Good to be back on home turf, but as Rahree says, it carries its own set of liabilities. There’s a singular focus on the road, but back here there are many other responsibilities chipping away at our depleted reserves of energy and attention.
It’s all about the tenors today, somehow. Funny how that happens, that a specific voice type ends up gravitating to a day on the audition tour. 5 tenors this afternoon. Go figure.
Audition Tour Bookends
Two of my absolute favorite arias started and ended this tour:
10:20AM in Houston on October 28: Prince Yeletsky’s aria (“Ja vas lyublyu”) from Pique Dame.
2:20PM in Vienna on November 2o: “Cara sposa” from Handel’s Rinaldo.
Blog Envy
Lately, as I catch up with blogs of colleagues who do a lovely job of integrating their work with their lives, I’m envious. As much as I’ve tried to be open and honest with my writing in this space, I feel keenly the responsibility of writing a blog that bears the title of the organization for which I work. The filters are many and dense.
We’ve all seen the well-meaning performing arts blogs that are nothing but another form of marketing. Clearly that’s not what this medium can do best, and blogs must have a point of view. Finding a way to give a distinctive and readable voice to a vehicle that represents an organization is sometimes an act of futility, for each paragraph must be written then reread knowing that it reflects not on just me, but on an institution. Lately I’m having fantasies of writing whatever I want, with the only filter being the common sense one (there are some things that one should simply never put on the internet:)
Sing for This Lady. I Dare You.
My colleagues have had a little too much fun trying to capture my photo with various instruments of digital torture. We’ve given an off-color caption (that I dare not reproduce here) to this one. Sing for her if you dare. (I don’t really look this peeved in the actual audition room.)
Catching Up
I owe responses to various questions and comments that I haven’t addressed. I promise to do so next week. In the meantime, I plan to have some turkey and let the tryptophan work its magic. A few long naps later, I’ll be as good as new. You should try it, too.
Warm wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Kim. Enjoy your well-deserved break!
Kim! (gasp for air) Deliver me! When, oh when might a potential Filene Young Artist know if he/she is in?
Thanks. :) I hope you’re well.
It’s a staggered (and staggering) process. I’ve begun speaking to some folks, but haven’t gotten to everyone. We did release some finalists last week, but if you haven’t heard from us, that means we haven’t gotten far enough into the puzzle to fully solve the part of it that contains your voice type.
But… you could just call/write, and I’ll tell you where you stand… How about that? :)
what about studio artists? how is it looking for them right now?
If you auditioned for the Studio, you should’ve received an email from us this week either notifying you that we are unable to keep you under consideration for this season or telling you that you are a finalist. We will choose 14-16 singers from the current pool of approximately 25 finalists as soon as we are sure what this summer’s operas will be. We’re waiting because the size and type of the chorus varies as does the repertoire. (For example, if one of our operas needs a large male chorus we might end up casting 6 women and 8 men instead of 7+7.)
If you didn’t receive an email from us this week, please write to wtocauditions@wolftrap.org and let us know. Please remember to enable mail from the domain wolftrap.org so that our correspondence doesn’t end up in a junk mail filter!