Day 7: Houston - Hump Day!

As of midday, it was 6.5 days down, 6.5 to go! The nasty part is that the remaining half of the tour is the most high-maintenance, travel-wise.

The Houston Report

Sopranos - Consider Bubbles, Beautiful Bubbles from Pasatieri's Goose Girl. It's in one of the new anthologies (I'm on the road, so I can't remember which one), it's perfectly fine to give to a good audition pianist to sight-read, it's about 2.5 minutes long, and it's a welcome alternative to the Silver Aria.

Sopranos - If you sing Elvira, consider her first aria Ah chi mi dice mai as an audition alternative to Mi tradi. The latter is virtuosic and very difficult to bring off in this situation. The former is not easy, but a little less of a stamina test.

Baritones - If you're a young high lyric baritone with an elegant, expressive top, why not sing the alternate (Vienna) version of the Count's aria from Figaro? If you've got it, flaunt it. Leave the standard Prague version to those mature beefy baritone guys.

Today we heard our first In uomini, in soldati, and our first Largo al factotum (believe it or not!)

Southern singers are so accommodating. Such nice people. We had a record number of offers to sing portions of long arias (most of which we didn't take them up on). And the "Yes ma'am" count was predictably respectable. It's a sign of the passage of time that being called ma'am used to feel odd and no longer does.

The Music and the Mirror

Auditions today in the dance rehearsal hall downstairs at the Wortham Center. (At left, pianist Eric Melear and audition panelist Thomas Lausmann at the barre.) A lovely space, with clear bright lighting and an honest acoustic. It took a little getting used to the fact that we could see ourselves in the mirror (which was in back of the singers). Not pleasant catching glimpses of my tired face, but a useful exercise in being able to see what the singers see when they look at the "table."

A long day, with 36 singers. Off to bed early, up at 5:30 to head to the airport and San Francisco.