It’s more than a little surreal that we’re on the audition trail already. And the beautiful summery weather in New York has me even further confounded. Short sleeves and warm sunshine ≠ arias and rep lists. Feels as if there’s some sort of tear in the fabric of the cosmos.
Yet here we are, hunkering down for a daily dose of about 60 arias. Remembering how this crazy audition dance goes. Listening and writing, writing and listening, finding ways to describe what we hear, unpacking our adjectives. And it feels like home.
New digs this year, down on 37th Street at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. It’s a civilized place to spend 50 hours over the next week. Good lighting, true acoustics, lovely piano, warm-up room, free WiFi.
It was an encouraging first day. Good singing of many different stripes, and from singers in many different phases of their developing careers.We are fortunate to be able to spend these weeks surrounded every day by dozens of people who care deeply about music, communication, life and art. I know it’s frustrating out there, with too little work for too few artists. Hang in there, all of you. You do help make the world a better place.
A good bit of standard fare today, but that’s not a bad thing. Leavened by a rare offering from Rossini’s Otello and the beautiful “O blonde Ceres” from Berlioz’s Les Troyens. And the Studio Artist candidates rocked the monologue offerings, ranging from Sartre’s No Exit to Xena, Warrior Princess.
I’m determined to stay on my Weight Watchers regimen throughout this tour so that I can fit into my Mother-of-the-Bride dress exactly 4 weeks from today! (Sidebar: The reason we’re starting this tour so early is that I’m taking a week off in early November to see my daughter marry one of the best guys in the world.) But I was seriously tempted at lunch today by the following offering on the Sandwich Planet menu:
For the uninitiated (and I was one of you until a few hours ago…), this irresistible confection is marshmallow fluff (with a dollop of peanut butter protein) on white bread. Yummm. (No, I wasn’t actually tempted. And we decided that it’s no longer enough to call a too-safe and boring performance “white bread.” No, such a thing will hereafter be known as Fluffernutter on White.)
Add Comment