| To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist> Subject: Re: The Five Big Arias (also LONG!) Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 00:36:31 -0500 Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Dear Zerbinetta, thanks for your good thoughts about the famous "Five Arias" -- I know you're quoting Kim Witman, but you're the one who remembered the ideas and shared 'em with us online!
Just my 2 cents to add: Suppose there actually IS a technical hurdle you haven't yet gotten over, but you do everything else well and need to be working/being taken seriously as a professional NOW? Let's take for example the hypothetical soprano, who can't yet spin a long legato line but who DOES have agility, musical wit, charisma and style. Maybe this gal should have 2 sets of 5 arias, one for "now", with Adele, Queen of the Night, Dinorah and the Doll Song and, say, maybe a florid G&S or operetta aria -- then for later, she can be working on a long-spun bel canto aria like "Ah, non credea". In this way, our soprano can present a professionally polished list of 5 arias and be taken seriously/get hired for more character-y coloratura parts RIGHT NOW; then, when she is ready to audition as a prima donna lyric-coloratura, she can start using the other 5 arias.
I think many singers whose teachers (truthfully) tell them they "aren't ready" get discouraged because they confuse the pure artistic aspiration of the studio with the real world of performing. Just because you're not yet ready for the most wonderful and demanding operatic roles in your fach doesn't mean you can't be working, learning, getting stage experience and GETTING PAID right now -- if you focus on your strengths and put together a "comprimario/crossover" audition list. Mezzos who aren't yet Carmen-able can get stage experience doing comic mezzo comprimario roles; big tenors who are still working out their tops can make bucks and feel better about their careers by doing bari-tenor parts in musical theatre; after all, everybody knows that many a Marschallin started out singing Annina, and -- was it Jon Vickers or James McCracken whose first PAID operatic role was Parpignol in Boheme (A one-liner!)?
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