It seems the better my technique and musicianship get, the less work I'm able to find as a singer. I got much more work 7 years ago, after I'd been studying voice less than 2 years, than I do now (and I know for an absolute fact that my technique was "embryonic" at best back then). Now, I can't seem to get picked for the "minors" anymore. The more my true voice comes out, the huger it gets, to the point where I know exactly why I'm not considered for musicals and operettas anymore. The minute I sing a high note, I probably scare the pants off the auditors, who are NOT looking for a Wagnerian to sing "Something wonderful" or even "Alone and yet alive".
The other alternative, and the one I'm doing all this training for, is actual opera. But the opera scene for local singers in the Greater Washington D.C. Metro Area has eroded to the point of virtual nonexistence. Companies that used to hire all local talent are now going out of town for all the major roles, and casting only comprimarios locally. Other companies have particular casting agendas - like a mandate to use all Asian and Asian-American singers, or a mandate to hire only under-30s, or a preference for students and graduates of the music school with which they are affiliated. As for the rest, I'm still waiting for them to program operas in which a dramatic mezzo-contralto voice would be welcome. Mozart, Rossini, and Puccini just don't offer that many opportunities for a voice that is scaled for Azucena, Dalila, and Erda.
As for oratorio - which I'd love to do more of - I'm going to have to wait around - and compete for - the very rare Verdi Requiems and Beethoven's Ninths (not to mention the virtually never done Dream of Gerontiuses). There is an (erroneous) belief in this town that ALL oratorios that call for (contr)altos can be sung just as effectively by lyric mezzos. There is a real TASTE for lyric mezzos singing Handel's contralto arias, Bach's alto arias, Mendelssohn's contralto arias, Pergolesi's alto arias.... Music directors in this town have gone so long without hearing a true alto, they now think a true alto sounds "wrong" in parts that were written for true altos to sing!
I'm wondering whether I should just give up on opera, operettas, AND musicals, and instead start working up a one-woman tribute to Anna Russell. At least then I'd finally get to sing some Wagner!
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details. - Albert Einstein
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