Stories from Schenectady

As I sit on the Amtrak train heading home from an audition in upstate New York, I am reminded of several things.

1) It takes a great deal of love for something to give up an entire day of one’s life to sing for about 10 minutes in the hopes of possibly getting hired.
2) The opera world is truly small and everyone knows someone that knows someone
3) Just when you think that the world has gone to hell in a hand basket, you discover that there are beautifully kind people who inhabit this great sphere.

I was scheduled to sing for an opera company in Niskayuna, NY at 1:36 pm. Niskayuna is located a mere three miles outside Schenectady, NY. In order to make my audition I decided to travel via the Chinatown Bus from New York to Schenectady, then take a cab to the audition site (which happened to be in the pianist’s home.) I wanted to travel a little bit better so I opted to pay more and travel home via Amtrak.

My day began by catching the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) at 6:28 am and getting to Penn Station at 7:44 am in order to catch my 8:30 am bus. (Actually my day began with the thought that I must be a fool, but once the espresso kicked in, I was up and rearing to go.) The Chinatown Bus is in no way glamorous, but it is inexpensive and pretty fast. So fast in fact, we arrived nearly an hour early! The bus stop was in the middle of the ‘hood so I caught a cab and went to the audition site (a whole hour early to the chagrin of the pianist who was trying to settle in for a peaceful lunch. Surprise!) Luckily he kindly let me change and warm-up as he waited upstairs for the auditions to begin.

Slowly, people began to arrive (and by people I mean sopranos, because there are a billion of them.) In auditions I tend to avoid the small talk of what arias are you singing or where have you performed. However the lovely girl sitting next to me was having none of it and wouldn’t stop asking questions so I decided to actually engage in conversation. I’m glad I did as I found out that she was currently working with a conductor with whom I’d worked. We both commented on his fabulous conducting as well as his wicked wit. I think we both relaxed a bit. Eventually it was my turn to sing and everything went incredibly well. The pianist, most likely hearing me warm up with bits and pieces of my arias during his “peaceful” lunch seemed to know my every whim and played exquisitely. Because we were auditioning in a house, everyone could hear me. Thank goodness, it wasn’t crap!

Well it was time to go, so I called the cab company and asked them to pick me up. The woman on the other end assured me they would be there in 15 minutes. 25 minutes later, a sweet soprano who I hadn’t even talked to, but had overheard me calling the cab company offered to take me to the train station thus saving me time and money. While I rarely get into cars with strangers in cities I am unfamiliar with, I figured if things got dicey, I could take her, dump her in the trunk and drive myself to the police station and try and convince them that a white girl from Schenectady had tried to abduct a black man from “the city.” Lucky for me none of that came to pass. During our brief conversation, we realized that a colleague I had worked with a couple of years ago was her voice teacher. We laughed about how small the world was as we bopped to Michael Jackson.

She dropped me off in front of the train station all the while with me thanking her about 100 times. As I got out of her car, I noticed that my phone was ringing with the number of the cab company. They had indeed arrived (and only 40 minutes later than promised.) I celebrated by not answering the phone and treating myself to a coffee with a shot of espresso while I waited on my train that was to depart a couple of hours later.

I am now en route to New York and I’ll arrive at Penn Station around 8ish and then take the LIRR home with an estimated arrival time of 10 pm. What has been most fascinating about today’s audition was that I was singing for future seasons since I am unavailable for the productions in August (I have this little wedding thing going on and I am not allowed to book any work in the month of August or I will have to “deal with the consequences” as I have been told.) Anyway, who knows if anything will come from today’s adventure, but I can’t help but feel happy that I have experienced so much (joy, kindness, music, coincidence, travel and espresso.) What is certain is that each day brings something new, unexpected and interesting and I am utterly grateful that this is my life.

Peace,

Eric