Second in a series of audition season posts inspired by a recent re-reading of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. ________________________________________________________________________ “Few people travel here. There’s no real profit to be made from wandering through it, yet like this high country of the material world all around us, it has its own
Read MorePosts Categorized: Auditions
Zen & the Art of the Opera Audition: Climbing the Mountain
First in a series of audition season posts inspired by a recent re-reading of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. ___________________________________________________________________ “Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed… To live only for some future goal is
Read MoreZen and the Art of the Opera Audition
This summer, a number of things brought me back to Robert Pirsig’s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had read it the first time as as college student in 1975, and it was (as it should be) a completely different experience 37 years later. So, because it’s what speaks to me in
Read MoreHere We Go Again
The next two months are audition season, and they are the nerdiest time of the year here at the blog, with plenty of aria trivia and industry advice. New content kicks off next week, but to get you started, a random sampling of some previous audition posts to help you get your head in the
Read MoreApproaching Deadlines & Sketch Comedy
Well, two separate things (with any luck…), but ones that could co-exist nicely in your weekend. First, the application deadline for auditions in New York, San Francisco & Seattle is this Sunday. Fair warning; our website server is pretty robust, but it can get cranky around 11:55pm Eastern Time on Sunday. So if you’re thinking
Read MoreA Guest from (the other) Vienna
Above: Robert Koerner & Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Opéra de Lyon), Thomas Lausmann (Wiener Staatsopera) and Philip Broeking (Komische Oper Berlin) talk with WTOC artists and staff about auditioning and working in Europe. They discussed how Fest contracts are and aren’t similar to YAPs in the United States, how the singer/manager business relationship is different in Europe, and how
Read MoreAria Frequency Lists!
The ever-popular Aria Frequency lists from this year’s audition tour are now available for your post-turkey tryptophan haze viewing pleasure! Hop on over to the Aria Lists page to link to a separate document for each voice type. Best wishes for a lovely Thanksgiving! See you on the other side, where I’ll begin to drop
Read MoreThe Questions
Audition tour 2012: Eight cities. 11,326 miles. 1,215 arias. Planes, trains, taxis, hotels, surprises, frustrations, adrenaline, fatigue. It might seem as if we’re done, but only now does the rubber really hit the road. We’ve been gathering information for a month, and now it’s time to use it. We hold off on making decisions about repertoire until we
Read MoreHello, Houston!
And just like that, we’re in Texas. Off the plane, bags thrown in the hotel, and suddenly we’re at the Wortham Center, bathing in the beautiful sound of the HGO Orchestra playing Beethoven. It has been 20 years since I saw Fidelio, and this evening was even more compelling because of the WTOC alumni onstage
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