Heading to the Theater...

We're getting ready to move into the theater next week and are starting to add elements like this lovely skirt:

Is this what they mean by being a Hipster?

Now THOES are some hips! It defiantly makes moving around a challenge...mainly doorways... and furniture...and people... It's a little embarrassing to be bumping into so many people/things around the rehearsal hall, but I guess that's why we practice. Running around in that thing is a work out! But it's really fun to play such an over-the-top character. Having permission to be this silly has taught me a lot about singing. Often, my teacher will have me sing with duck lips, or angry bunny face to practice finding the right path/placement. In this case, I just make those faces throughout the entire show et voilà, ugly stepsister.

THE Angry Bunny

Playing an over the top character has also really helped me understand that "acting with the voice thing." Again, I think for me it has to do with having permission to go there. That, and the cast is full of fabulous artists who are masters of their craft and have sung these roles millions of times. Its easy to learn when you're 2 feet away from greatness. True story; the first time I saw this piece as a grade school student in Philadelphia, it was with one of my current cast mates. So when I say that my cast-mates are experts, its no exaggeration! Never in my wildest dreams would I think I'd be anythings but a fan of several of my now colleagues. Its pretty cool! 

Shameless plug: If you are in the Tennessee area, come check out CINDERELLA April 26th and 28th! It's a fabulous cast and promises to be a very enjoyable evening at the Historic Tennessee Theatre. And while you're in town, don't miss the Rossini Festival, I'll be singing some Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Kurt Weil at the Opera Stage on the 27th. It's apparently a big deal here, and there could be over 2,000 people in attendance. Hope I'm entertaining enough. Still debating weather or not to bring my ukulele or not...mmmmm.....

Performance Notes

It occurred to me that I usually only write about auditions, life on the road and the struggle to find more work. If an alien were reading this blog, they'd probably think I never get the chance to perform and am mitigated to the hallway of Nola Studios, but they'd be wrong! I recently sang a wonderful performances of Ralph Vaughan Williams Donna Nobis Pacem with Tower Hill Presbyterian Church under the direction of the fabulous Lauren Quigley Peithmann. The level of musicianship in the ensemble was truly refreshing. The choir had a rich full sound and the orchestra was just lovely to sing with. It made me wish I had more to sing. It's a beautiful piece  but its all about the Baritone for this one wah-wah. It had been a while since I got to don my favorite concert dress (seen below) though I think it might be time for a new one....

There it is in 2006....
....and again in 2010.

I'm just glad it still fits! AND I  finally got to wear this bright green number on St. Patrick's day!

Last week I arrived in Knoxville, TN to start rehearsals for Rossini's Cinderella and I am having way too much fun. Everyone in the cast is an absolute gem and a real pleasure to work with. There's a lot of running around and general Loony Tunes inspired goonerey. Which can be a bit of a challenge while wearing full mettle panniers:

 Now THAT is some serious hip acton. 

What's a real treat for me, is that one of our cast members was in the first Cinderella I saw at Opera Philadelphia when I was in middle school. They sing there a lot, so I essentially grew up watching this person. So in my mind I'm now on stage with a celebrity. Never in a million years would I have thought that one day I'd get to share the stage with such an experienced thespian and someone I watched for so long. It's a real treat. And a little bit meta.

Off to rehearsal! Act 1 brought Looney Tunes, Three Stooges gags and muppet arms, can't wait to see what Act 2 brings!

Back and forth to New York

Had a VERY productive visit to NYC. Sang for 2 agents, 1 competition AND a callback!

The suitcase and I certainly get around a lot. It might be a little worse for ware, but I’d be lost without it….literally! Day 1 in NYC, the suitcase and I rolled our way to a coaching at the shinny new Opera America Center. It’s a BEAUTIFUL building but…. I found it a little intimidating. Maybe because I probably looked so worn from too much travel it looked like I was there to beg for change. I might have looked like a homeless person schlepping my suitcase, garment bag, & backpack full of sheet music in the cold New York winter mush. Note to self: Try better to not look like you crawled out of a sewer when in possible professional interactions are looming.

After a fabulous coaching, the suitcase and I rolled onto a voice lesson and eventually to a friend in Inwood to spend the night. A friend who lives not too far off the A train. A friend who I’ve stayed with so many times that her doorman thinks that I live there. I wait at Columbus circle, I see a D come by, I wait, and get on the next express train and start reading the paper. I look up 175^th street, sweet, one more stop and I’m home! Next stop: Teleman? What? Teleman? Oh Hell. I was on the D express train!!!! I jump off. I am now in the Bronx. I have never seen the sun shine in the Bronx. I’m too scared. But now, me and the suitcase are on the wrong platform, so I schlep up 2 flights of stairs around to the other platform and then down 2 more flights of stairs to the downtown D to change at 145 where I get to lug my suitcase up another flight of stairs and down another flight of stairs back to the uptown A. By the time I reached my stop, I must have looked even worse, because an angel appeared in the form of a short, dark, hairy gentleman who offered to carry my poor suitcase up the last flight of stairs. I must have thanked him too much because he took me by the arm, looked me in the eye and asked me if I was gonna be ok. Yikes.

Over the next 2 days I sang for 2 agents and a competition back to back. In between auditions I found myself thinking about the feedback I had received and took it to heart thinking to myself “Why didn’t I show my best for these agents? Why did I hold back on the music making?” I was a little miffed at myself. I walked into my next audition singing for the Zachary Competition and used that energy to give one of the best performances of my life. The kind of performance where you’re magically better than you are, the kind of performance where you become a conduit for the music and really get to say something about the piece and character your signing. The kind of performance that the character of Maria talks about in Master Class

“Do you know who created the role of Annina? ... Pasta. Giuditta Pasta…. When you sing this music I want to hear all the links that take you back to her. I want to hear Callas, I want to hear Ponselle, I want to hear Lehmann, I want to hear Pasta. I want to hear you. A strait line. From you through  me to Pasta.”

That happened. It’s something I hadn’t felt in a really long time and I’m glad I finally remembered how to do it. I was just really proud of my performance. I sang the Jewel Aria and Come Scoglio, two arias I’ve sung a million times and love more each time I sing them. It was a great experience.

Then I hopped back on a bus to Philadelphia, no sooner had we crossed the Lincoln Tunnel when my phone rang to schedule a callback for the next day.

Maybe this is a sign that I should start paying attention to Finals and Semi-Finals and callbacks so I don’t have to flush money down the toilet on unnecessary travel. As I sat on the bus, I started to wonder; Could I do it again?  Could I step through the music and repeat my performance? I thought about a recent TED talk I watched from Elizabeth Gilbert.

I love this talk. I love how she separates the work from herself. And I am happy to report that after a goodnights sleep in Philadelphia and another day on the Bus, I was able to give a performance that I was equally as proud of. Still waiting for the phone to ring, but I won’t hold my breath. I’ve already won. 

New Year. New Blog.

New Year. New Blog.

Upon my return to the states I jumped right in to rehearsals for Stony Hill Players Cosi Fan Tutte singing my first FIORDILIGI. Now, I confess, I did not think I could do it. But my teacher did. My coaches did and obviously the people who cast me did. I had reservations, but by the end of the run I still had a voice. In fact, it felt GREAT!! The way the role is written just really fit me. All that jumping around from high to low and back again feels amazing! And when does a soprano get to sing that low anyway? I guess it plays to my baser instinct of wishing I were a Mezzo.

Immediately after that, I made my Lincoln Center debut at Avery Fisher Hall! Ridiculous. The piece was beautiful. The Chelsea Symphony played fantastically and Matthew Aubin our conductor was fantastic. Oh, AND I GOT TO SING AT LINCOLN CENTER!!!

See!! It really happened! 

As a change of pace, this soprano spent the summer working as Company Manager at Opera New Jersey. It was defiantly something new, and I am so grateful to the people who made it possible and helped me learn along the way. I can certainly see myself getting into the administrative side of the business at one point in my life, but not at this time. I still have “the bug” which became very clear watching our fabulous Studio Artists sing in the ensemble of HMS Pinafore and thinking to myself “Man, I wish I were doing that right now.” Maybe that was because I had spent the afternoon scurrying around replacing burnt fuses and soliciting donations in kind… but that’s all part of being Company Management. Making people comfortable and happy in a new place, and planning parties which was a lot of fun, very fulfilling and one of the hardest jobs I have ever had. I am so blessed that my hosts were so awesome! Not only did I get to live with one of my closest friends but would come home to be greeted warmly by 2 poodles and a glass of wine provided by my loving hosts. 

Inspired by many other athletic performers, this summer I also competed in my first of many Triathlons because I thought an expensive, time consuming hobby would be just the thing to add to my expensive, time consuming career- lol. The training gave me some very valuable alone time when I was working a job that was technically on call 24-7. I completed the She-Rox Asbury Park Tri and won 2^nd place in my age group in the Delaware Diamond man. I am sure there will be many more of these in my future.

Back to being a Soprano. This fall I had the opportunity to collaborate with Morningside Opera on Vid Gurerro’s new Spanish/English adaptation of Le Nozze di Figaro called ¡Figaro! (90210) 

singing my fist Countess. The adaptation was brilliant. Truly. I hadn’t felt that creatively fulfilled from working on a piece in quite a long time. Just brilliant. I do a lot of singing in translation, and usually the translation goes directly with the original….but it doesn’t always resonate with the audience, but this did. He would take a line like “Dove sono I bei momenti/ Di dolcezza e di piacer?” which literally means “where are they those beautiful moments/ of sweetness and pleasure” and turn it into “Seems like yesterday that dive in west LA/ two young dreamers met and drank and talked till dawn.” BRILLIANT!! That sentence means something to me as an English speaking American, the other… not so much. Or turning Sull' Aria into a Sexting Duet. Or what he did with Porgi Amor. But the true brilliance comes with the character of Cherubino AKA Lill' B man. You just have to watch it. I had never in my life heard an audience react like this to an opera. Please check out their page here: Figaro 90210

Winning: That is me. Playing my Ukulele. On Stage. With the Symphony. Winning. 

I then had the opportunity to make my Knoxville Opera debut as Adele in Die Fledermaus and had a BLAST! The cast and crew were absolutely amazing and I am so excited to be returning in April for Cenerentola AND something else in 2014!! Which sounds like a fake year to me, but I am just so thrilled to have upcoming work!!!! Not bad for an unmanaged Soprano… but that is the next thing on the to-do list: Find a manager. More on that later…

Not the real poster, but just too funny NOT to share!

Next up: Learning all those Rossini notes, the Dvorak Requiem, a cabaret program planning a wedding and moving to Boston, all in the next 4 months!!! I am sure hilarity will ensue. This time, I promise to write about it. 

It's been a busy and successful 2012 and I can't wait to see what the future holds!! 

Adventures in miscommunication

Whenever one learns a language, one must be prepared for a certain level of misunderstanding and miscommunication, especially when venturing out into the Bar scene of Berlin, where people, men especially, seem to be more aggressive than usual. Maybe it’s my fault. I am so anxious to practice my German and try out new phrases that perhaps I am sending out the wrong signals? I have since learned, that here in Berlin, it's always the woman that approaches the man at a bar. If a girls not interested in someone, they just don't talk to them. Period. End of sentence. Here, I’ve been trying to be friendly, and if the person I’m talking to happens to be a guy.... no wonder they thinks I’m interested/ available. Which I am not. 

For example:

I went out with another American friend after a movie and as I was picking up our next round of beers I said “Hallo” to the man looking at me. Big Mistake. He followed me back to our table and sat himself down (it's actually not that weird in Germany to share a table with strangers, but whatever). He sits down, and the first thing out of his mouth, in an accent somewhere between German-Drunk and Borat says “You are very sexy.”   Really dude? That’s your opening line? “uh, Danke?” I turn away to talk to my friend, but it doesn’t work. He keeps up with the “romancing” leaving me to resort to what little German slang I know to tell him to leave us alone. I try “Lass uns in ruhe.” Nope. Still there. “Verpiss dich” Nope. So I decide to tell him that I am engaged (which, for the record, I am not, but I happened to be wearing a claddagh ring so I decided to go with it). I decided the best way to say that would be “Ich bin engagiert.” Which yes, does in fact mean “I am engaged” but more in the way that a hooker is already booked/ engaged for the evening. Yep. Instead of telling someone off, I basically told him I was a hooker and to come back later. No wonder he wouldn’t leave! He probably thought the friend I was talking to was my first client of the evening! Sheesh. 

I have since learned to say “Ich bin verlobt.” It usually shuts down all unwanted flirtation. 

Lesson learned.  

Cheers

A little business...

So, since coming to Germany 6 weeks ago, I have done 10 auditions; 3 for houses/ summer festivals, and 7 for agents. I’ve managed to get 3 on board to send me out on auditions whenever they hear of any...and yet I feel like I haven’t done enough. I don’t know what I thought would happen on this first trip, but I know I hoped against hope to walk away with a fest contract in my hot little hand. Crazy right? A Soprano? Getting Work? I know. 

What’s really nuts, is that things are so casual here. In the states, you have one agent, and you usually sign a contract with them to make everything official. Here, immediately after you sing for someone you got feedback and a yes or no vote, but it usually sounds something like “Great! We’ll be in touch when we hear of something.” What? Will you? Really? Is that it? I’m sure you’ve said the same to 1 million other sopranos, what will make you think of me when auditions come across your desk. This business has a tendency to make people a little neurotic, and I am no exception. I keep finding myself asking: Did I do enough? Was there something more I could have done? I mailed over 350 Agents and houses via snail mail, and email, with follow ups, but still, was there something I missed? Some piece of this puzzle that I overlooked? I know this isn’t a science, and has a lot to do with luck, but I believe that luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. Did I prepare enough so that I could be ready for an opportunity? It’s driving me nuts. 

For example; I have given WAY too much thought to an audition that’s 3 days after I’m scheduled to come back. There’s a part of me that’s saying “You have to do every audition that comes up, even if it means couch surfing for a week and spending even more money to do so!” and another, equally as loud part screaming “Do you really thing that one more audition for yet another agent will make or break you? What’s the point of singing for an agent and then immediately boarding a plane home? I think I know what I’m going to do, but this has been a tug of war in my brain for over a week now. 

Fingers crossed that something comes up... soon! I’ll feel pretty stupid if I head back to the states and then get a call about an audition in Germany like the day I land.   

U-bahn Safari!

Fortunately for me, Berlin is full of friends of friends and ex-pats just looking for someone to speak English with. So far, all have turned out to be absolutely awesome people, who I am so glad to now call my friends. It also helps to know some new “locals” as they can  recommend the coolest places. 

Berlin is like Williamsburg, Brooklyn exploded into a patchwork of architecture, art, pretension,and beer. So....I love it. The only thing I DON’T love is the smoking. It makes my eyes burn when you turn a bar into a hot box! Apparently, it’s actually against the Law, but eventually the bartenders get annoyed and start smoking, and that’s the symbol that it’s now ok to just ignore the law....and the possibility of cancer. 

I have started my studies at the Goethe Institute. Being winter, not many students have sighed up, so I ended up in a class by myself. At first, it brought back grade school memories of being in the slow reading group and feeling like an outcast. However, now I get one on one training with a native speaker, ALL in German and focusing on the topics I need to learn best: Auditions, Character, Contract negotiations etc. On top of that, I got a bit of a refund! Best of all possible worlds! 

Though, I think I've hit a wall. Every morning I wake up, think in English, and then I remember “Oh crap. I have to speak a foreign language. I’d better switch gears...” at which point my brain begins to think in Italian. Not helpful! Not only that, but it takes me a few sentences to realize it’s not German! It’s like my brain is a manual car with a sticky clutch and just can’t get my brain into the German gear! Or maybe my car just has 2 gears” 1st: English 2nd: Other. 

My host is REALLY nice, all of my hosts have been. But, I still find myself hiding--literally hiding--in my room and thinking: "Oh God, I have to speak German. What could I possibly be asked? How can I respond? What should I say? How should I say it?” It's all fun and games at the bar (and way easier after a few beers). Any other situation, not so much. And lord help me if a stranger walks up to me on the street with a question out of context! Wie bitte?

And don’t get me started on trying to read in German....my eye sees those supper long compound words and literally throws in the white flag. “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” Screw you German! That’s like a run-on scentance with all the spaces left out! All of the sudden, the page looks like its in Chinese! Now, part of that is my fault. I learn better by listening and speaking and imitation and just decided to not focus so much on the reading and writing part. Then again, I only understand you if you speak Hochdeutsch...any slang thrown in there and I am totally thrown off. So basically, when in Germany, I am functionally Illiterate, and I think it’s becoming a problem, and possibly dangerous! That sign there on the door could say: "Emergency Exit," "Entrance," or "Danger! Do not Enter! Nuclear weapons held within!" And I have no clue which it is. I naïvely thought that one could get by being an illiterate 30 year old in Germany, but turns out, reading is important. 

For example, I met a friend at a bar with no name, in the Hipsterest neighborhood in the Hipsterest city in the world. Granted, it was a Thursday night, but I wasn’t out too late (for a New Yorker). I headed back to the U-bahn station a little before midnight. I get to the U-7 and lucky me, there’s the train in the station! I hope on, and some German in a BVG uniform says something like “Sorry, this train is out of service, you have to take the U7 Bus instead.” I look at him terrified and ask “And where is this Bus?” Thinking all the while “great, now I’m in a weird city, in the weirdest part of town at midnight on a Thursday night, and you want me to find a bus back across town?!” The man just pointed at a sign. Curses!  I have no idea what that means!!! 

I run upstairs to the square and look around- Bus! Dead ahead! I jay-walk/run to the bus and ask if this is the bus to Nollendorfplatz. Nein. I’m on the wrong side of the street, my bus is across the square. And there it is, waiting there. I dash across the square thinking “No way will I be standing out here waiting for the next one!” I make the bus and even find a seat, despite the burning glares from the locals at having jay walked, twice. 

I’m sorry, It’s midnight, I want to get to bed and I’ll be dammed if I miss a bus because I was waiting for the “Walk” sign. But now that I’m on this Bus, driving along the U7 line, I start to get nervous. What about my next transfer to the U2? Is that running too? Or do I have to wait for ANOTHER bss? So I ask the person next to me (by the way, I’m doing this all in German, I promise) and he says, “Oh something something U7 but the U2 is running.” 

What? What’s going on?! Why would one subway line run, but not the other? Just as I’m starting to sweat a little, the man sitting next to me wipes out a vile of a roll-on perfume oil AND PERFUMES MY HAND!! WHAT!!! Not only that, it is the nastiest smelling perfume I had ever smelt. It burned my eyes and my nostrils and smelled mostly of grain alcohol and the concentrated juices of a million rotted lilies. Who does that! If we had been in the US, I guarantee you I would have given him a verbal thrashing to make his ears bleed, from years of experience living in New York City, and growing up in Philadelphia. 

But, being that I was trying to speak in German, I just rubbed it of and said “Entschuldigen, das ist nicht so meins/ Excuse me, that’s not really to my taste.” Who am I! Many of you know me, when have I ever, EVER been passive after being accosted by a stranger?! Just yesterday I cursed off a begging gypsy because she made the mistake of approaching me in Italian. So....somehow, in German I am submissive? I’m an American God Damn it! I want, what I want, when I want it, and if you make me wait for it, I'll sue! 

Anyway, I made it home...eventually. It only took an HOUR AND A HALF! On the walk home from the subway, I felt like Pepe le Pew from the old Looney Tunes cartoons, where everything just dies as he walks by. The perfume stunk up my room too. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed but the smell wouldn’t go away. It was so bad. I even had the thought “Mmmm....this sort of burns like a Jellyfish sting....and I remember seeing on an episode of Friends that you’re supposed to pee on a Jellyfish sting...maybe if I pee on my hand, the smell will go away....I mean....urine is sterile...could it possibly make it any worse?” I can thankfully report it did NOT come to that and eventually the smell faded. I can report that I slept with one glove on to try and separate the stench from my nose. Ugh! 

So to sum up: On an ordinary Thursday, I went to a bar with no name with 2 Fulbright scholars speaking in German/ English, ordering beers from the bartender in Italian, had an adventure on the subway and was Skunk bombed and slept with a glove on after legitimately contemplating peeing on my own hand. Yep. I’m keepin’ it classy!