the role that he made his own.

Malcolm Bothwell

Another inspiration in my life sadly passed away this week. Malcolm Bothwell, a school friend of my Father’s and family friend ever since, sadly lost his battle with cancer and passed away in France, where he had lived for much of his life, last weekend.

Malcolm was a singer, composer and musician specialising in early sacred music but with a keen interest in numerous styles. When I saw him as an adult we would always talk about music and he was interested in how my singing was developing, particularly the change of focus from choral singer to opera singer a few years ago. He was generous and kind, hosting us as a family at his house south of Orleans on a number of occasions and also making the trip over to attend both my wedding in April 2012 and my older sisters wedding a year or so earlier.

As a child Malcolm would make me laugh, almost uncontrollably, he was an entertainer and performer and my abiding memory will be of the joy and energy he would bring to the occasion. I am very happy to have known him.

Here is a link to a clip of him singing and playing that my Father uploaded to souncloud this week. https://soundcloud.com/elwincockett/from-the-eastern-mountains

I hope you enjoy it.

Until next time….

More to life than Mozart?

I won’t bore or upset you all with a long discussion about this mornings developments in UK politics. Whether you are happy or not about the result, I hope that the political scene going forward is a positive, pro-active and hopeful one rather than the fearful and negative one of the last few months. I also hope that the new Government will appreciate the huge benefit, financially and otherwise, that a well-funded Arts sector brings.

There is a danger that if I start to write much more about the politics of the Arts in society I will be going off topic for this blog but, as you can imagine, it is something I am passionate about and may one day lead me towards a more politically active life, whatever that might mean. We shall see….. First things first, a career in Opera!!

Back and Forward

This week has been a bit busier and engaging at the Opera house with rehearsals and coachings for three different operas.  

The Jomelli opera, ‘Il Vologeso’ we did a few months ago, (you may remember it as the opera I bring my immense stage-hand skills to) is back for six more performance. Two of these will be filmed for a DVD release and will probably find itself onto YouTube at some point, as most things seem to.  So we have had a few rehearsals just to make sure everyone remembers what they are doing. 

Unfortunately one of the singers is unwell so a late replacement has been brought over from London to sing the role from the side of the stage while the assistant director acts it. The reputation that British singers of being able to learn music quickly is often a useful one for ‘jump in’ opportunities.

Cosi Fan Tutte rehearsals have now, mostly, moved onto the stage and so for some of the week I have been sat in the stalls of our lovely theatre, watching the production fit into its proper home. Despite quite impressive rehearsal sets and costumes, there are always little changes and challenges when the production goes on stage, as I have mentioned before. With the opening night not for another three weeks we are lucky here to have plenty of time for these issues to be ironed out.

I have not been called upon to jump in since the first week of Cosi rehearsals and this has given me the time to learn Act 2 a bit better. The fear of some of the ten page long recitative sections has now subsided and I find myself singing random lines of text as I walk around town, so have been getting a few more funny looks than usual.

The third production I am preparing for is Verdi’s Rigoletto with the role of Borsa being my final covering role this season. It’s fair to say I am probably a tiny bit behind where I would like to be in terms of preparation for the role, nothing that a few hours in a room and a piano won’t sort out.

Summer Stuttgart

The sun has been shining brightly most of the week and I have used the good weather to fit in some nice park runs. Over 30km run so far this week, not bad going and it is helping me get back on the fitness wagon.

The good weather has also been a big help for the ‘International Flick Festival 2015’ which has been in town, with a large screen set up in the main square showing various animated films, including Toy Story 2.

I love the cinema and films in general and find it’s a good way to relax.

Far away

A few years ago I was having a singing lesson with Dennis O’Neill in Cardiff, in a lovely big house not too far from the cricket ground. It was a bright day, not unlike the weather here this week, and I commented how nice it was to be there. He agreed and then, and I will never forget him telling me this, said:

                ‘it’s lovely to come back to, being an opera singer is incredibly lonely, I’m lucky to have this but I haven’t been here very much’

Fortunately I have been in this one place for the last 8 months, and I have made some friends here, but, particularly leaving my wife back in England, I have found times in Germany incredibly isolated and alone. Something I am going to have to learn to deal with.

The cinema helps, even if I go alone which is something I do in England too.

But further to the question of this blog, So I want to be an Opera Singer? There are always further questions. How much? How much am I willing to sacrifice? How long am I willing to have no money and live away from wife, family and friends? How ambitious am I? What makes me happy? What am I without the singing? What else could I do?

It isn’t compulsory to be an Opera singer. I have chosen to be here in some hope that I will have a career develop and that this career will be fulfilling artistically, emotionally and financially enough to have an actual life outside of the music. Would I be better off getting a job in London, earning better money, being at home, doing music on the side? Would I miss the stage, the music, the audiences?

Well I am still here, I still think this is the right way for me, my wife and I, and for our future. But I think it is important to have those questions being asked of us – there is, after all, more to life than Mozart!

Until next time.

Have a good week.