Wolf Trap Opera hit the audition trail in fall of 2021, and as a result we’ve parsed through the data and arias that we heard in the audition room. As you might guess, there were some new surprises, and some upsets! We’ll roll out the results in score order over the next two weeks.
SOPRANOS
This was the year of Ich bin euer Liebden with a grand total of 20 times, 12 of them offered as the first aria. We heard Sophie three times at the request of the panel, and five times in the call backs.
Pamina – our traditional winner – was offered as the first aria 9 times, and sung 15 times in total, although she was unseated by Sophie. This year Pamina’s mother also did rather well. We heard the Queen of the Night 9 times total, although we heard both of her arias; Der Hölle Rache was offered five times, asked for by the panel once, and heard once in callbacks.
The French ladies also did well. We heard Marie (La fille du Regiment) 13 times, total ( 9 times for Chacun and four for Salut a la France) and Manon was offered 8 times as well. The Jewel Song was offered to us 5 times, and we heard it twice each as the panel’s choice and in the call backs. Comme autre fois and Je dis were heard six and five times, respectively.
There seems to be some movement on the English front. While My Darling Jim (Glory Denied – Tom Cippulo) remains a big hit – it was offered 3 times, and we heard it once each at the panel’s request and in call backs, Down You Go (Flight – Jonathan Dove)was presented one time more than the Cipullo (a total of 4 times in round one) and once each at the request of the panel and in call backs. His Name is Jan (Breaking the Waves – Missy Mazzoli) also a repeated aria in English. It was offered 3 times, and we heard it twice in call backs. Anne Trulove (Rakes Progress – Stravinsky) was the big winner in the English category. We heard her 9 times in round one, twice in the 2nd round, and 3 times in call backs.
This year Come scoglio was the Italian Mozart aria we heard the most. We heard Fiordiligi 7 times in round one, and twice at the panel’s request. We heard Donna Anna (Non mi dir) and Susanna (Deh vieni) four times total, and we heard Batti, batti three times. Some of the other Italian arias had slightly better showings. Liu was with us a lot; she was offered 7 times, asked for by the panel 3 times, and heard once in call backs. Violetta and Musetta were sung six times each, and Nedda came to us five times.
Slavic arias were a very distant last in terms of the lineup presented. Atchevo (Iolanta), Och, jacky zal (The Bartered Bride) both offered twice. There was a smattering of other Slavic arias, (think Song to the Moon) but each was only presented once.
Stay tuned for more data from the tour! And keep your eyes peeled: our 2022 season announce is just a few weeks away.
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