Posts Categorized: Blog

It’s that time of year… when a phrase is not a satisfying arc of pitch and dynamic, but a collection of well-chosen words. Seductive adjectives, strong verbs, and lots of punctuation!! January and February bring vast wastelands of nothing but words. Or rather, big ol’ blank computer screens mocking me for lack of words. You

Today’s guest blogger is Joshua Winograde, head of our own Wolf Trap Opera Studio and Planning Manager of the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera. This is a wonky time of the blog year for me – I’m working nonstop on the upcoming operas, and because we haven’t announced our season yet,

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

Just under 300 of you lovely readers took the time to submit the survey that’s been lurking at the top of the right margin for the last several weeks. I appreciate your willingness to tell me who you are and what you think, and I have indeed learned a few things! Demographic Which of the

As requested, an historical overview of young artist applicants* for the Wolf Trap Opera Company: *(None of these numbers include applicants for the Studio Program.) The most striking thing is that we’ve seen a 100% increase in applicants over the last 10 years: from 399 singers vying for the 1999 season to 793 contenders for

In case you’ve missed this, take a few minutes to read Holly Mulcahy’s article in the The Partial Observer: It’s Time for The Talk. “My teacher’s talk to me was an attempt to bring reality into my life without crushing my dreams…” Adaptistration called it to our attention, and Butts in the Seats goes further

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

Studio auditions are officially finished. If you sang for us, you should receive some kind of notification within about a week and a half as to whether we would like to keep you on our finalists list. We were extremely happy to see such a great turnout in this, our second year of this new

This is the first tour in which we’re including a provision for a callback or ‘final’ audition for singers that we’re seriously considering casting in our 2008 operas. On four of our days so far this fall, we’ve had no callbacks, and that’s been cause for some consternation. It really shouldn’t be. In explaining this,

Drum Roll, please….. The 2008 Audition Tour Aria List! Click on the link above or go to http://wolftrapopera.blogspot.com/2007/11/2008-audition-tour-aria-frequency-list.html. The list represents the number of times each aria is listed on this year’s applications. Since singers are allowed to change their rep lists, the actual list of arias heard will vary slightly. (The list of opening