One more "lesson learned" from your audition. Much as your just starting
in without waiting for an explicit sign to begin from the auditors, this
may actually be a bad idea - the auditors may not actually be ready to
hear you, and unless you at least *ask* first if they're ready for you
begin, you might catch them slightly off guard. Of course, if you're a
great reader of body language, you might be okay judging their readiness
from non-verbal cues. But frankly, I don't see any harm in asking if
they're ready before starting in.
As for incompetent accompanists - or at least incompetent SIGHT READERS at
auditions - I think we've all suffered more than our share of them. My
approach now is to call in advance and ask (politely) who the audition
accompanist is going to be. If it's not someone whose work I know, I
strongly consider arranging to bring my own accompanist instead of relying
on theirs. The sad truth is that no matter how poised you remain, and how
well you manage NOT to let shoddy accompaniment faze you or throw you off,
A BAD ACCOMPANIST ALWAYS MAKES THE SINGER SOUND/LOOK BAD. Unfortunately,
there always appear to be those people who sing the right aria, or who
sing their aria in exactly the way the accompanist is used to playing it,
who make the accompanist look better than he/she is. So that by
comparison, those of us who bring in arias the accompanist has never
played before, or who sing their arias faster - or more rubato - than the
accompanist is used to, get crappy accompaniment. And I hate to say it,
but I have come to believe strongly in the unjust fact that no matter
if the accompanist is 100% at fault for making your audition aria "jump
the tracks", YOU will be blamed in the mind of most auditors - even if
they know LOGICALLY that the fault wasn't yours, the GUT impression they
get will be of musical chaos instead of a beautifully coordinated
collaboration between singer and pianist. With only two exceptions in my
entire career have I auditioned successfully (i.e., been called back and
cast) based on an audition in which the accompanist screwed up and I spent
the whole audition trying to either (1) ignore and sing on, with an
accompaniment that was totally out of synch; (2) do my best to try and get
the accompanist back on track. IN the former case, no matter how good I
might have sounded, to the auditors' ears, the result was cacaphony - not
my fault, but cacaphony nonetheless. In the latter case, I spent too much
energy and focus on trying to rein in the errant accompanist, and not
enough on my performance. Unavoidable, if I wanted to avoid #1, but still
producing unacceptable results.
So now, I bring my own accompanist unless I'm told that doing this is
strictly verboten. And I'm also highly suspicious of auditions where
bringing one's own accompanist IS verboten. Anyone who thinks the
*appearance* of a level playing field is more important than having
singers deliver their best performances probably has no business hearing
auditions.
Auditions are high-pressure enough. Singers don't need the added pressure
of a crap accompanist!
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
______________________________________
I will sing with the spirit, and I
will sing with the understanding also.
1 Corinthians 14:15
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