I had planned to churn out a chatty blog post at the end of September, calling your attention to a new book about WTO alumnus Ryan Speedo Green and celebrating his journey as one of many success stories among our alumni. But the national news changed all of that. Race is top of mind in
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Never Mind
If you are a subscriber to the blog, and you received an odd test message this morning, please ignore it! And not to worry if you clicked through; it’s harmless, not malicious. It was just a test from the company who manages our blog software, and it was never intended for distribution :) OK, back to
Read MoreOnly Two More Days of Ghosts!
It’s your last chance to see our 2015 production of Corigliano & Hoffman’s The Ghosts of Versailles! Our exclusive 6-month web streaming period comes to an end this Thursday (September 22, 2016.) Until then, you can see this critically acclaimed performance at wolftrap.org/streaming. Want just a taste? Link straight through to these highlights: Bégearss Scene & Aria:
Read MoreAudition Miscellany
Time-sensitive: Application deadline for Chicago and Cincinnati is tonight! New York Notifications: If you applied for a NYC audition date, you should hear from us by Thursday. Just a word of warning… We have 132 singer slots in NY this year, and we received 439 applications for that site alone. (If you’re doing the math,
Read MoreWeight and Wells Fargo: Labor Day Edition
First, there was that unfortunate Wells Fargo ad campaign. I must say that I wasn’t at all surprised to see a financial institution valuing STEM occupations above the arts. It’s somehow perfectly logical in that world. But we did well by calling them on it. And it was wonderful to see that most of the response came
Read MoreLast But Not Least…
Today, your final installment of 2016 Audition Tour Aria Frequency Lists, before I go off to review audition applications. (New York deadline coming up on Wednesday.) Baritones and basses offered up a 3-way tie for #1 aria this year. (Valentin/Count/Pierrot for the former and Sarastro/DeBrogni/Zoroastro for the latter.) Bass-baritones almost had a 2-way tie between Leporello and Figaro.
Read MoreLots o’ Lensky & West Coast Deadline
Tenors, your list is here! Strictly speaking, Tamino was the winner. But Lensky was a strong second. (To think of it, Lensky could’ve used a good second, poor guy…) And – heads up – today is September 1, the deadline for applying to audition in Los Angeles (October 1) and San Francisco (October 3). Applications are
Read MoreMezzo Stats: Strauss and Mozart Win the Day
You mezzos are a patient breed. There was no whining that I took care of the sopranos first and made you wait all weekend for your aria frequency list. (You know we love you for that, ladies.) Click through to the PDF to find out what mezzos sang during our 2016 auditions. This year, both the presence on the arias-offered-packages and the
Read MorePamina vs. Iolanta: The Soprano Stats
In honor of the fact that our first audition application deadline for summer 2017 is just a week away (yes, if you want to audition in LA or San Francisco, you must apply by Thursday, September 1…), I give you the 2016 Aria Frequency List for sopranos! Click through to the PDF to inspect the data in
Read MoreThe Lucretia Project
(A guest post by Lee Anne Myslewski, WTO’s Director of Artistic Administration) When we started looking at Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia in earnest last fall, we knew that we weren’t going to be able to produce it without comment, the way we had in 1988. And, quite honestly, the piece is so rich in
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