> > So what did you do when he said THIS??? What are you supposed to do when the > director wants you to do something that you know is not correct or even > harmful? > I refuse to do it. At a master class, a well-known stage director, whose MO was humiliation at every opportunity, demanded that I shout loudly in chest voice through a sonnet I was declaiming. I refused and he told me to sit down, saying that if I knew how to sing correctly, I could do it without hurting myself. Maybe so, but I wasn't about to try.
My favorite strange competition experience was the 3rd time I took the New York Singing Teachers Ass'n competition. The 2nd time I took it, I made the finals, so this time I really hoped I'd win something. Well, I got nowhere. The various judges' comments came back: 1. Your French is terrible - you shoudn't sing in a language you don't understand (I studied for 8 years. In other circumstances, Nico Castel had told me my French was "perfect" and Tom Moroco had thought I was a native Frenchperson.) 2. Your French is great. 3. Your German is terrible. 4. Your German is great. 5. You look terrible. 6. I love your dress and your hairdo. 7. Your high notes need work. 8. Your high notes are beautiful.
Needless to say, that was the last time I took THAT competition.
Susan Schneider
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