Musical rehearsals are finished! The past week has been so much fun. I'm already exhausted from the energy it takes to be focused, and 'performing' the music for a 3+ hour opera. I have learned a lot in this past week about my own process of preparation and adapting to the demands of the maestro!
This is how the process worked. I met with Maestro Effron on Tuesday last week to work on the aria my character sings. I was pretty nervous, but I knew I was well prepared musically. And that is basically what he said to me. He challenged me to use more colors in my voice to show the different emotions my character feels throughout the aria and show the progression of my character by the end of the aria. This is something I have heard before from directors. They want to see that the character has changed and the progression of that change from the beginning to the end of the aria. Maestro Effron also changed the places I took breaths and the phrasing that I had chosen. This was one of the hardest things to accommodate and he wasn't easy on me either. When your body is used to taking a breath in a certain place, it is very hard to retrain it. He wanted me to do what he wanted and I did my best to give him that. I left the coaching feeling good about the progress I had made through the coaching and I knew the Maestro was happy with it, too.
Rehearsals with the entire cast started in the next two days. We went through the entire opera, stopping to get notes or practice a tempo change. Our diction coach was also there to give us notes on our pronunciation. We have sung through the opera about five times now, and each one gets better. The Maestro is pleased and the cast is excited about putting the production aspects together with the music. I have loved this process, mainly because it is my first time and I've been absorbing every hint and moment. Here are a few things I've learned:
1. "I will tell you 50,000 different things to do in this opera, and you have to remember all of them. The next time you do this opera the conductor will tell you 50,000 more things and you have to do those, too." Maestro Effron
2. "Don't beat yourself up! That's my job!" Maestro Effron
3. When in musical rehearsals, don't forget about the dramatic motivations of your character. Those motivations help you sing the music.
4. Don't strive for 'perfect,' strive for memorable.
As we start staging rehearsals, we've been told we'll likely forget everything we worked on musically this past week. This is the normal process of staging. But we will remember after we get the staging into our bodies. I am very excited for this part of the process to begin!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Welcome to the life of a Performer!
Through this blog, I hope that I can give a picture of what my life is like. The busy, roller coaster ride of a performer is one that not many people outside of the industry understand. So here it is! I am a grad student getting a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. A masters gives a musician more time to train with a teacher and become the best they can be at their craft. While in grad school, we audition. And audition. And audition. And after that, we audition again. We audition for school performances, community and regional performances, competitions, and summer and year round training programs. Some singers jokingly call themselves Professional Auditioners.
I just finished the process of auditioning for summer training programs. Singers apply to programs hoping to be granted an audition with the company. If you pass that round of screening the crazy season of auditions begins. It is exhausting. I drove over 2,000 miles to Chicago, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cincinnati, and flew to NYC all in a month to complete 10 auditions. See what I mean? Audition season is the busiest travel time of the year for young singers, and the most costly. But it is necessary. Most programs receive up to 1,000 applications and end up hearing hundreds of singers. How they decide to hire people is a mystery to me. After auditions are over, you cross your fingers and pray that you'll get good news from one of those programs. I did get good news! I will be singing with Central City Opera Company's Studio, similar to what I did last summer at Wolf Trap Opera. And this will add an entire new chapter of experience and learning to my path. Truly a blessing, and another step in the right direction for my career!
So here's what I'm working on now. I will be singing Siebel in Faust with Indiana University's Opera Theater in February. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to be in a production at IU. They bring in top notch directors and some of the finest conductors. I get to work with great coaches and learn a lot about what it takes to prepare a role and perform it consistently. This is my first experience preparing a role, so I am nervous and very excited. The process is still somewhat of a mystery to me, but I will be working hard and learning A LOT! And updating you, too.
We start music rehearsals with Maestro David Effron on Tuesday. Each cast member will get to work with him individually this week. Then we will do a run through of the entire opera with him on Saturday. We get a few days to get the entire opera musically ready for staging rehearsals which start on January 18th. Everyone is expected to be memorized at the start. What comes before this week is the individual prep. Singers learn the notes, the correct diction, and the translation for the entire opera so that it lives and sits on the brain's hard drive. It is a lot of work, but it is work that I love to do. There is almost nothing more exciting than researching an opera. Learning the story and the intricate musical relationships throughout the score that tie everything together. My favorite part of this research is learning, listening, and watching (thanks to YouTube) the historic performances of the opera. Here are a few:
So here's to a great first experience while sharing the ride with you! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to make my life in this business. God is good! I pray that I will stay humble and grateful for the joys that come into my life. Steering clear of the negativity that can easily cause me to lose hope for the future and focusing on the blessings I have been given. Enjoy!
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. " - Colossians 2:6-8
I just finished the process of auditioning for summer training programs. Singers apply to programs hoping to be granted an audition with the company. If you pass that round of screening the crazy season of auditions begins. It is exhausting. I drove over 2,000 miles to Chicago, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cincinnati, and flew to NYC all in a month to complete 10 auditions. See what I mean? Audition season is the busiest travel time of the year for young singers, and the most costly. But it is necessary. Most programs receive up to 1,000 applications and end up hearing hundreds of singers. How they decide to hire people is a mystery to me. After auditions are over, you cross your fingers and pray that you'll get good news from one of those programs. I did get good news! I will be singing with Central City Opera Company's Studio, similar to what I did last summer at Wolf Trap Opera. And this will add an entire new chapter of experience and learning to my path. Truly a blessing, and another step in the right direction for my career!
So here's what I'm working on now. I will be singing Siebel in Faust with Indiana University's Opera Theater in February. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to be in a production at IU. They bring in top notch directors and some of the finest conductors. I get to work with great coaches and learn a lot about what it takes to prepare a role and perform it consistently. This is my first experience preparing a role, so I am nervous and very excited. The process is still somewhat of a mystery to me, but I will be working hard and learning A LOT! And updating you, too.
We start music rehearsals with Maestro David Effron on Tuesday. Each cast member will get to work with him individually this week. Then we will do a run through of the entire opera with him on Saturday. We get a few days to get the entire opera musically ready for staging rehearsals which start on January 18th. Everyone is expected to be memorized at the start. What comes before this week is the individual prep. Singers learn the notes, the correct diction, and the translation for the entire opera so that it lives and sits on the brain's hard drive. It is a lot of work, but it is work that I love to do. There is almost nothing more exciting than researching an opera. Learning the story and the intricate musical relationships throughout the score that tie everything together. My favorite part of this research is learning, listening, and watching (thanks to YouTube) the historic performances of the opera. Here are a few:
So here's to a great first experience while sharing the ride with you! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to make my life in this business. God is good! I pray that I will stay humble and grateful for the joys that come into my life. Steering clear of the negativity that can easily cause me to lose hope for the future and focusing on the blessings I have been given. Enjoy!
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. " - Colossians 2:6-8
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