What *Were* You Thinking?

I just got back from hearing dozens of aspiring young singers in the North Carolina district auditions of the Metropolitan Opera National Council.  As is typical, I am equal parts exhausted and energized.

And, as is typical, I had the following post-competition discussion with a number of audience members.

Patron: It must've been such a difficult job to decide how to pick the winners. 
Kim: Indeed, it was - they were a talented bunch!
Patron:  I made my own list of winners, and I only have one question.
Kim: Yes?
Patron: What were you thinking?

OK, paraphrased, but you get the idea.  It happens again and again, and it never surprises me.  And it's usually not confrontational but is born of true curiosity about the judging panel process.

Most of these MONC spectators are seasoned opera-goers and true lovers of the voice. And as such, they usually have pretty good taste.  They know when something is out of kilter, and they know when they are truly engaged and excited by a voice.  The kicker is that sometimes we don't choose some of the singers for whom the audience had the most enthusiasm.  Why?

It's too complicated a question to answer in an exhaustive fashion, but in short, we're looking for singers whose profile (as demonstrated on this particular day at this particular moment) indicates that they possess the particular tools to distinguish themselves within their particular voice type.  Being a compelling performer is part of it, to be sure.  But having the vocal equipment and potential to rise above the norm as a coloratura soprano or lyric tenor or basso profondo or dramatic mezzo, etc. (random examples) is what matters.  If you can't nail the exact requirements for whichever voice type you seem to be best suited (highest and lowest notes, ability to project in certain registers, flexibility and agility of the voice, etc), you will have a difficult time getting hired.

We have to take this into consideration, for the Met is looking for career potential.  But singers in their 20's are so often (rightly so) in development and/or transition, and many of them don't yet know what they "are" - which box they best fit inside.  (Of course, some of the best singers of all time didn't fit in a box at all, but you'll have a hard time selling that concept if you're a 20-something opera singer in America...)  And every single person that comes into contact with young singers has a different opinion.  It's a recipe for extreme confusion.  Nevertheless, in order to figure out which singers should advance, panels have to grapple with the implications of it.

So, if you're in the audience for one of these events, and your scorecard doesn't line up with the panel's, don't despair. 

First of all, you might be right and they might be wrong.  We do our level best, on the basis of decades of experience, but we are not infallible. 

Second, the judges may have had the same positive gut reaction as you, but were responding to details of the voice and its development that would indicate that it might not be optimal yet to send a particular singer on to the next level of the competition.

Fortunately, there are many opportunities for young singers to be heard - in various competitions, in auditions for young artist programs, in performance in conservatory and university.   Even the most amazing singers don't always win, and everyone has off days.  But over time, talent will out. 

July 26 - In All Its Infinite Variety!

11:30 am Lifting Weights
A lovely late start, affording a long night's sleep after a 90-hour week. (Yes, I did the math. Not to qualify for martyrdom, but to justify feeling like I'd been run over by a truck.) The day started with a touch of weights and aerobics, setting up 150 chairs in the rehearsal hall!

Why the chairs? Well, we've been terribly fortunate to have an audience that loves its preshow lectures. We've been holding the preshow talks in our small 99-seat space, but lately we've been turning away dozens of patrons due to the capacity of the hall. So I decided to give today's talk in the Boheme rehearsal space, and setup was required!

2:00 pm Inside the Opera Preshow Talk
Being in the rehearsal hall meant that I was without my fancy-pants powerpoint presentation, but it was a good call. We had 151 patrons in attendance, and we were pleased to not have to turn anyone away.

3:00 pm Ulysses Performance #2
Packed to the gills, no house seats, no givebacks. Yikes. Nice to have a hot ticket! Fabulous performance. YouTube moments to come, I promise. As soon as I have the time.

6:10 pm Steve!
Mr. Blier himself is in the house, rehearsal with the cast for this Saturday's Pursuit of Love. Grieg, Villa Lobos, Granados, Sondheim, Kahane, and Robinson (Smokey, that is).

7:30 pm Instant Opera Dress Rehearsal
Darth Vader and Kermit steal prom dresses from Hannah Montana. To the strains of Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti and others. The real deal begins Tuesday at 11:15am!

9:30 pm At the Desk
Catching up on email, writing Boheme supertitles, and checking my RSS feed. Which is where I found that according to the blog metrics flavor of the day, we rank surprisingly high :)

Chapter 1 - I'm Playing As Fast as I Can

For context on this post, go here.

My first full Così was at Washington National Opera in 1989 (then The Washington Opera, a.k.a. TWO, when I was a proud member of the TWOTWO's - The Women of The Washington Opera). I was the only pianist/coach assigned to the show, and the conductor was one of the best Mozart pianists of our time. I was terrified.

I had recently survived a confusing and misguided struggle with carpal tunnel syndrome, and it had left me with a lingering lack of confidence in my keyboard technique. (Misguided because I spent two years deconstructing and reconstructing my technique, only to find out that the whole thing was hormonally induced, then undergoing carpal tunnel surgery.) Playing Mozart for this conductor had me so intimidated that I retreated inside my physical technique in a way I nevber had before.

I had never trained to be a solo pianist, and I had developed curious ways of approaching things that had more to do with recreating an orchestral sound at the piano than they did with building a pristine keyboard technique. The conductor used to come around behind my shoulder, watch my "nervous repetition" and alternately shake his head in wonder and cluck his disapproval. ("Nervous" in this case not having anything to do with my terror; it just means banging out a single note or chord in quick succession by kind of hammering at it, instead of using finger-substitution. Sorry - no more pianist jargon, I promise.)

In that way, this was my kinesthetic Così. I was so preoccupied with my own body and its relationship to the piano that I missed many other things. But it was still an important gateway to the piece. I still remember the hours of trying to make what was on the printed page for "Soave sia il vento" (which kind of looks like a Hanon exercise in E Major) reconcile with the shimmering sound the orchestra made when it played it. And, this being my first big experience with playing technical rehearsals on both the piano and the harpsichord (for recits), I was finding my sea legs on how to move my hands to the harpsichord in a split second and have it not sound like I was playing it with oven mitts on.

I had also retreated inside my body because I was in the first trimester of my second pregnancy, and I spent long 4-hour staging sessions wondering if I could wait until the next break to throw up.)

This Così also was a mathematical one. Gardner calls this intelligence "mathematical/logical." In music, it has everything to do with architecture and structure. Understanding Mozart as a pianist is a challenging and rewarding thing, but it barely prepares you for wrapping your mind around what it takes to create an overall structure for a 3.5-hour Mozart opera. The pacing, the way that the small moments need to stack up as building blocks for the entire evening - that's a left-brain task in the extreme. 20 years later I am still in awe of conductors who can do it, and I first became aware of its terrifying significance in my first Così at the Kennedy Center.

Next: Chapter 2 - Guns? Really?

Journeys with Così: An Overture and Five Chapters

Overture

In a previous life, I worked for several years in the mental health field. Shortly after I transitioned to the opera business (yes, as I'm often told, not a change of career, just a change of venue...), Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences became all the rage. I bought all of his books and immersed myself in what seemed to be a concept that was so fundamentally sound and obvious that it seemed impossible that no one had explored it before. Of course, it didn't spring from nowhere - there were plenty of antecedents, and there have been countless new and similar theories since. But to me, it was rocket science. Exciting and world-changing.

Had the internet existed at the time, I mightn't have tunneled so deeply inside this theory. But I was alone with my books, and I spent several years applying the multiple intelligences approach to my musical life. It completely changed the way I approached learning and performing music, and it fundamentally altered the way I coached and taught. For a time I even had pipe dreams about writing a book on the application of multiple intelligences in the performing arts, but I was sort of interrupted by child-bearing and child-rearing. :)

So what does this have to do with Così?

I'm approaching my 5th Così. And it feels (in a good way) like completely new territory. Familiar, yes, but not the least bit predictable. (Unlike my eight Flutes, which always seem like Groundhog Day. But that's another story.) As I stewed on this a few weeks ago, it occurred to me that each one of my Così experiences was approached in a very different way. There was a distinctly different agenda for each one, and yes, they align in a curious way with Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (visual, aural, kinesthetic, linguistic, mathematical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal).

So, here's the table of contents:

Chapter 1 - I'm Playing as Fast as I Can
1989, The Washington Opera (kinesthetic, mathematical)

Chapter 2 - Guns? Really?
1991, Wolf Trap Opera (intrapersonal, interpersonal)

Chapter 3 - Recitative Whiplash
1995, Wolf Trap Opera (aural)

Chapter 4 - Imposter Syndrome
1998, Wolf Trap Opera (visual)

Chapter 5 - Let Me Tell You a Story
2009, Wolf Trap Opera (linguistic)

This tale, serialized and posted in installments. See you next week in 1989.

From Page to Stage

On Friday, January 16, I have the pleasure of performing at The Barns with two of the WTOC's marvelous alumni. Keith Phares and Patricia Risley weren't here at Wolf Trap at the same time, but they subsequently met at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and today they are the proud and exhausted parents of 5-month-old twins. (I'm possibly more excited about seeing the babies than I am about seeing Keith and Patricia. Shhh.)

So, I alternate this month's office work on programming and populating the 2009 opera season with finding my fingers and exploring the rep that we'll be offering next Friday.

If you're in the DC area, and you want to find out more about the concert before joining us at The Barns, read on. If you're reading from further-flung places, and you're curious about the kind of preparation that goes into a performance like this one, you're also in the right place.


Program

17th & 18th-Century Italian Songs
Per la gloria d’adorarvi (Bononcini)
Amarilli, mia bella (Caccini)
Sebben, crudele (Caldara)
Caro mio ben (Giordani)
Nel cor più non mi sento (Paisiello)
Se tu m’ami, se sospiri (Pergolesi)
Tu lo sai (Torelli)

If you're a singer, you'll recognize this line-up. These songs are among a few dozen that form the backbone of most singers' early training. And therein lies a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because this music is truly beautiful and (in the best way) unforgettable. You know how pop musicians talk about 'hooks'? The melodies in these songs are like fish hooks. They grab hold of a piece of your brain and don't let go for weeks. Every time I come back to them, they overtake my musical consciousness. On a very basic, global, non-operatic level, just good tunes.

A curse because most of us come to them when we are struggling hard with the basics of our craft. The Italian makes no sense, the style seems like an uncrackable code, and good vocalism is elusive. So our early experiences with these songs tend to leave a murky impression.

It is so wonderful to come back to them, as I have repeatedly, after many years away. To find that they are so potent and so very timeless, and to enjoy unearthing them from the layers of confusion, incomprehension, and anxiety that surrounded them the first time around :)

For the pianist, there's another wonderful layer of interpretation. These songs are part of the Baroque operatic tradition, and therefore the actual "accompaniment" that's printed in the music is only an interpretation ("realization") of the shorthand that the composers left behind. There's a skeleton there, determined by the bass line in the left hand and the chords that are implied. But exactly how it gets played is an opportunity for individual creativity. (For the musicians among you, this is a figured bass exercise.) There are stylistic parameters and limitations, but there are many decisions the pianist can make about chord texture, voicing, register, and dynamics. It brings the pieces alive in yet another way, and it allows for some very individual give-and-take with the singer.

As a postscript, here are Keith's comments on this set: Patricia gave birth to our twin son and daughter on August 21st (our fourth wedding anniversary, incidentally). Needless to say, we've been singing to them, which means all sorts of great excuses to practice upcoming repertoire (if maybe a little softer than we'd normally practice). Patricia has found "Sebben crudele" to be particularly effective at getting Molly to stop screaming.


Five Movements for My Father (Susan Kander)

It's been a wonderful journey to explore this cycle of songs written for Keith Phares in 2005. Keith recently recorded them, and he clearly has a wonderful affinity for this music and these texts. He met composer Susan Kander in 2001 when her son Jacob was singing the role of Young Pip in OTSL's Miss Havisham's Fire.

This is truly vocal chamber music, written for baritone, violin, clarinet, cello and piano. At this point, all of the instrumentalists have been prepping on their own, and we get together for the first time on Monday. The added interest and expressive possibilities that come from adding other musicians to the mix is tempered just a bit by the additional complexity and challenge of coordinating all 5 of us.

Here's the composer's description: For better or worse, I don’t come from the academy, I come from the theater. My roots run deep in musical theater especially. Five Movements for my Father is essentially a mini-opera and a monodrama in which the singer portrays a character at critical movements over his lifetime. Music allows us to live more viscerally through these moments with them. It tells the story of a man’s life: we meet him way back in the last century as an exuberant college student, follow him to 1930’s Paris as a young poet, return home with the excited GI after WWII. Decades later he looks back over his lengthening marriage and finally, now an old man after the turn of the 21st century, he vents his anger and sadness at the current state of his beloved America. The music loosely follows the times and locales, starting in the ultra-romantic swirl of the early 20th century, on to pointillist France, back to swing era USA, before drifting loose into the latter 20th century. I wrote this piece in 2005 for my father for his 82nd birthday.

1. L'Orage

The first movement feels raw - the musicians really create the storm that underlays Sam Ashworth's poem. This is as true a sonic description of adolescence as you'll ever hear, and my experience as a musician in the texture is pretty much similar to what it must feel like (not that I can remember...) to be a teenager. It's tough to play, and the adrenaline is tougher to manage. It's pretty easy to get lost, too, and all senses are on high alert. And when the hormones and the thick chromatic textures and the shifting rhythms dissipate, and the baritone sings "By the time I have reached college the rain has stopped and the sun is shining," over an eerie and still open fifth harmonic in the strings, the relief is physical, mental, and emotional.

2. Pangur Bàn

I've known the Samuel Barber / W. H. Auden "The Monk and His Cat" for a long time, and it was great fun to dig into this very different approach to the same 8th-century Irish poem. Barber's take on this touching relationship between the old man and his white feline companion is pretty straight-forward - with a lilting, rocking accompaniment that doesn't stray too far from its harmonic home. Kander's pointillistic approach is a great deal of fun, with the cat literally scampering through the piano, string, and clarinet parts. Cursed with dander allergies, I am not a cat person. But thanks to Lucky, a member of Rahree's household, I can conjure up this scene :)

3. Perfection

The poetry of William Carlos Williams enters the picture in the middle of the cycle. (Remember his Red Wheelbarrow from freshman English class?) In this third movement, the description of an apple left for a month on the porch rail ("beautif'ly and completely rotten) is wondrously spun over a pungent jazz quartet. (The singer's instruction is "very Mel Tormé")

4. Of Asphodel, that greeny flower

I've been spending time with the entire poem as I try to dig inside this movement, probably the most straight-forward of the set. Perhaps it intrigues me most, because its place in the cycle most closely represents the chapter in which I soon find myself. The poetry is, in WCW's style, full of images that engage all of the senses. But somehow it's the abstract language that draws me in the most.

"It has been
for you and me
as one who watches a storm
come in over the water.
We have stood
from year to year
before the spectacle of our lives
with joined hands."

from Asphodel, William Carlos Williams

5. Soliloquy

From the entrance of the singer "Art is What? Art is shit" through the always timely WCW quote in the middle "It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die mis'rably ev'ry day for lack of what is found there" to the angry ending that circles back to a quote from the angry young man in the first movement, the Soliloquy is a roller coaster ride.

We will particularly enjoying presentin this cycle next Friday, because of our own connection with a life-long friend of John Kander - Tom Tuch, a devoted Wolf Trap fan and donor, and a published author, will be sitting in the front row.


Merton Songs (Frank Ferko)

I read Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain years ago, and although I can't exactly say that I have a deep understanding of his faith and philosophies, they've been a source of amazement. These three songs are part of a larger set of five.

Wisdom

Composer Frank Ferko: "In Wisdom, the poet somewhat humorously contrasts the concepts of knowledge and wisdom."

I particularly like the instructions to the pianist in the "knowledge" part of this brief song: to play in a "rather dry and academic" style. Well, for a large part of my life, I had no trouble with this.

Reduced to This

Composer Frank Ferko: "Reduced to This expresses, somewhat humorously, the poet’s frustration in using language to communicate. While reading this text with the intention of creating a musical setting, I could not help but make an association between the poet’s frustrations and those of many composers in the past century who experimented endlessly with new techniques but often ended up with little or no content in their music. Merton’s first two lines express the feeling concisely: “Alone/With nothing to say.”

Two minutes of deliberately frustrating music. Don't be afraid. We'll take care of you.

Song for Nobody

Deliberately (I'm sure) evocative of the Satie's hypnotic Gymnopédies, this final song is balm for the previous song's anguish.

In the composer's words: "Images of nature are frequent and abundant in Thomas Merton’s poetry (as the third poem in this set has already demonstrated). So it is appropriate that Song for Nobody was inspired by a flower which blossomed off-season—all by itself—in my dining room window while I was writing this music. At about the same time that this lone flower appeared, I also discovered a tiny bunch of marigolds growing out of a crack in the concrete sidewalk behind my apartment building in Chicago. Perhaps the flowers were initially singing for nobody, but I think not. They were singing to me.”


Banalités (Francis Poulenc)

If you aspire to sing or to spend your professional life with singers, please do not fail to forge a relationship with poetry. I think I'm so happy in this business because words have always been a second love, after music. So that when they combust, it's the best thing in the world. I always wonder what it's like for singers and pianists for whom an appreciation for language is a difficult thing.

Now, I don't really pretend to understand Apollinaire. Even though French was my second language (even before Italian), and I started college as a French major. Actually, I have a pretty decent relationship with the text of Banalités until I get to the final movement...

1. Chanson d’Orkenise

Other than not really understanding how or why the town guards are knitting (??), this opening replica of a folk song is sheer fun.

2. Hôtel

If you've been around vocal music for a while, you've probably encountered this gem. Wow. How can a composer paint this complete a picture in a minute and a half?

3. Fagnes de Wallonie

Right now, I'm stuck on the composer's direction at the beginning of this movement ("extremely quickly, in a single bound.") as well as the suggested metronome marking (half note = 92). OK, I can't play it that fast. Windswept moors, indeed.

4. Voyage à Paris

As enjoyable as a trip to Paris should be, but not nearly as long :)

5. Sanglots

I'm a bit too seduced by the sheer aural content of this piece. The playing of it seems to be quite enough. The poem is intriguing and undeniably beautiful, but I can't bring any of it into focus or really marry it with the music. More work to be done.


Robert Schumann (Jake Heggie)
Commissioned by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
World Premiere Performance

I can't get this one out of my mind. For so many many reasons.
I'm a bit of a Schumann junkie. I first tackled Carnaval on my undergraduate senior recital. I've played almost every piano piece he wrote (after a fashion, of course, in the privacy of my living room:), and I've had multiple encounters with many of his songs and cycles. My essential nature is somewhat northern European, and so many of the German composers make visceral sense to me in a way that the Mediterraneans do not. (I may be one of the few opera people I know who had to learn to love Verdi. Don't flame me.)

The love story that was Clara and Robert Schumann is heartbreaking. On romantic, personal, and professional levels. And even more breathtaking is Clara's loss of Robert to mental illness. I was a Registered Music Therapist for a brief time in my 20's, and I spent a handful of years working in a psychiatric institution. Jake's duet takes me back.

The scene is really led by Clara, whose music is crushingly earnest. Robert is just a shadow sometimes (without text, just vocalism), and a few times he is fully present, breaking through in a very touching way at the end. His music is a glimmer of familiarity with an overlay of pain and confusion - like looking at an old picture through a maze of cracks.

"Hardly a day passes I don't think of him

in the asylum: younger

than I am now, trudging the long road down

through madness toward death.

Everywhere in this world his music

explodes out of itself, as he

could not..."

from Mary Oliver's poem, Robert Schumann

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

We'll end the evening with a few Gershwin tunes, and I'll get a chance to kick back to my jazz trio and piano bar days (without the brandy snifter on the piano, I'm guessing... but in this economy, why not?... just kidding).

If you're near northern Virginia, we'd love to see you at The Barns next Friday! The Discovery Series concerts all have Question-&-Answer segments at the beginning of the second half, so you'll get a chance to meet Keith and Patricia. (Maybe we'll get to see baby pictures, too, if we're lucky.) And you can join us all after the concert for a reception.

OK, back to practicing!

Transition: Houston to LA

A quick dispatch from the Houston airport. Our flight to LA is delayed, and by the time I get to my computer in California, I may be a little too fried to report.

This morning, Beatrice and Benedict student matinee at HGO. I want to see all my operas with a couple thousand kids. So different and so wonderful in all of the predictable ways. As a bonus, there were 4 former Trappers onstage and 1 CameraMan in the pit rocking the house. Bravi, guys, and thanks for the Friday morning dose of Berlioz and Shakespeare.

On a less positive note, bad news has come down this week about Opera Pacific, closing its doors midseason in what seems to be a permanent fashion. I'm not a sky-is-falling kind of gal, but this is another reminder to all of us that this economic climate is going to require as much innovation and creativity inside administrative offices as it does on the upstage side of the footlights.

Open Studio and Beyond

This morning we kicked off the 2008 version of Open Studio. For 5 days we offer an opportunity for Wolf Trap donors to see inside the workings of our newest venture - the Wolf Trap Opera Studio.

All sessions begin with an introduction by WTOS' fearless leader Josh Winograde. (Who will momentarily leave us for a Big Job. But we'll forgive him.)

This morning, he introduced our own Eric Melear - coach, chorusmaster, WTOS Music Director, and most recently, Alcina conductor.

Eric demonstrated how a conductor works with singers - demystifying some of what goes on in a conductor's mind for both the audience and the singers in the room. (You'll notice that I said "some of"... I think the rest will always be a mystery:)

We take so much of our business for granted that it's quite a lot of fun to be able to shed some light on it for audience members who clearly love the art form and have a seemingly endless supply of questions about how it all fits together.

PODCAST!

I had big plans for podcasts this summer, and I'm conceding defeat. Too few hours and too many competing demands. But a bunch of our singers got together today to free-associate about their careers, the challenges and rewards of the opera business, and what they wish they had known when they were 20 :)

In the post-season, I'll edit our hour-long ramblings into a few shorter chunks and post here on the blog. Thanks, guys.

BOB FINCHEIMER

I've been nagging Bob all summer to finish his daily schedule program, but I'm having to take 3rd place in his life, after his job and his pre-VTech assignments. (Well, if I'm honest, I'm kinda 5th in line after those two things, his girlfriend, and his crazy fast computer.)

I did nab Bob long enough this evening to update all of the code for the 2009 audition applications. I think we nailed it. We'll test for a few days, and with any luck we'll go live next week. First application deadline is September 30.

Thanks, Bob.

07.13.08

10:30 am - WT Opera Studio audition class

11:15 am - Work commences on the next day's schedule

11:40 am - Practice room hallway fills up

12:20 pm - Patrons begin to arrive for preshow talk

12:30pm - WTOS singers enjoy post-class bagels

12:40 pm - Turn on preshow powerpoint loop

12:50 pm - Morgana warms up before her hair & makeup call

1:45 pm - Bradamante warms up al fresco

1:55 pm - Life in the House Manager's office just feels like a multiple exposure

2:15 pm - Alcina Act 1 on the steps. Handel inside the curtain, check request forms outside.

2:55 pm - Piano moving. Don't ask.

3:10 pm - Instant Opera rehearsal

3:30 pm - So this is what the Alcina chorus does in Act II.

3:55 pm - F&B staff await second intermission

3:40 pm - Camera misplaced, then returned bearing mysterious photo

4:10 pm - Backstage left

5:25 pm - Crash in the lobby

6:35 pm - Opera Goes to the Improv Show #1. "In the Duck Blind"

8:45 pm - Opera Goes to the Improv show #2. "The Great Deficit"

11:55 pm - Baltimore Washington International Airport. Retrieve guest artist who had a 7-hour flight delay. Check out the flight options to Aruba.

2:07 am Monday - Post Version 3 of tomorrow's schedule. To bed by 3, then up at 4:30 to see my charming son off to college orientation.

Since July 13 really did feel as if it lasted for two days, it will hereby qualify as two blog postings. Taking the rest of the day off. See you Tuesday.

Discretion Is Advised

As we enter the most public portion of our annual cycle, I refer you to a post of a few months ago on Arts Addict: Losing My Anonymity. Jason is a working orchestral musician with a highly successful blog, and he discusses the challenges of balancing transparency with discretion.

I've been blogging for over 3 years, and every few months the landscape changes. During my first season in the blogosphere, I was extremely cautious. Never used names, always asked permission before discussing almost anything or posting a photo of anyone. I still err on the side of discretion, but the dividing line has shifted.

Many bloggers have only found out that they've overstepped that line after the damage has been done. There are no rules except common sense and courtesy, and everyone has a different frame of reference. I've never been "anonymous" in any way, but the people I work with all summer and those I hear in audition every fall have every right to their privacy. Yet the success of blogs like this one depends on honesty and transparency.

So, if you're an artist about to spend your summer at the Trap, or if you have a friend or loved one who will be here this season, what can you expect? If you're an opera fan who checks out this space for inside scoop, will you really get it? Well, it's an overstatement to say that I have guidelines for these things, but here's a bit of the logic behind it:

Opt Out: Most of our artists and staff know about the blog. We make sure everyone understands that I'm posting regularly through the season, and I give folks a chance to opt out of any mention in this forum.

Photos: Performance and/or dress rehearsal photos are fair game. Other rehearsal photos and candids are case-by-case. If it's not the least bit controversial and it's flattering, I'll probably just go ahead and use it. It it's sensitive or personal in any way, and/or if it makes anyone look bad, I ditch it. If I'm not sure, I ask. (I'm the most camera-phobic person I know, and I'm sympathetic. It's probably why I prefer being on this side of the lens.)

Anecdotes: Humorous stories that don't put anyone in a compromising position are gold. Even so, I almost never use real names, and sometimes change a few details to protect the innocent.

Verboten: Unfortunately, some of the most illuminating events are emotionally charged and fraught with anxiety. Occasionally there's a way to address the substance of these events later, and in a context that protects anonymity. But many of those stories, no matter how compelling, will always remain private.

Ready Or Not

I didn't intend to take a blog mini-vacation recently, but I've been remiss. I was waylaid by a host of impending season-related non-blog-worthy tasks, a big volunteer project at my son's school, and taking care of some family business before I go underground for 4 months. But I'll be back next week (the official start of rehearsals!!) with entries every few days throughout the summer.

Postscript: Practice Makes Perfect

One of the most difficult things to get across to an aspiring performing artist is the importance of rehearsal. Not just quantity, but quality. It's not enough to think about practicing, and it's not much better to do it without energy, context and intention. The only way to perform well and consistently under pressure is to prepare for it thoughtfully and creatively.

So, I will take my own advice for once. I hereby practice.

"No."

"Sorry, but I can't."

"No, thanks."

"Wish I could help, but I can't."

"No."

"Thanks for asking - hope you can find someone else."

"No."

"Uh... no."

OK, maybe the next time I have to perform under pressure, I will have some rehearsal on my side. And I won't be in the same sorry state I ended up in this spring.

Amidst the spring chaos, City of Angels was rewarding, exhausting, and memorable. Thanks for holding it together on several fronts at once, Ben. :)

Verde

I've been stalled, trying to distill a post inspired by Earth Day. So many fragments of ideas have been floating in and out of my mind, and I thought that if I just gave it a few more days, a coherent whole would emerge.

Well, it hasn't, but that never stopped me from writing before. :)

The Wolf Trap Foundation has been making important contributions to the discussion on the arts and the environment for quite a while now. It's not my intention to detail all of it here, but you really should take a look at Go Green with Wolf Trap. It's an issue about which Terre Jones, Wolf Trap CEO, cares deeply. And the Foundation's partnership with Wolf Trap National Park positions us as an ideal leader in this movement.

True Confessions

Background: I don't consider myself an activist, but I've been making small efforts for years. We seem to have hit an earth-friendly peak in the late '80's, growing our own vegetables in the back yard, using hemp grocery bags (still in my car) and washing literally thousands of cloth diapers. So I'm completely sympathetic to the causes of environmental awareness and conservation.

Conflict: I've had a tough time getting up a full head of steam to cheerlead for my own organization's Green Initiative. Of course it's important, on so many different levels. And I'm proud to be part of an organization for which this is a priority. So why the conflict? Simply, there is absolutely no time or energy left in my work psyche for anything else. I have a job, it needs to be done as well as possible, and it taps out any reserves I have. This very important issue feels like a very large fly buzzing around my head, trying to tell me something I can't make time to hear.

Resolution?

Clearly, there's a lesson here. It's beginning to nibble at my brain, but I haven't absorbed it yet.

The benefits of immersing oneself in music, art, theatre or dance are clearly harmonious with the mindset that we all need to cultivate in order to live long and well on this earth. The essence of humanity lies in the heart of all the arts, and that same core is the part of us that will find a way to use all of our resources wisely and not squander our natural gifts.

There's a parallel here that starts inside us and has nothing to do with compact fluorescents or reusable bags. We need to learn to operate happily within the limitations of our own bodies and minds. We ignore these limits at our peril. I am extraordinarily blessed to have a large store of mental energy and good health, but I regularly abuse both by not respecting those resources. Learning to work with instead of against my own personal resources could give me a mindset that can take the next step and consider the stewardship of my larger environment.

It's not such a leap to bring this all back around to the opera company. (Oh right... this is an opera blog...) Our home at The Barns is beautiful, personal and unique. But there are clear parameters - limitations of design and space. When we embrace these parameters and work within them, the results are rewarding and illuminating. When we fight them or ignore them, we struggle mightily and sometimes fail.

I told you this isn't conclusive, so all you get are these fitfully formed thoughts. But perhaps part of the lesson comes in embracing the ambiguity.

Earth Week in the Garden

My brother taught me that rainy days make for great outdoor photography. Something about the color saturation. This morning's foray in the gardens reminded me of the people from whom most of us are descended - people who would have little trouble with conservation. My grandmother's water pump and my husband's grandfather's wagon wheel conjure up the image of generations who wasted little.

Is It Crowded in Here?

Remember Sybil? I guess she made an impression on me because I was in thrall of a music therapy career at that time, fascinated by all manner of personality disorders. (Plus, my own very sheltered childhood included a Sally Field fixation.)

There have been far too few hours in these recent days. The combination of the abrupt frequent changes of gears and the lack of sleep has made it seem as though a temporary (purely recreational) dissociative identity disorder might be just the ticket.


Thelma, Mild-Mannered Arts Administrator

Thelma has been dogged by guilt this week, for she has let many things slip through the cracks. Ready or not, opera will be happening in just 6 weeks, and she is ill prepared. Verdi orchestra parts must be created, Handel cut lists must be finalized, and Candide roles must be assigned.

Web page content needs to be fleshed out, program copy begs to be written and supertitles cry out for attention. Guests artists and teachers must be booked for seminars. (She's thinking that a website development session might be helpful - not the nuts and bolts, but how to find a designer and what to expect.) And Thelma knows that there's no time for any of this nonsense once artists arrive. On your mark... set... administrate!


Ella Mae, Fearless Accompanist

If Ella Mae were of a younger generation, she'd call herself a Collaborative Pianist. But old habits die hard.

She had far too good a time playing a concert last week. Crazy transpositions and lead sheets and all. The day of the performance, just in the nick of time, she remembered an important lesson. Rehearsing with singers gives a pianist a good amount of inadvertent practice, but only on the "sung" portion of the rep. But what about those preludes, interludes and postludes... when no one is singing? That's when the audience listens to the pianist. Oops... those are the parts Ella Mae always forgets to practice. But she generally found her way to that magic place between accuracy and fakery, and she made some pretty good music.

Singers for this program were former Wolf Trappers, and it was such a joy to make music with them. Being a mentor is wonderful, but it's refreshing to shed the coach/teacher mantle and just be a colleague.


Priscilla, Inspirational Opera Lecturer

Remember the Inside Opera class that began March 24? Imagine Priscilla's surprise when she realized that it was really happening the same week as the aforementioned rehearsals. Teaching this class seemed like such a good idea a few months ago...

Priscilla managed to pull off Session 1, and the response was gratifying. She had a great time with the Florentine Camerata, Monteverdi, Handel, deux ex machina and Farinelli. By tomorrow evening she'll figure out how to jam Mozart, bel canto, librettists, supertitles, baritones, and commedia dell-arte into 90 minutes.


Mazie, Crazy Jazz Pianist

Overlaid on all of this opera are crazy fun rehearsals for Cy Coleman's City of Angels. Mazie is having the best time with all these cool half-diminished and major-minor-ninth chords. Yum. She did a production of On the Twentieth Century a lifetime ago and has been waiting 25 years to get back to Cy.


Harriet, the Happy Housewife

Well, Harriet hasn't been to the grocery store for 3 weeks, so she's not going to win any awards. But she did do laundry today, and she swept up the worst of the dirt on the floor. She made a quick shopping trip to look for a new sofa, but got into a fight with Mazie, who quickly established dominance and blew the sofa budget on a cool new Yamaha S90ES. I guess Harriet can sit on the floor a little longer.

A Syllabus and a Follow-Up

First, a peek at the outline I've been working on for the 5-week Inside Opera class I'll be teaching here at Wolf Trap this spring. 400 years of opera in approximately 7.5 hours :)

SESSION 1 – HOW IT ALL BEGAN
From Florence to London

• OPERA PEOPLE: Divas & Divos
• TOOLS: Recitative & Arias
• FACH: Mezzos & Friends
• THE BIG IDEA: Words & Music

SESSION 2 – THE PENDULUM SWINGS
Classicism to Buffa

• OPERA PEOPLE: Composers & Librettists
• TOOLS: Ensembles
• FACH: Baritone
• THE BIG IDEA: Mozart

SESSION 3 – OLIVE OIL
Bel Canto to Verismo

• OPERA PEOPLE: The Chorus
• TOOLS: The Singer’s Technique
• FACH: Tenor
• THE BIG IDEA: Death Be Not Loud

SESSION 4 – ANYTHING YOU WANT, AS LONG AS YOU SING IT
Grand Opera

• OPERA PEOPLE: The Orchestra
• TOOLS: Language
• FACH: Soprano
• THE BIG IDEA: Gesamtkunstwerk

SESSION 5 – SPRAWLING AND GLORIOUS
Opera in Our Time

• OPERA PEOPLE: Conductors, Directors & Designers
• TOOLS: Park ‘n’ Bark Meets Stanislawski
• FACH: Bass
• BIG IDEA: Where Do We Go From Here?

If you live in the DC area and you're interested in signing up, you should be able to find information at www.wolftrap.org/education in a couple of weeks. Or, you could send me an email, and I'll make sure you get the information. It's on 5 Monday evenings between March 24 and April 21. Plenty of interesting stuff for opera fans and newbies alike.

Had a Bad Audition?

Singers may be interested in this exchange, which recently took place in the Comments section of Josh's post on The Audition Game:

Anonymous said...

This past fall, I sang for the Studio program. I would relish the opportunity to hear feedback about my audition - except for the fact that this was my worst audition yet. I'm sure that the feedback would be framed in a positive manner - all my experiences with Wolf Trap and their personnel have been fabulous - but I still feel like I'd be setting myself up for a bruising by asking for feedback from an audition that 1) I didn't think went well and 2) was months ago!However, Wolf Trap is so generous to offer feedback that I feel foolish for NOT asking for feedback. Josh and Kim, what would you do? I ask mostly because it seems like a pattern that even more established singers might experience.

A response from Josh:

Really good question. As a singer, I have to say that I probably would not ask for feedback from an audition that I felt was NOT reflective of my usual abilities. (Just being honest.) I am not sure I would be interested in having someone pass on their observations of me on an off day... I would probably be very likely to dismiss any constructive criticism, assuming it was not about me at all, but rather in observance of whoever that beast was that crept in and impersonated me! As an administrator, however, I would say you should really go ahead and ask. You may be surprised, especially if the feedback contains comments that you have heard before from coaches and teachers that you trust... it may prove to you that even when you feel you are at your worst, your level of auditioning is more consistent than you think. That applies not only to those elements that you need to work on to improve, but also to those things that we felt were successful.

And a postscript from Kim:

If you feel you have a handle on the specific ways in which you underperformed (vocal indisposition affecting a particular aspect of your technique; general indisposition affecting energy level or focus), then it might be just fine to get feedback. Because if what you hear from us aligns with your own impressions of what didn't go well that day, then some of your questions are answered.On the other hand, if you just feel it all went badly, and the feedback might just confuse you because you wouldn't be able to project backward and figure out which comments, if any, are truly useful - well then, it might make more sense to just move on.

Raw Audition Comments 2008

Not raw in the way you think. Just unedited. Excerpted from the database just the way they were spewed forth during the audition tour. Stream of consciousness and all. The good, the bad, and the ugly, sometimes all within the same aria.

Why do I post these, and why would you read them?

1. To realize that the people at the table aren't writing things that are nearly as vicious as you think they are.

2. To witness the entire range of things that go through our messy crazy minds while we're listening and trying to problem-solve at the same time.

3. To discover some of the recurrent issues that present themselves in the audition room.

4. To get over the fear of these things, move on with your life, and keep singing and improving.

Here goes.

• raw but impressive; a diamond-in-the-very-rough



• the recit is too stagnant



• not exactly a stage animal



• chewing the Italian in search of humor



• seems to take a while to get the voice going.



• an uncomplicated sound



• the entire impression is of general strength and energy



• it’s not a luxurious sound, but she manages to be fairly expressive



• too few options at the top of the voice



• an overriding brightness to the sound that doesn’t fit this aria.



• lots of great flexibility with the sound and dynamics.



• such an interesting color - a complex sound, sometimes too bright



• an easy production, but yet the legato isn’t quite believable yet



• unfortunately loves to hold out those final syllables



• there’s something really exciting about this



• the more legato the line the more difficult it seems to be



• it moves, and this is good for her



• not completely satisfying on a dramatic level, but getting there



• checking out during the coloratura



• it’s an undeniably good voice, if not a particularly large one, but the presentation is a little random



• backing up and grabbing onto the piano much more than he should



• not a huge variety of dynamic and color



• lots of unfocused movement - too much



• needs more Italian work - surprising considering her training



• a mixed bag of strengths



• reaching through the neck for the high notes, lots of tension in the body and head



• weird characterization - the physicality and the voice aren’t really connected



• how much squillo is there?



• he’s very convincing at mp, but there just isn’t a huge dynamic range



• a lot of extraneous sound going on that makes it hard to zero in on the sound/pitch



• the top is shrill, and the mezzo resonance on the bottom is contrived



• the personality is warming and opening up



• aspirate coloratura in the midvoice; much more focused at the top



• dramatically she knows where the beats are but doesn’t quite know what to do with them



• vowel modification is funky....



• sharping a bit; pushing pretty hard



• still, static presence.



• not an unpleasant sound, but choral in nature; really not a lot of ping



• coloratura is indistinct



• gets props for having a dramatic through line



• occasionally the actorly choices get a little smarmy, but generally I really appreciate the effort and invention



• blank and general in the eyes.



• nice presentatation; energetic, specific



• very vertical musicality - not all the time, but too often



• singing this ever so slightly under the pitch… actually, it’s more than slightly



• duple rhythm is so wrong



• musicianship is tame, reserved; making pretty sounds, but that’s about it right now



• I get more energy from her face than from the voice



• I’m all about the extension, but there are unsatisfying moments in the mid-high range



• wish she could harness this in a meaningful musical and dramatic way



• the torso and arms lock down during coloratura



• this is a truly big house voice



• it’s not all glued together, but there are some really lovely moments.



• everything is too tightly choreographed - the physicality isn’t organic



• a slight miscalculation near the end; wouldn’t have advised it



• I wish for more variety; it’s as if she intends it but the execution isn’t there



• very occasionally she starts to float or shape, but it’s always a half-finished gesture



• the stage business is very distracting, and seems very contrived



• she’s confident, and knows the scene well; won’t quibble with the choices she’s making



• good core to the sound. Even throughout.
  Not a particularly big instrument, but clean



• tending to bark all the way through this



• the voice isn’t big enough for this rep - wrong color



• a very careful reading; not even milking the inherent humor in the piece



• baritone claw



• good coloratura. healthy sound. lots to like here



• better supported when he moves his voice



• vibrat is wides and completely obscures the center of the pitch



• French is lazy on the dipthongs and vowels in general



• should never sing this; exposes all of the liabilities



• a lifting off the sound that produces a croon; not often, but occasionally



• the talent is undeniable, but the current picture isn’t yet in focus



• oh, please, get the whole way up to the center of the pitch. please



• seems very very nervous



• body language all over the place, and focus is splintered and anxious



• has memorized some gestures, but she is kind of a theatrical mess



• limited dynamic range - she sings soft, but at a sacrifice to intonation and basic core



• hanging flat @ ends of phrases.



• wants to rush or take this incredibly fast



• either rushes or truly wants to sing this incredibly fast



• unspeakably nervous



• always parallel gestures with his hands



• I get the sense that this is someone who performs significant differently that she auditions



• Italian has American L’s, a few other oddities



• seems innately musical; sounds healthy



• there’s nothing in the rep list that shows whether the voice moves



• the midvoice has an interesting combo of steel and roundness



• sings English very well, connected to the text



• shows great poise, even in this setting



• very vertical - I feel every eighth note go by



• convincing actress - mature musician



• oozes sensuality; makes this sound easy



• develop more nuance... visit the land of pianissimos more often and with more finesse



• brings this off largely on linguistic and stylistic strengths



• the cadenza a particular miscalculation



• Mozart recit completely convincing



• this kind of voice has to have a stellar top...



• over-indulgent reading - no life, sense of subtext



• needs to take a more full-blooded approach to this



• nailed the top, but it was scary



• it’s amazing how much more relaxed folks are in callbacks



• it’s as if the voice doesn’t find its center until it sustains a second or so



• this is an incomplete picture, if a pleasant one



• sweet sound, but she sabotages herself on those initial notes...she doesn’t prep them, and then struggles through the remainder of the phrase



• knows what she wants to do with this, but the basic technique isn’t quite there to really let her



• a good musician making the voice conform to her ideas instead of finding the technique to support it



• not afraid to shape the phrases and use the entire dynamic range



• impressed with the agility of this size of instrument



• the entire focus is on the floor between us and him



• there’s no separation between her and her singing; this is exciting and scary at the same timeperformances have the lid on



• a committed actress, and does a good job of conveying this character without it feeling frenzied



• handles some of the coloratura well - and is actually the best and most in-tune singing he does.



• very little connection to the text



• underenergized and miniaturized in its impact



• good musician. good evil laugh. :)



• only sings long phrases when it’s florid - tends to chop up the rest.



• singing this whole thing with eyes closed or almost-closed



• I love the sound, but it’s a soprano voice with a mezzo technique



• looked up for the interlude, then back down; when she does look up, she closes her eyes



• it’s official, I have baritone fatigue



• recit. is Wonder Bread



• cycles through the same arbitrary physical gestures



• it’s a biggish instrument inside a person that feels almost apologetic



• terribly terribly nervous



• really gets the style; nice starter for him, for it showcases the assets



• the top isn’t ugly or disappointing, just not relevatory



• lots of straight tone, scoopy, coming off the voice at the ends of phrases.
  Started the aria super fast, and is now struggling to maintain the tempo she set



• absolutely nothing wrong with the basic footprint, but he simply has to sing in tune



• moments of hope surrounded by acres of bad decisions



• seems very disconnected from what’s going on with him or in the room.



• nice character, multifaceted, interesting



• worth following, but at this point just a strong academic product



• Deh vieni - begins the characterization at the top of the intro - nice..



• the pitch is really a problem; a shame b/c she has a compelling stage presence.



• coloratura is clean but joyless



• the voice just isn’t gathering itself in a way that allows her to make any significant choices; having to default to a singular mezzo-forte straight-ahead approach



• sings everything very very fast; has facility to burn, but I’m missing any elegance or charm



• on the verge of worrying about whether or not he’ll make it through the next phrase, but he just keeps a comin’...



• monochromatic, blunt and anonymous; too bad, for handled in a different way, this voice would have potential



• finessing her strengths and weaknesses very very well



• being encouraged to emote in large strokes; the overall picture is a bit of a caricature



• good energy, and there is good raw material, but she’s too fearless for her chops



• needs to find her calling card; this extreme tessitura isn’t it, and I’m not sure luxury of timbre is either



• often sacrifices the large gesture for a small one



• not an insignificant talent, but simply not ready to be trusted just yet



• just generically angry



• diction is academic - hasn’t figured out how to make the text work for him.



• there’s tremendous potential here, but he’s not getting the training he needs to capitalize on it



• coloratura is executed without finesse, as if she’s just learned it



• still a little too precious for me, but then again I complain about the folks who just yell...



• a natural legato and expressiveness in his voice which is very engaging/interesting



• wandering all around the middle of the room



• the approach is anguished but nonspecific



• pitch placement cavalier; she can center on a note, but it takes a while and it doesn’t help her in coloratura



• doesn’t have anything below a mezzo-forte



• recit is artistically very strong and specific; in the audition context feels overdone and histronic, but would be what’s required for a large house



• if I’m going to complain about singers just phonating through this, I shouldn't complain about the diva approach



• open your eyes!!



• it’s an American opera, for he has his hands in his pockets



• it’s so nice to hear a full voice that moves!



• went through 4 obvious vowels on the ascending run, and it’s not even the high one... I’m ok with vowel modification, but I don’t want to hear it that clearly



• hasn’t finished making technical choices about the midvoice



• jury’s out on where this voice will go; it’s not behaving like a mezzo in spite of its relative size



• so hard to lock your body in this doll position and and still support; and it’s tough to start with this because it gives us so little information about the singer as an actress



• conducts his singing with the right hand



• very healthy singing, but not the biggest personality in the world



• if you’re going to bring your own pianist, be sure s/he can play your aria :(

OK. Now step away from the computer and go sing some more.

And please don't spend any of your precious time trying to guess if any of these comments pertain to you. If you want to know what we said (and mind you, I'm not encouraging you, just providing information), write us and ask.

Musicians' Shorthand

This image of a conductor's abbreviated note to the orchestra (referenced on Arts Addict's New Year's Eve post) inspired me to pull one of my Rossini opera scores off the shelf.

See, when you get into a Rossini finale, the piano score reduction covers about 2 measures per page. (Once everyone gets singing, and each individual vocal line is stacked on top of another, it takes up all of the available vertical space on the page.) Add to this the fact that most of these finales are moving at an Allegro-or-faster pace, and you begin to see the problem. You end up playing the piano with one hand and turning pages constantly with the other.

Hence, my shorthand version of the first act finale to L'italiana in Algeri. A thing of beauty, representing 56 pages of the score and eliminating 28 page turns!

I'm a bit of a music theory nerd. If you're lucky, maybe someday I'll pull out my Schenkerian analysis of Salome. Or not.

Happy to report that InsideTheArts.com has welcomed an opera interloper. Brian Dickie of Chicago Opera Theatre will be representing all things operatic for the Inside the Arts blog portal. Check it out! (Although I have been teasing Drew that he does need a chick on the roster...!) Looks like there's a new blogger coming next week - keep the faith, ladies!

Life in the Pit

Greetings from Fraser, Colorado, the Icebox of the Nation. Yesterday's high at the top of the mountain was 10 below zero. Cold but breathtakingly beautiful.


I just took a few hours to catch up on blog surfing (something I have a lot of trouble keeping up with under normal circumstances) and found Arts Addict's recent post on the wacky things that go on in orchestra pits. Those of us who have spent time in pits always have stories to tell...

Like the production of Salome that called for full frontal nudity for a split second at the end of the Dance of the Seven Veils. I played the celeste in a downstage corner of the pit near the brass section and was perpetually amazed by the timing and coordination displayed by the musicians as they managed to play the last note and still stand up in time to peer over the pit lip before the blackout.

Like the crazy fog that furled over the edge of the stage and completely enveloped us every night during a run of My One and Only, making it impossible to see the music. They always promised to fix it, but we realized the only way to survive was to memorize the second half of the lamppost scene.

Like the 8 months of Cats I played - not in the pit, but in the 4th floor rehearsal room behind the theatre. See, the Cats scenic design spills out over the pit, and the musicians were relegated to the next block, where we literally phoned it in every night as our sound was piped into the theatre. It was a perk to show up every night in jeans and T-shirt, but it was a spooky feeling never to be in the same room as the rest of the show. (Actually, what was really spooky were the old Prophet V synthesizers. Each keyboard player had one in the room and a spare in the hallway, for they broke down regularly. Part of the job was unplugging the defunct unit, hauling it out of the room without making a sound, and plugging in a new one. No wonder I get hives whenever I hear Memory.)

Then there are those non-performance pit moments...

Like the time I ran out of the pit immediately following a piano dress rehearsal (that's an opera rehearsal onstage without orchestra, with a pianist playing the entire score) to spend the next half hour praying to the porcelain goddess in the ladies room. (I was in my first trimester of pregnancy, with "morning" sickness a 24/7 phenomenon.) By the time I emerged, the pit was locked tight, and my purse with car keys inside was held hostage inside. I finally convinced a security guard to open up the backstage area, but neither one of us could get the lights on. So we stood on the edge of the stage with long spears from the Lucia production, fishing blindly in the pit for my purse.

And finally, the Cosi piano dress that still makes me squirm when I think of it.

The conductor was a brilliant and famous pianist, and he decided at the last minute to include the overture in the rehearsal. (This isn't typical unless the overture is staged and has blocking cues in it. In this case, it was to be played before a closed curtain, so I didn't think I had to get it "in my fingers" to play it. Uh, wrong.) In short, I mangled a Mozart overture in front of a pianist I revered. I had a more difficult time than usual because the grand piano wasn't in the pit and had been replaced by a small upright piano that was far more difficult to play. (We ran out of the necessary crew time to get the grand in the pit.) The pitiful upright was also relegated to the far upstage corner of the pit, distancing me (woefully, but ultimately mercifully) from the conductor.

Some more background: During onstage rehearsals with piano, microphones are usually placed near the strings of the grand piano, piping the sound to backstage monitors so everyone can hear the accompaniment. This "feed" is also send to anyone on headset (stage managers, folks at the tech table, assistant director, etc.) I had forgotten that because I was playing an upright instead of a grand, the microphones were about 16 inches from me, pointed at the piano soundboard near my knees. As I massacred the overture, I began (uncharacteristically, I might point out) to curse under my breath. I knew the Maestro was too far away to hear me. What I didn't realize was that the microphones were not.

The laughter started surreptitiously then got louder. I cursed more strongly, knowing that I was playing badly, but not so badly that my colleagues should be laughing at me. Of course, they were laughing not at my playing but at the venomous language spewing from the keyboard microphones.

Perhaps, in the next post, stories from the life of a backstage conductor. Bribes, threats, sexual harrassment, and improvisation. All in a day's work.

Inside Wolf Trap Opera Casting

A guest post from Joshua Winograde

ossia A Semi-Outsider Perspective on an Amazing System

ossia Why You Might Want To Take It All Slightly Less Personally

CHAPTER ONE: What You Maybe Didn’t Know About Wolf Trap

Wolf Trap Opera Company gave me my first job … three times. First, when I was a grad student transitioning into a year-round Young Artist Program I became a Filene Young Artist and sang in five operas and four recitals over the course of two summers. Second, when Wolf Trap commissioned the world premiere of John Musto’s Volpone I was given my first guest artist contract to sing the title role. Third, when I decided to give the exciting world of Young Artist training a whirl as an administrator, Wolf Trap gave me my first “desk job” which was to help create and manage the Wolf Trap Opera Studio.

It would be redundant and a profound understatement to say that I am eternally indebted to this amazing place. Not just for the career opportunities Wolf Trap has given me on every level, but for shaping the way I view this incredible art form. As an artist I was always aware of the good vibe going around the Wolf Trap Opera Company. It’s one of the reason people love coming back: it just feels good to work here. And having now been a staff member, I am floored to see what a well-run and progressive place it is on every level of the whole Foundation. It is traditional where tradition works best, yet can be cutting edge where tradition no longer applies. It is reverent to art and music that has survived the centuries, yet is always willing to expose Monteverdi and Mozart for the rude (lewd?) little devils they could sometimes be. The entire Wolf Trap Foundation has achieved this wonderful balance, and you can see, feel, and hear that special quality in every department. I would venture to say that calling Wolf Trap’s modus operandi “revolutionary” is only a little bit dramatic. (“Progressive” might be more on track, but hey, I’m an opera singer and I tend toward the hyperbolic :)

This is all background information that I felt you should know before I get to opera casting.


CHAPTER TWO: WTOC Casting - Why It Is So Much Harder Than It Needs To Be (In a GOOD Way)

One major example of Wolf Trap’s revolutionary – ok, fine! – progressive approach to the performing arts is the way the Opera Company casts and programs its seasons. To be precise: the Wolf Trap Opera Company works backwards.

Most opera companies choose repertoire, then cast that repertoire with the best matches they can find for each role. That system definitely works, and what’s more, it allows companies to hire directors, conductors, and designers WELL in advance. It also allows companies to start fundraising for specific shows, to plan marketing and outreach strategies, and to get the word out to various target audiences. Wouldn’t that be easier on so many levels? YES!

What I mean by “backwards” is this: WTOC hears hundreds of singers and chooses the repertoire based on whom they’ve heard. That means that the entire season plan can shift on a dime as late as the final singer at 6 PM on the very last day of auditions. And this kind of rollercoaster happens EVERY SEASON!

The following is a slightly fictionalized re-enactment, and any resemblance to actual events is only partially coincidental.

Last year, I remember how beautifully the casting seemed to be falling into place for Hansel and Gretel. KPW heard the perfect Hansel, the perfect Gretel, the perfect Witch, the perfect Father… and then who walked in but Mr. Amazing Bass #1 and Mr. Amazing Bass #2 – basically back to back! Basses are, quite simply, a rare breed and you can never count on hearing very many in any given season. One a day would be a lot!

These TWO fantastic basses walked in, sang the heck out of a couple of arias each, and KPW turned and said, after spending thousands of minutes figuring out how to produce, cast, and market a Humperdinck opera to sell up to 12,000 seats: “I guess we’re doing Magic Flute this year!”

WHAT??? What happened to how perfectly the Hansel could also sing Hermia opposite the Demitrius who would be such a great Guglielmo with the Despina who could sing the heck out of Sandman AND Dewfairy??? And now you wanna do MAGIC FLUTE???? Is it possible to offer Hansel the 2nd Lady, and Gretel the role of Papagena, and 3rd Lady to the Witch? Maybe, but you get my point.

On one hand, choosing rep for a particular person is not a new idea: most major companies like, let’s say HGO, will plan, let’s say, a Traviata around someone like, let’s say, Renee Fleming, who may decide that it is a role she would like to add to her repertoire two or three or six years down the line. But that leaves a LOT of time to find the perfect Alfredo, Germont, and Doctor Grenvil (did I mention I was Doctor Grenvil in Renee’s first Traviata at HGO?). But at Wolf Trap, these decisions are happening in any given January for this coming summer only 5 months away!!!

Now that we have added the Wolf Trap Opera Studio to this casting equation, there is a new piece of the puzzle to fit in. The Studio Artists are cast in small roles and in the chorus of the Barns operas. First and foremost, the Studio Artists as an ensemble MUST populate a wonderful and repertoire-specific chorus. Any small roles or role-studies are perks based on the current readiness of individual Studio applicants.

Let’s use the comparison example of the Cosi-Midsummer-Hansel season that became Volpone-L’Etoile-Flute basically overnight, here is how it all affected the Studio Artist casting:

STUDIO CASTING EXAMPLE #1

Cosi
Studio Artists must sing chorus, so we know we need more or less 3 sopranos, 3 mezzos, 3 tenors, 4 bar/basses
Possible Despina and Alfonso study-roles if a perfect match presents itself

Midsummer
no adult chorus
Puck: smallish guy, lots of acting and dance experience, good rhythm
Snout and Starveling: tenor and baritone

Hansel
Nothing

So you can see that in EXAMPLE #1 we have the freedom to choose the Studio Artist with very few limitations other than by voice type.

STUDIO CASTING EXAMPLE #2

Volpone
Soprano Judge, tricky to cast
Baritone Judge, strong high F
Bass Judge, sits on a low G for DAYS
Epicene, funny mezzo who needs to imitate a bass for one page
Castrato, soprano or male-soprano
Nano, bass
Police Capt., baritone, tricky rhythmically
NO chorus

L’Etoile
SATB chorus that is much more demanding than Cosi: the women sing REALLY high and the men sing REALLY low … a lot!
Patacha and Zalzal, tenor and high baritone

Flute
Nothing

So you can see that when Mr. Bass #1 and Mr. Bass #2 walked in, the equation shifted dramatically not only for the Filene Young Artists, but for the Studio Artists as well. Now we need to make sure that there are very specific voices in the Studio. Now that we need two baritones and two basses for Volpone, for example, we may no longer be able to offer a spot to a wonderful bass-baritone who would have been a perfect Alfonso study-cover. Also, now that we have the role of Castrato, we can seriously consider a countertenor that we would not have been able to in EXAMPLE #1. I mean, who would ever know that the reason they did or did not get in to the Wolf Trap Opera Studio was because of those two awesome basses?


CHAPTER THREE – Why Am I Writing This?

Having heard about a hundred Studio auditions in the last week, and having another hundred more scheduled for next week, I felt compelled to get these thoughts out. For some reason recently I have been asked the same question by several singers, voice teachers, and administrators: “How does Wolf Trap Opera choose its singers?” which to me translates to “Do you think I/my student/such-and-such singer will get in to Wolf Trap”? The answer can be as short as “I have no idea.” But as you can see, it is nowhere near that simple. I think it does singers good to know some of the insider perspective. In fact, now that I reflect on every time I didn’t get, let’s say, a Figaro that I really wanted, I can just let go of so much frustration, because how would I know if it came down to something as simple as being too tall for the 5’3” Susanna and the 5’7” Count? Or maybe they wanted the Figaro to also sing Escamillo in the same season (a role I am just not right for).

Knowing this about casting in general, and specifically about Wolf Trap Opera Company and Studio, whose repertoire is so tailor-made to each season’s artists, just might help a few of you to let go of what it essentially out of your control. Having said that, what IS in your control is developing the skills needed to audition and perform as best as you can.

Steve Smith, a fantastic New York City-based voice teacher, just wrote a book about what he calls “Whole-istic Singing” which is modeled after holistic medicine. The focus of holistics is to address the small, internal components of any issue rather than to simply treat the symptoms. In other words, DO the right things and the right result will HAPPEN. For example: rather than taking decongestants, cough suppressants, and an anti-inflammatory to mask the symptoms of a cold, the focus should be on sharpening the immune system through nutrition, rest, and stress-reducing. The RESULT will be that the cold doesn’t get you next time, or at the very least that your body gets rid of it quickly. In the long run, it seems to me to be a much more gratifying solution than being hopped up on Theraflu every few months. The same can be said for singing: rather than worrying about the RESULTS – i.e. Did they like me? Did I sound great? Will I get a role? – you should think only about the small things: excellent language, good breathing and vocal technique, connection to the text, having something to say, presenting yourself professionally, etc. Those things are very much IN your control, and I bet you’d be surprised at how much faster the RESULTS roll in.

Has this made any sense? If not, just think of it as five minutes of your time wasted reading the 4 AM ramblings of someone who meant well but got caught up in a tangent.

If it did make sense, cool.