>Well, I had my very first audition today... and while I didn't exactly
>amaze the director I seem to have done enough to get the part. Come
>late March I'll be singing the role of the Vicar in Britten's Albert
>Herring for the City Opera in London (we're only doing Act Two, Scene
>One I believe).
Bravo!!! FUN opera to do, too.
>
>I have just one question -- are all auditions going to feel this nerve
>wrecking? I thought my knees were going to melt on me during those 5
>short minutes of singing and there were more butterflies buzzing in my
>stomach than I could count!
I found that auditioning got easier as my technique got better. I hardly
feel more than a slight energy rush before auditioning now. This is seven
years after my first "serious" vocal audition, mind you. What really
helps, I've found, is to only ever audition with music you can sing in all
the worst possible circumstances and still feel good about. If you don't
have any arias you feel that comfortable about now, start working on five
repeatedly - sing them several times a week. Work on them with a coach(es).
Work on them with your voice teacher. Get all the technical "kinks" ironed
out. Get all the diction issues dealt with. Know exactly what every single
word means (doing your own translations helps a lot with this). Think very
hard about what the words mean, so you're interpreting and not just singing
(if you do this, and you naturally move well onstage, you shouldn't have to
spend much time "choreographing" them - the choreography should grow out of
an honest sense of the meaning and emotion of the aria; the exception may
be a comic/character aria - it not only helps sometimes to stage those to
get the comic (slapstick) timing, but it can be fun to stage them. Sing the
arias while walking, biking, dancing, cooking, cleaning, driving (if you
drive), bathing, etc. Sing them so much that they're second nature to you.
Take opportunities to perform them in front of people - your family. your
friends, in recitals, giving concerts in nursing homes, homeless shelters,
etc. Expose them in public as often as you can. Then expose them some more.
Once they are absolutely polished, and you are absolutely sick of them,
make sure you continue to sing each one at least once a week.
Once you've done that, and the arias are truly YOURS - totally
internalized, to the point where you're hardly conscious of them, but you
KNOW in your heart and body and brain that you're singing them really
well...then you'll be amazed that you not only won't feel nervous singing
them in audition, you'll actually feel free to HAVE FUN singing them in
audition. You'll find you feel a kind of detachment from your "real world"
surroundings - the auditor, the accompanist, the room you're auditioning in
- and instead, you'll be aware of almost nothing but the aria and your
performance. I've done auditions where I couldn't even remember having
sung the aria(s), but I definitely remember having *felt* the emotions of
the aria - which is how I know I must have sung it (that and the auditors'
"thank you" :) ).
Karen Mercedes
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