I left San Francisco and flew to Chicago directly for an audition weekend. Merola on Saturday, with a possible Sunday callback. There was some bouncing around between the houses of my generous friends - no couch sleeping this time, everyone had an extra bed for me - but it was otherwise a nice little trip.
For Merola, I sang my Verdi aria, Il Lacerato Spirito. I felt quite good about the whole thing, comfortable throughout. Hell, why dance around it - I felt like I sang the shit out of that audition. Unfortunately, no call back there. I suppose they heard another bass they liked better for Commendatore. Still, at least I presented myself well. Hopefully they'll hear me again next year.
I found out that Des Moines Metro Opera was holding auditions int he same building that same afternoon. Perfect opportunity to crash, right? I showed up with my resume and headshot, and amazingly they had enough time to hear me. I sang not so amazingly.
Maybe it was how live the hall was, maybe I was just vocally tired (I've been working particularly hard on my recital rep lately), but that Verdi wasn't as good as it had been a few minutes ago. And then they called Bartolo's aria... which had been fine for the previous two weeks. I was excited to show what I could do with it in an audition.
And here I learned a life lesson: it's a bitch to go from Verdi to Mozart in under 30 seconds. I started out OK in that second aria, but by the time I got to the end, I was dying up there. Really, I don't know if I've ever botched an aria quite that badly.
So despite the fact that I sing it well, I'm taking Bartolo off the package for the rest of the year... or at least until I can sing it well right after singing Verdi.
Anyways, them's the lumps, right? Everyone has to sing badly sometimes. At least mine was for a Young Artist audition. Could have been much much worse....
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