Karen Mercedes wrote: > > The rule of thumb for each appears to be this: > > OPERA: Sing an aria from the role for which you are auditioning. If you're > auditioning for a role that doesn't have its own aria, sing an aria from > the opera or by the same composer. > > MUSICAL THEATRE: Unless explicitly requested, do NOT sing a song from the > musical for which you are auditioning.
Unlike opera auditors, musical > theatre auditors apparently have very little patience, and dread hearing > ANY song more than once in an audition, and also have a very strange > mindset that prevents them from actually hearing the performance of a > singer who dares to sing a song from the musical without automatically > making all sorts of negative comparisons between that singer's > interpretation and their own already set-in-concrete idea of how the song > SHOULD be performed.
With tongue firmly in cheek, I offer the following explanation: Opera arias are far more interesting musically than even the best musical theater songs, so that the auditors are driven far more crazy by 10 repetitions of of the latter than the former. (How many copilation recordings are made by "Broadway" stars of the standard show-tunes, compared to the number of aria compilations of the same arias by virtually every opera singer in a particular voice category?)
Peggy
-- Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA "Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile" mailto:peggyh@i...
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