No Words

I try hard to get out of the opera rut. (Here's a true confession: I am fascinated with opera, I adore the people who make it, but I often don't understand the people who love it.) Going to the opera has its rewards, but it's usually a complicated busman's holiday. So when I spend a free evening as a patron, I am particularly excited when I have an opportunity to go to the theatre, hear some chamber music or symphony, or - as was the case last night - see some fabulous dance.

It didn't hurt that a friend was up there on the stage. But it didn't stop there.

I love the marriage of music and words. Abstract (read: textless) music sometimes feels naked to me. Incomplete, perhaps. Add the fact that I am most definitely not a visually-oriented person, and you have a prescription for an ambivalent dance patron. But last night's Mozart Dances was a home run.

When I see an inspired physicalization of a musical motif, it's as if a door opens. I want to scream to all of my old piano students, "Look!! That's what it should sound like!" This ability of the kinesthetic and the visual to inform the aural is not something that should surprise me. But because it originates with my weakest sense, it is an eye-opener. (Sorry, bad pun.)

Cross-fertilization is my life. (There's probably a better, less agricultural term, but this is the description that makes the most sense.) The emotional texture and color in language marry wonderfully with the singing voice. The linear beauty and scientific clarity in math clarifies the structure of theatre and music. The patterns of history and cultures positions me to appreciate the differences in other human beings. (Can you tell that liberal arts education is a soapbox from which I have a hard time descending....?)

After the performance, words felt completely superfluous. We were too tired to stay for the Q&A afterward, but I left without regrets. Because truthfully, I didn't want to hear anyone talk about it.

Ice Morning

Kind of like a snow day, but not as long. And not as much fun...

The office opened late yesterday, and I took advantage of the reprieve to dig into the score of the new opera for which I'm playing a workshop next week. (Gulp.)

But there was this irritating squeak between the C# and the D. Handy Husband was sure he could fix it, so soon the guts of the Grotrian were splayed on the floor.

I got dizzy and light-headed, just as if I were in a real surgical procedure. What are all of those parts and how do they work? I've played the piano for 46 years, and I still have no idea how it works. That makes me fairly irresponsible, but I take comfort that my ineptness extends far beyond the keyboard action. I don't know how my car works, how the fuse box functions, or how to fix almost anything that's broken. The fact that I took a memory card out of my laptop this fall still makes my heart race :)

I'm playing this new opera workshop (An Inspector from Rome, by John Musto & Mark Campbell, many more details to come... watch this space...) because we didn't get the funding we needed, and one of the casualties was the ability to hire a pianist. But don't cry for me. I'm in my happy place. Marking up my score, analyzing harmonies, nailing down bits and pieces of vocal lines. (But not fixing squeaks...)

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!

Bringing My Right Brain Back to Work

I've fallen off the blogging train in a big way, and the thought of returning has begun to intimidate me. Yet here I am. Just don't expect too much too soon.

I took some real time off at the end of December. Relatively unplugged, and - more importantly - gloriously unhurried. Lately it seems that the biggest hurdle I approach in my daily life is to avoid feeling constantly rushed, breathless, late, panicked-because-I-don't-have-enough-time...

And yet I know that I have plenty of time. Or at least - as they say - 24 hours a day just like everyone else. Unfortunately, I, like so many of you, persist in believing that if I play my cards just right, I can cram more into those hours than is really possible.

It's a game, and it's almost too bad that I'm pretty good at it. I excel at speed. I exude efficiency. And I wasn't raised with the Pennsylvania Protestant work ethic for nuthin'. But there's a tradeoff. Only my left brain allows itself to be pushed. And only the fast parts survive. I can be a blazingly fast linear-thinking, serial-processing, spreadsheet-churning, database-cranking machine. And it appears that lots gets done. Well, I guess it does. But a lot gets lost.

Only when you slow down does the right brain have a fighting chance to be heard through the noise. It's a tough argument, because until the noise does stop, the right brain stuff doesn't seem important. In fact, it barely seems to exist in the daily check-things-off-the-list hubbub. So what if I haven't had a truly creative impulse in months?

But when it creeps back, the world is different. Colors are brighter, ideas are clearer, people are dearer, music is sweeter. OK, it even sounds sappy as I write it. But there it is. To edit would be to allow the left brain to exert dominance :)

So here we are, blogging in 2009, and already making little sense. There may be a brief digression from recent typical post content, with far fewer lists, analyses, and statistics. But if you're one of the students who visit here regularly (or even if you're just another hopelessly linear thinker who's not stuck in academia), stick with me anyway. There are things to talk about.

Nella testa ho un campanello che suonando fa din din...

We are struggling with summer repertoire and calendars that refuse to bend to our will. This is business as usual for anyone who's insane enough to choose singers simultaneously with repertoire. But it's worsened by the severe limitations of our two venues - one that's so small and specific that you have to be very careful not to overextend it, and one that so huge and busy that it's hard to carve out just the right niche.

We're used to this masochistic December exercise, but this year is one of the more challenging I can remember. The whole puzzle is never complete until well after the new year, but by this point the number of variables should be on the decline. Sadly, the options are increasingly daily, and my head just might explode.

Anyway, this too shall pass. I'm just trolling for sympathy (and impunity for the dearth of blog postings....)

Short Attention Span

In the meantime, here's some interesting surfing:

If you're looking for a sartorial summary of this fall's audition tour, visit Rahree's Audition Recap: Fashion Edition.

Chicago Opera Theatre's Brian Dickie has a host of on-the-money comments in his recent "mock" audition blog post.

From Seth Godin, a short post that I read at least five times: The Noise. As attracted as I am to all things Web 2.0, I often feel as if I'm drowning. "The thing is, not all data is equal, and measuring the truth based on volume is almost certain to get you in trouble."

And finally, if you haven't yet stumbled on the YouTube Symphony, you should check it out. I'm curious, skeptical, and jazzed all at the same time. I wish I didn't have a day job (well, not really... that's not something you can joke about these days... but you know what I mean), and I would kick off a YouTube Opera. I can already imagine it. That is, minus the couple thousand hours it would take to implement it...

Since You've Asked

I'm also derelict on responses to blog comments/questions. Let's try to remedy that.

Just curious: if you have a doubts about "real" fach of mezzo, do you ever mentioned in your feedback your doubts? What is the proportions of "true" or "doubtful" mezzo? Voce di donna, seems, impossible to sing being not a true mezzo (as it should be a contralto). If you have to choose, would you prefer for your studio the "true" one but less polished or zwischen with a better technique?

I will only mention our doubts about Fach if asked. We can have our opinions, but we'd be fools to believe that we have the definitive answers based on a 10-minute audition once a year. And the whole thing is a sliding scale. There are plenty of successful mezzos out there who are considered by some to be sopranos-in-disguise. It's a combination of the relative size and projection of the voice in its various registers, where the natural breaks lie, the subjective "color" of the sound, and the way in which it handles the extremes of the mezzo tessitura. As for choices for the Studio, we try not to get too bound up in this with undergraduates. But because our Studio does sing some chorus roles in our operas, we need women who will sing the mezzo line. All we care is that these ladies are self-described mezzos who are singing comfortably and effectively in that register at this moment. What they will become, and whether or not they are emergent lyric or dramatic sopranos doesn't matter.

Who is Singing What: The Aria Frequency List

The fall 2008 version of the List is here. Please forgive any typos/inconsistencies. I'm a little distracted by trying to put together next summer's rep while in a general state of post-audition-tour frazzledness. (OK, I made that up, but it's a good word to have. Frazzlidity? Frazzlation?)

The Framework

315 singers were scheduled for an audition this year.

• 39% sopranos
• 16% mezzo-sopranos
• 2% countertenors
• 17% tenors
• 19% baritones
• 7% basses or bass-baritones

Each singer offers 4 arias in his/her audition, resulting in a sample of 1,260 arias. This list summarizes the frequency with which these selections were offered - not the frequency with which they were chosen during the actual audition.

We require one aria by either Mozart, Handel or Rossini; and one aria in English.


SOPRANO

Popular Pamina
Ach ich fühl's (27X)

Blondchen in Second Place
Durch Zärtlichkeit (15X)

10-15 X
Caro nome
Deh vieni
Je veux vivre
No word from Tom / I go to him
Quando m'en vo

5-10 X
Ach ich liebte
Adieu notre petite table
Ah je ris (Jewel Song)
Ain't it a pretty night
Amour ranime mon courage
Be kind and courteous
Chacun le sait
Chi il bel sogno di Doretta
Come scoglio
Da tempeste
Dearest Mama
Depuis le jour
Der Hölle Rache
Embroidery aria
Glitter and be gay
How beautiful it is
Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante
Je marche / Obéissons (Gavotte)
Je suis encor
O wär' ich schon
Oh! quante volte
Piangerò
Porgi amor
Prendi per me
Presentation of the Rose
Quel guardo / So anch'io
Regnava nel silenzio
Song to the Moon (Rusalka)
Tornami a vagghegiar
Willow song

2-4 X
Adele's Audition aria
Ah fors'è lui / Sempre libera
Ah! fuggi il traditor
Ah! non credea / Ah non giunge
Batti batti
Come now a roundel
Comme autrefois
D’Oreste d’Ajace
Das war sehr gut
Dich teure Halle
Dove sono
Du gai soleil
Einst träumte / Trübe Augen
Elle a fui
Ernani involami
Es gibt ein Reich
Fire aria
Il est doux
In uomini
Joy Beyond Measure, Mother
Klänge der Heimat (Czàrdàs)
Kommt ein schlanker Bursch' gegangen
Lady with a hand mirror
Love me big
Mein Herr Marquis (Laughing song)
Mi tradì
Myself I shall adore
Non mi dir
Nun eilt herbei
O luce di quest'anima
Ombre pallide
Ou va la jeune Hindoue? (Bell song)
Padre germani addio
Par le rang / Salut à la France
Qui la voce
Sì mi chiamano Mimì
Silver Aria
Steal me
Stridono lassù
Sul fil d'un soffio
Tacea la notte / Di tale amor
Tatiana’s letter scene
Tiger! wetze nur die Klauen
To this we've come
Trees on the mountain
Tu che di gel
Un bel dì vedremo
Welche Wonne welche Lust

Once
A vos jeux
All that I ask (Beauty and the Beast - Giannini)
Always through the changing
Barbara! io ben lo so
Bel piacere
Bel raggio
Bester Jüngling
But you do not know this man
Cathedral Aria
Ch’io mi scordi di te...non temer amato bene
Come per me sereno
Cruda sorte
Di, cor mio
Divinités du Styx
E ben altro il mio sogno
Ebben! ne andrò lontana
Emily's Aria from Our Town
Entre l'amour, Teresa (Benvenuto Cellini)
Fair Robin
Fear to the Sinner, Ades, The Tempest
Furie terribili
Gluck das mir verbliebt (Marietta's Lied)
I want magic
I yearn so t' know things (Cold Sassy Tree)
I'm full of happiness
In quelle trine morbide
Injurious Hermia
Iolanta's aria
Je suis Titania
La Petenera (La Marchenera - Torroba)
Lagrimas Mias- Zarzuela
Laurie's Song
Les oiseaux dans la charmille
Lisa’s Aria (Queen of Spades)
Marie's Lullaby - Wozzeck
Meine Lippen Sie Kuessen So Heiss
No solo soy mi nombre
Non disperar
Non, monsieur mon marie
Now then, notebook Florence!
O mio babbino caro
O toi qui prolongeas mes jours
O zittre nicht
Och jaky zal... Ten lasky sen (Bartered Bride)
Or sai
Pleurez mes yeux
Plus de depit, plus de tristesse (Les deux Avares - Gretry)
Sabrina's Aria (Colonel Jonathan the Saint - Argento)
Se tanto piace al cor
Senza mamma
Summertime
Sventurata (Clorinda)
Tanto amore segreto; Tu che di gel sei cinta
The Fairy Godmother's Aria - Cendrillon
Traurigkeit
V'adoro pupille
Viljalied
Volta la terrea
What good would the moon be
What is man - The Mother of Us All
Zeffiretti lusinghieri
Zerbinetta's aria


MEZZO

Dorabella & the Composer
Smanie implacabili (16X)
Sein wir wieder gut (13X)

5-10 X
Give him this orchid
Must the winter come so soon
Nobles Seigneurs salut
Non più mesta
Non so più
Parto parto
Que fais-tu
Svegliatevi nel core
Things change Jo
Una voce poco fa
Va! laisse couler mes larmes
Voi che sapete

2-4 X
All'afflitto è dolce il pianto
Connais-tu le pays
Cruda sorte
Deh per questo istante
È amore un ladroncello
Enfin je suis ici
Faites-lui mes aveux
I shall find for you (Lullaby)
Je vous ecris (Letter scene)
L'amour est un ouiseau rebelle (Habanera)
O mio Fernando
Pauline's aria (Podrugi milïye)
Pres des remparts (Seguidilla)
Priva son d'ogni conforto
There is a garden
Thy hand Belinda / When I am laid in earth
Vois sous l'archet (Violin aria)
What a movie
Wie du warst

Once
Acerba voluttà
Ah quel diner (Tipsy Waltz)
Ah! mon fils
Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse
As I was saying
Begbick's Act 1 Aria (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny)
Che farò
Con l'ali di costanza
Cruda furie
Di tanti palpiti
Disprezzata Regina
E destin! Debbo andarmene coraggio! (Musetta's Aria from Leoncavallo's Boheme)
Empio dirò tu sei
I am an actress (Nina's aria)
I do not judge you John
I was standing in a garden
Iris hence away
L'angue offeso mai riposa
Lyubasha's Aria from The Tsar's Bride
Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix
Nimmermehr wird mein Herze
Non ha piu che temere
O ma lyre immortelle
O Pallida
Pensa alla patria
Per questa fiamma indomita
Presti omai
Printemps qui commence
Puppet, Why So?
Scherza infida
Sgombra è la sacra selva / Deh! Proteggimi
Spero per voi
Stella del marinar
The empty handed traveler
The Witch's Aria - Haensel und Gretel
Torna di Tito al lato
Tu sola..Deh! tu, deh! tu, bell'anima


COUNTERTENOR

2-3 X
I know a bank
J'ai perdu mon Euridice/Che farò senza Euridice
Venti, turbini

Once
Al lampo dell'armi
Barbara!
Chacun à son goût
Cielo! se tu il consenti
Di tanti palpiti
Dolce d'amor compagna
Domero la tua fierezza
Il Padre Adorato
Lucidissima face
Rompo i Lacci
Stille Amare
Svegliatevi nel core
Torna di Tito a lato


TENOR

Tamino Takes All
Dies Bildnis (23X)

5-10 X
Ah lève-toi soleil
Here I stand
Il mio tesoro
Kuda kuda (Lenski)
Lonely House
New York Lights
O Colombina
O wie ängstlich
Un aura amorosa
Una furtiva lagrima

2-4 X
Addio fiorito asil
Ah fuyez
Ah mes amis
Albert the Good
Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden
Che gelida manina
Dal labbro il canto
De' miei bollenti spiriti
Dein is mein ganzes Herz
Ecco ridente
En fermant les yeux (La Rêve)
Firenze è come un albero
Frisch zum Kampfe
I must with speed amuse her
Ich baue ganz
Im Gegenteil (Tanzmeister)
Jour et nuit
Kleinzach
La donna è mobile
La fleur (Flower song)
Miles! (Quint's aria)
Outside this house
Parmi veder le lagrime
Pourquoi me reveiller
Povero Ernesto
Quanto è bella
Questa o quella
Recondita armonia
Salut! demeure chaste e pure
Sì ritrovarla
Tarquinius does not wait
Un momento di contento
Vainement ma bien aimée

Once
Ah la paterna mano
Ah! Je vais l'aimer
Amor ti vieta
Aria of the Worm
Au mont Ida (Judgment of Paris)
Avant de quitter ces lieux
Celeste Aida
Cessa di più resistere
Ch’ella mi creda
Ciel e terra armidi ?
De este apacible rincon de Madrid
Del Destino (Florencia en el Amazonas)
Dentro il mio petto
Di ad Irene
Donna non vidi mai
È la solita storia
Fantaisie aux divins mensonges
Fatto inferno...Pastorello d'un povero armento
Forte e lieto
Fra poco a me ricoverò
Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!
It Ain’t Necessarily so
It's about the way people is made
Je l'ai vue
Love sounds th’alarm
Nessun dorma
Se all'impero
Sotto una quercia parvemi
Svegliatevi nel core
Total Eclipse
Tra sospetti
Tradito schernito
Tu vivi, e punito
Warm as the autumn light
Where e'er you walk


BARITONE

Baritone National Anthems
Hai già vinta la causa (23X)
Avant de quitter ces lieux (17X)

10-15 X
Ah! per sempre
Billy in the Darbies
Largo al factotum
Mein Sehnen (Pierrot's Tanzlied)
Papageno's suicide aria
5-9 times
Come Paride vezzose
E fra quest'ansie (Silvio)
Lieben Hassen
Mab
O du mein holder Abendstern
O Nadir
Onegin's aria
Per me giunto / Io morrò
Questo amor
Rivolgete
Yeletsky's aria (Ya vas lyublu)

2-4 X
Aprite un po quegli occhi
Bella siccome un angelo
Come un' ape
Deh, vieni alla finestra
Der Vogelfänger
Di Provenza
É sogno?
In youth the panting slave
Madamina
Maxim’s
O vin dissipe la tristesse
Onegin's Second Aria
Schaunard's aria
Sois immobile
Vien Leonora
Warm as the autumn light
When the air sings of summer
Within this frail crucible

Once
Ah! Je Meurs - Don Carlos - Verdi
Blick ich umher'
C'est mon jour supreme
Choa En-lai's aria (Nixon in China)
Clayton McAllister’s aria (Cold Sassy Tree)
Credo in un Dio crudel
Cruda funesta smania
Dieux qui me poursuivez
Do you know the land?
Donne mie
Ein Mädchen
Era eguale la voce (Gianni Schicchi)
Ha! Welch ein Augenblick
Heiterkeit und Fröhlichkeit - Der Wildschütz (Lorzing)
I Can't Tell You (Grapes of Wrath)
Il balen
I'll be there (Grapes of Wrath)
Joseph’s confession
L'onore! Ladri!
Minnie, dalla mia casa son partito
My Friends
News has a kind of mystery
Non più andrai
Non siate ritrosi
Raimbaud's Aria from Le Comte Ory
Riez, Allez, Riez Du Pauvre Ideologue
Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo
Scintille, diamant
See the raging flames arise
Si corre dal notaio (Gianni Schicchi)
Single bed blanket (Willie Stark - Floyd)
Snooks Aria from A Wedding (Bolcom)
Soliloquy from Carousel
Spectre infernal
Tomsky's Ballad from The Queen of Spades
Tower Scene Aria from Pelleas et Melisande
Tu sei il cor
Vision fugitive
Voici des roses
Votre toast (Toreador)
Woman, I'll not have your suspicion
Wouldn't you like to be on Broadway


BASS & BASS-BARITONE

5-7 X
Aprite un po'
Madamina (Catalogue aria)
Vi ravviso
Vous qui faites l'endormie

2-4 X
Arise ye subterranean winds
Come dal ciel
Come Master!
Hear me O Lord
Il lacerato spirito
I'm a lonely man Susannah
In diesen heil'gen Hallen
La calunnia
Non più andrai
O Isis und Osiris
Quand la flamme
Se vuol ballare
Sorge infausta
Vecchia zimarra
Votre Toast

Once
A un dottor della mia sorte
Abendlich strahlt
Boris' Monologue
Dalle stanze ove Lucia
Deh ti ferma
Épouse quelque brave fille
Ha! welch' ein Augenblick!
I miei rampolli femminini
King René’s aria (Gospod' moy)
La vendetta
Le Tambour-Major
Leave me loathsome light
Let things be like they always was
Mein Herr und Gott
O du mein holder Abendstern
O ruddier than the cherry
O tu Palermo
O! du mein holder Abendstern
Pyramus’ monologue
Scintille diamant
Seigneur, rempart et seul soutien
Si la rigeur
Sibilar
Tu Sei il Cor
Udite o rustici
When my cue comes call me
Wie schoen ist doch die Musik

Systems Failure

As we leave New York, we seem to be suffering from multiple systems failure. I'm not referring to the BSOD that plagued my laptop earlier this week - that was remedied in surprisingly efficient fashion, thanks to terrific IT support from Wolf Trap and a few handy screwdrivers from the tech staff at Carroll Music. The systems failure of which I speak is more personal and invasive than a simple laptop meltdown. I'm just disappointed in my own performance during this year's tour - an increasingly dysfunctional series of dropped balls and missed opportunities.

If you auditioned for us this year, do not despair. We have not compromised the main function of this month, which is to identify the best candidates for next year's roster. It has been an exciting time, and we have (as is typical) identified more wonderful singers than we can hire. By the end of today (the last day of the tour), we will probably have called back about 45 singers who are our group of finalists for 2009. (As a reminder; Studio candidates did not get callbacks, and our selection of Studio Artists will take us into January.)

I have, however, fallen woefully short in my quest for the efficient and linear thinking and action that would’ve helped this month run more smoothly. Somehow, I didn’t find the extra hours needed each day to process what we hear, advance the process of repertoire selection, keep up with the other responsibilities of my job, carry out meetings with colleagues in the cities we visit, and keep up with things like this blog. (I barely Tweeted, too, but somehow I don’t regret that. Addio senza rancor, Twitter.)

I know that many of you follow this blog during the fall audition season, and I apologize for the dearth of material. I have begun churning out this year’s version of the Aria Frequency List, and I promise it within the week. And I have been wrestling for a few days with a rather philosophical post (danger, Will Robinson...) about singing and the opera business – it requires a bit more thought before it crystallizes, so I’m letting it stew just a bit before I foist it upon you.

I Never Travel without my Box

Yes, I do have a slightly unhealthy obsession with organization. I am irrationally proud of my audition gak box, and judging from the reactions of TSA security screeners across the country, I am somewhat justified. (One of the screeners this year wanted to write my 2nd grade teacher to tell her how proud she would’ve been.)

Witness all the detritus of our portable office...



and see what happens to it when it’s corralled into my beautiful plastic box!


It’s a good thing it’s a satisfying process, for packing and unpacking the box twice daily (once to set up in the audition room, and once in the hotel room where all of the data is backed up and integrated) is not for the faint of heart. I tried all month to get my colleagues to embrace the Beauty of the Box but failed miserably.

As always, the New York week was dense. I heard and saw breathtaking performances by the Met (Damnation of Faust) and the New York Festival of Song (The Fugitives), both of which I’ll address later. We caught up with as many colleagues and friends as we could, and we made good process on a newish project for this coming summer. But my audition tour fitness goal came to grief – I ran my 2K in every city up until now, but in spite of optimistically bringing my sneakers, the most exercise I got was lugging the portable office 1.5 miles to the audition site every day. Perhaps that counts.

Rahree’s back and neck protested at being required to haul around 50 pounds of luggage, and I’m indebted to her for finding a great spa with Swedish massage just a block from the hotel. CameraMan suffered from the plague this week, channeling his inner Barry White voice. I only had to deal with what they call my Transportation Allergy (I sneeze incessantly on planes but nowhere else) and insufferable crankiness (which I hope doesn’t show in the audition room – actually, the grumpier I get, the more irritating perky I seem to appear in the room…). Lunch hours were spent either meeting with colleagues or splayed in a variety of restorative yoga poses.

Unpack Your Adjectives

The process of translating aria performances into descriptive language is a challenging one. Every time I face it down, I wonder if I’ll remember how. But it’s like riding a bike, I guess.

The goal is to describe a singer fully enough to be able to relive and reconstruct his/her performance later, but not so self-consciously that too much of my brain is devoted to coming up with words. Keeping as much attention as possible centered on the performance while simultaneously describing it. It has to be simultaneous, for memory is quickly obliterated when hearing 500 singers.

Rahree mentioned a few days ago that she seemed to be running out of adjectives. A friend suggested that she revisit Schoolhouse Rock. Well, it seems I really missed out, for I am too old for School house Rock, and my kids are too young. But a few minutes of Unpacking our Adjectives at lunchtime gave us a new arsenal of musical descriptors: Soggy, Foggy, Stinky, Sunny, Brainy, Hairy, Scary, Prickly, Bumpy, Flowery, and.. oh yes… Flat :(

So today we are in Philly, holding 7 hours of auditions in a rehearsal room where somehow there is no heat. The left wall abuts the outside, where it is just slightly below freezing. Quotes of the Day: "When it's this cold I'm used to having a beer and a hot dog and watching men in spandex." (Rahree) "I'm not used to seeing my breath when I sing." (A Wise Bass)

And now the crunching begins. Much tougher this year, and perhaps that’s why I’m cranky. Last year we had 12 singers returning from a previous summer with us – that meant we were really well-acquainted with the strengths of almost two-thirds of our roster. This year, it is much more wide open, for as these things go in cycles, fewer singers are eligible to return. A good thing for applicants, for we have a bigger opportunity to hire new people; but a bigger challenge for us to determine exactly which roles are right for folks who have only sung for us for about 15 minutes.

I need a couple of days to sleep and veg, and I am optimistic that clarity will return. Then we’ll start working on repertoire and calendar in earnest. Back at you over the next couple of weeks with final audition season posts. Happy Thanksgiving!