Posts Categorized: Blog

Report from the Road Getting into the rhythm. Every 10-minute interval is filled with about 7 -8 minutes of singing, a minute of chatting/welcoming, and a minute of documentation. The database is an amazingly helpful thing, for it allows us to hear singers’ performances in context. What’s on the database? This is a simplification, of

Report from the Road Today’s entry is long. Treat it like a Chinese menu. Sad amateur photo at the right was taken as I and a few thousand of my closest friends were leaving the Met after tonight’s performance of Lucia di Lammermoor. (I really do need to get a better camera or learn how

Statistics for this year. Skip entirely if this kind of thing irritates, confuses or demoralizes you. Read and use if you are curious or you find it useful. What’s to be learned?Fach: Sopranos represent about half of all aspiring singers. (Don’t despair, soprani; just acknowledge that the competition is stiff. It just means that you

Extracurriculars Even though we just started auditions last Friday, we’re taking this week off. I’m staying in town for personal reasons – I’m in charge of the pit band for my son’s high school production of Urinetown, the Musical. We’re one of the first high schools in the country to get the rights to this

Well, very little blogging to be done today. Review of applications for the Chicago site has taken a nasty turn. Historically, we get 40-50 applications for that site, and we accept 30. (A 60-75% acceptance rate.) Right now I’m staring down 104 applications for Chicago. And I get to pick 30. (A 29% acceptance rate.)

The Short List Part 1Time to start compiling the list of operas we might be able to do this year. We don’t program anything until we hear the singers, but there’s a process of winnowing that takes place concurrently with the auditions. We start by determining which pieces we are unlikely to produce – namely,

Curtis Audition tour kick-off at Curtis Institute. In a black box theatre/rehearsal room that provides an extremely flattering acoustic. The wonderful thing about it is that everyone sounds good. The bad thing is that everyone sounds good. So, right out of the box, we’re trying to separate voice from acoustic.I said this last year, but

Dress rehearsal of Porgy and Bess at Washington National Opera. A beautiful, touching, funny night in the theatre. I know that it took a long haul to get here (as they say), and that’s no surprise for a piece as complicated and sprawling as this one. But what a wonderful thing to finally welcome Porgy

2006 Auditions: ScreeningWelcome aboard. For the next 30 weeks we’ll chronicle the development of our 2006 season. It all starts here, on a dining room table covered with forms, résumés, headshots and CDs. October is my least favorite month – I have to take 500+ applications (exact number not yet known) and whittle them down

Nailing down the audition dates for the fall. Probably 12 days in 7 cities. Typically about 350 singers. 700 arias. The cycle starts all over again. Although it seems as if we’re looking ahead before we’ve even finished this season, we actually operate way behind the typical scenario. Most companies have known for many months