You rehearse for three weeks getting to know your colleagues and forming some sort of connection and then suddenly you hear some of the worst news in the operatic world...someone, in this instance, our originally scheduled soprano who was set to make her debut as Violetta, has strep and can't do the show! The young lady who is covering the role is not ready, not because she is under prepared, but because the original cover had to cancel and she was bumped up so she was quickly learning the role, but was not ready to go onstage and actually sing. Enter the soprano who had sung another role with the company earlier that season and who happened to have done the role of Violetta a few years back. At the Orchestra Dress she sang the role from the side with a score. The next night she performed it having just learned earlier that day at 3 pm that she would be performing and at last night's opening, she went on and "did the damn thing!"
Recently soprano Hei-Kyung Hong was called upon to open the Met's recent production of "La Traviata" when Nataile Dessay was unable to perform due to illness. (Something in the NYC water?) Hong has been a "cover" artist at the Met for many years saving productions here and there while also singing leading roles at the Met. It takes nerves of steal, a calm soul and a sound technique to jump in on a moment's notice because ultimately the show must go on!
I write about this because often some of the greatest opportunities come in the flash of a moment and having an arsenal of roles ready and performed allows a singer to jump in and not only save the performance, but the company.
While a Young Artist at Virginia Opera, I was assigned to cover Rocco the jailor in Beethoven's "Fidelio." Now I NEVER thought I would go on as the guy singing the role was a rock star, but I was fully prepared and ready just in case. Opening night came and went and was a huge success. But on the day of the second performance, a matinee, I received the phone call telling me that I was going on that afternoon. I rushed to the theater, after a quick water splash-splash taking with me some water, some deodorant and my score. I arrived amidst a buzz of excitement with my colleagues giving me the "it's going to be great even though I've never heard you sing before and we've barely met" smile, the costumer drenched in sweat as she realizes that I'm about 7 inches shorter than the person I'm covering and that she had to make some SERIOUS alterations, the conductor who wanted to make certain I was ready and the artistic staff who were highly frantic, but trying to mask it, asking me over and over again if I was calm.
Oddly enough I was. I felt no terror because I knew in my head that I could do this. I wasn't going to be perfect, but I had been to the rehearsals, done at least three cover rehearsals and knew the score pretty well although I am certain I put a few "ich's" and "ach's" where there were none. The ovation I received from the audience was wonderful and made me realize that I could not only do this, but I could do this well. It was one of the great moments in my operatic life and it gave me a great deal of respect for anyone who covers and has to go on at the drop of a hat.
For every opera singer out there performing, there is another one (sometimes two) waiting in the wings (or in the audience or at home on their couch) just in case they need to go on and being ready musically, dramatically and most importantly emotionally makes them an invaluable artist in the operatic world.
Peace,
Eric
Friday, April 13, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Inspiration
I have been listening to a lot of opera lately. In addition to listening to recordings of "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "La Traviata," (Traviata goes up with Dicapo Opera in a few weeks and then I jump into two different productions of "Nozze" first with St. Petersburg Opera, then Bel Cantanti Opera in DC), I have been trying to catch the MET's Radio Broadcast (online) and any other gems of the operatic nature when I find out about them.
Part of my listening is purely to understand how various artists handle certain arias, phrases, recitatives and part of it is to remember the sheer joy and beauty that comes from great singing. It always puts me back in focus and reminds me that the music, the drama, the character and the text are the most important things and what one does with them are what keeps us coming back to these great works of art over and over again.
Last Saturday I listened to the MET's broadcast of "L'Elisir d"Amore", Donizetti's bubbly score with wonderful characters, a lovely story of blossoming romance filled with complications and some of the best artists in the world singing. Juan Diego Florez's "Una furtiva lagrima" brought down the house with the audience calling for an encore, so he repeated it adding a little different twist here and there. (A rare event at the MET.) Besides loving what the singers were doing vocally and dramatically, I was inspired by the sheer joy that was coming through the broadcast and that the singers seemed to be excited and happy to be there.
A few days later, I heard the Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Rising Stars" Concert which featured members of the Ryan Opera Center (the professional training program) in arias and ensembles from the Bel Canto, French, German, Russian and American arsenals. It was a great oppotunity to hear some exciting young singers who are well-trained and making great strides in becoming well-rounded performers. Again, I felt inspired to refine, practice, interpret and rethink all of the music I am so fortunate to get to sing.
The pressures of making a living, being prepared, understanding one's place in the business and balancing one's professional and personal lives can make it seem like being an opera singer is all about just trying to stay on top of things and that can be exhausting. Sometimes we have to look outside of ourselves for inspiration and not only in the amazing singing of others, but in film, art, music of all styles, fashion, dance and other art forms where an artist is able to transcend just doing enough to get by and really truly sparks something within us that makes us not only feel something, but makes us want to have that same effect in our own art-making.
We give so much as artists and we need to replenish oursleves through absorbing other forms of art in which we can draw inspiration. So get out there and listen, see, hear, feel and react!
Peace,
Eric
Part of my listening is purely to understand how various artists handle certain arias, phrases, recitatives and part of it is to remember the sheer joy and beauty that comes from great singing. It always puts me back in focus and reminds me that the music, the drama, the character and the text are the most important things and what one does with them are what keeps us coming back to these great works of art over and over again.
Last Saturday I listened to the MET's broadcast of "L'Elisir d"Amore", Donizetti's bubbly score with wonderful characters, a lovely story of blossoming romance filled with complications and some of the best artists in the world singing. Juan Diego Florez's "Una furtiva lagrima" brought down the house with the audience calling for an encore, so he repeated it adding a little different twist here and there. (A rare event at the MET.) Besides loving what the singers were doing vocally and dramatically, I was inspired by the sheer joy that was coming through the broadcast and that the singers seemed to be excited and happy to be there.
A few days later, I heard the Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Rising Stars" Concert which featured members of the Ryan Opera Center (the professional training program) in arias and ensembles from the Bel Canto, French, German, Russian and American arsenals. It was a great oppotunity to hear some exciting young singers who are well-trained and making great strides in becoming well-rounded performers. Again, I felt inspired to refine, practice, interpret and rethink all of the music I am so fortunate to get to sing.
The pressures of making a living, being prepared, understanding one's place in the business and balancing one's professional and personal lives can make it seem like being an opera singer is all about just trying to stay on top of things and that can be exhausting. Sometimes we have to look outside of ourselves for inspiration and not only in the amazing singing of others, but in film, art, music of all styles, fashion, dance and other art forms where an artist is able to transcend just doing enough to get by and really truly sparks something within us that makes us not only feel something, but makes us want to have that same effect in our own art-making.
We give so much as artists and we need to replenish oursleves through absorbing other forms of art in which we can draw inspiration. So get out there and listen, see, hear, feel and react!
Peace,
Eric
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