Campbell Vertesi

Bryn and I took part in a concert last night, in Rushville Indiana.  An organist friend had asked us to join her in a recital to celebrate the 101st birthday (and recent renewal) of a major pipe organ there. 

It was the first time in three years that I've performed my "spiritual set".  It was also the first time in ages I've sung so much in my low register.  Unfortunately, I had an allergy issue when I arrived, and for me the first thing to go with allergies is my low notes.  This was problematic to say the least - I had about a million low Cs and C#s to sing on the program!  

But luckily, I had my little friend guaifenesin on hand!  This little wonderdrug cleared up my chords in half an hour, enough to sing the low stuff, anyways.  The lowest notes weren't as big or as resonant as usual, but at least they were there!

I also sang La ci darem with Bryn, for my first public performance in the original key.  That's a serious tour de force for me; especially after half an hour of my lowest singing!  Though the last high E wasn't perfect, it wasn't bad at all, so I'm not complaining.  Overall, I felt good about the whole thing.

The hard part of course, was getting through it all with my grandmother still on my mind.  The last time I sang most of these pieces was with her in the third row.  Actually, the last time I sang "I'll be seeing you", it was for a close family friend, who succumbed to a long fight with cancer shortly thereafter.  That song was shelved until I could handle the emotion again, and now... well, let's just say last night I wasn't exactly at my strongest in that suit.  There were several times in the concert when I fought to keep composure.

I have wanted several times to dedicate specific performances or concerts to close friends who have died.  I can never manage it.  Once the dedication is out there, as a performer you can't stop thinking about it.  I can't speak for anyone else, but it tends to tear me apart emotionally... and I can't have that while I'm performing.  So I think of the dedication privately.  I sing with this person in my heart, I don't have to broadcast that to the audience. 

My grandmother died on Friday.

It's difficult to know what to say about this.  She was the last of my grandparents to die, but she was also the closest to me.  My father's parents lived in Toronto, and while I certainly knew them well enough for them to be very special, they never had the chance to be as constant a force in my life.

Deedee lived within five minutes of my parents' house since I was five years old.  This meant that she was always there, for everything.  She saw every contest, every performance, and every recital.  She watched every school play, and most of my soccer games.  She made sure she was there to always tell us how proud she was.

And she had much to be proud of.  Four children, all incredibly successful in their professional and personal lives.  Four wonderful loving families, with great children of their own.  Deedee watched every one of her grandchildren grow into fine adults; people you want to be friends with, as well as family. 

How do you "deal" with the death of a loved one?  At some point, time makes you move on with your life, but as far as I can see your memories remain just as clear,  and just as painful as the day they died.  How do you say goodbye when someone is already gone?  How do you arrive at the point when you can say "they'll never be there again" without a break in your voice?

Because that's all I keep thinking.  The next time I sing in Vancouver, she won't be there.  No matter what happens, that seat in the front row will never be filled again.  At the dinner table at my parents' house, at the christmas carolling party, at birthdays she will never be there again.

Deedee, you were an incredible support for me.  You will never know just how much it meant to see you there every night, to know how much us grandchildren meant to you.   I don't need to say goodbye - I just need to say thank you.

Sorry everyone!

 If anyone uses the "email me when I get replies to this comment" feature, some of you may have noticed that it wasn't working.  I didn't notice, until today.  So I flipped the switch to turn those emails back on again, and presto! I'm spamming all my favorite readers.  All that backlog of emails that should have been sent out are going out now.

Better late than never, I guess... but I wish it wasn't all at once!  

Oh well, take comfort in the fact that none of you are getting it as bad as I am. I get an email for every comment and posting anywhere on the site.  Watch my inbox overflow!

Seriously though, sorry to spam.  I'm a jerk. 

Well well well - it seems that one of my favorite fellow bloggers, ACB, is working on Figaro as well!  Talk about worlds apart though: hers is for the Met, mine is for a tiny company in CA. :)

Anyways, her posts on the subject of Barbarina are fascinating to me.  She goes through some similar processes to what I do to get this kind of role prepared.   It's interesting to see the way she works on a role... not only do you get some insight into the differences in the way two performers prepare similar material, but you also get it on two very different levels of the profession.  This is how a beginning singer does it, and that's how a much more accomplished one does it.

I want to point out in particular the way she does her translations.   

"I find a copy of the libretto online and cut and paste it into a Word
document. After playing with the formatting a bit and getting my tabs
worked out (dork!), I type the translation, again paying attention to
the language. I’m not just typing English words at 70wpm; I’m watching
each word and it’s Italian counterpart, making them match up in my
mind. I do this for the entire opera, not just my parts"

 I had my opera characterization prof make us all do this last year.  We hated it.  But it makes you learn the show REALLY thoroughly.  I've always done this for my parts, and read the Italian, an English translation, and a Castel translation for the rest.  There's something to be said though ,for actually doing all the translation yourself.  You stand a much better chance of really remembering every obscure poetic word you encounter!

Anyways, go and have a read of ACB's posts about this.  Veeeeeery interesting.  I have pages of notes of the things I've learned about Bartolo, but you'll have to wait until I condense it and pare out the crap.

I came across a new online language resource today: Mango.  It's an online learning system that covers Spanish, Russian, French, Italian, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Greek, and English.  It's just entered public "beta" testing, but it seems solid enough.  Give it a try!

Hello everybody! I'm coming back to the blogging season with a topic that's much on my mind lately: Young Artist Program auditions. More specifically, how to afford them. It can be difficult, with application fees on the rise, the high quality of recordings that are expected, and the cost of transportation going through the roof. This is my quickie guide to making those auditions without breaking the bank.

1) Select companies based on their repertoire

At $30-$70 a pop, one of your biggest expenses is going to be application fees. your first task is to make a big list of all the programs you'd LIKE to do. Go wild. (my initial list was almost 20 companies long!) Now start to pare them down. What repertoire are they doing this year? Is there anything in there for you? Be realistic - Central City isn't hiring a young artist to sing Violetta. But there's a good chance they'd consider a young mezzo for Flora... or a young bass for the doctor.

Be careful:Some companies' studio programs are totally or partially unrelated to their mainstage. Always do your research!

2) Select companies based on your level

Be honest: you're not Joan Sutherland (yet). What programs have you done before? What other programs seem to be on the same level, or just above? If you've never even auditioned for summer programs before, it's probably not worth your time (or Kim's) for you to sing for Wolf Trap. If you've still got serious technical issues to work out, you probably don't want to spend the money on Houston Grand Opera.

3) Plot it out on a calendar

Every year Bryn and I buy a big (2 feet wide) calendar, on which to plot our auditions and applications. The calendar serves a dual purpose: it reminds us when applications are due, and it lets us plot out our travel. Typically there will be one big week of auditions in New York in December. NYC is an expensive place to go - be very careful flying out there for one isolated audition in November. That's a lot of capital invested in something that is not a sure bet. Chicago is similar, though generally not as expensive, especially for those of us in the midwest. The point here is, choose your programs and audition dates so that you can minimize travel.

Between these first three tips, you should be able to cut your list down by half or more. Remember that every time you say "no" to an application, you're saving not just the application fee, but all the associated travel costs as well.

4) Carpool!

Whenever possible, carpool to and from auditions. A roundtrip to Chicago is $55 in gas in my very fuel efficient (39mpg!) car. With one passenger, that's $27.50. Two passengers and it's less than $20 each!

This makes a huge difference over the course of the season. This year, I'm making 3 trips to Chicago, and planning to save about a hundred bucks through carpooling. If you're interested to calculate your gas costs for roadtrips like this, have a look at the AAA's Trip Gas Price website.

5) Know the cheap non-flight travel options

This is the other big moneysaver: know the cheap travel in your area. Getting local again: I know there's a bus service in the Midwest that's dirt cheap. I've seen seat sales to Chicago for less than $10 there. If you can handle the travel time spent on a bus, that's a very good option. There isn't a great rail service around here, but certainly if you're travelling within the East Coast, rail can be cheap transport! Ask around, and check NFCS of course...

6) Find the cheapest flight on the web

In these days of cutthroat air service competition, prices vary wildly from one company to another. Don't assume that one search site will get you the best fare, or even close to it! Check several places, including airline specific sites. I always check Skybus, Southwest, ATA, and United first. Skybus, Southwest, and ATA all have phenomenal prices if you're going to one of "their" cities. United has good rates too, but mostly that's where I get air miles. After I've searched these sites, I go to the mult-search tools, like Orbitz and Expedia.

But the ultimate search tool I've found is kayak.com. That site searches tons of other travel sites - which is cool - but the best feature is their graphing tool. If you're searching for a popular flight, you can see a graph of the pricing for that flight over time, including predictions based on last year. This can help you find the best time to buy, and can save you BIG TIME.

7) Get air points

Recognize the expenditures of your business, and get perks accordingly. Make sure your credit card is getting you air miles (or maybe hotel points), and put your tuition and monthly bills on that credit card. Sign up for every loyalty program you can get your hands on, and do the paperwork to get those points! Bryn flew to Salzburg for her summer program on points - executive class all the way!

8) Plan ahead of time, book your flights early

This should be a no brainer, but most of us still wait until the last possible minute to buy that flight. The trouble is, you can get a good flight from Indianapolis to New York for $75 return if you're clever and book in advance. That price will be closer to $200 if you wait till later. Yet another reason for the calendar, and another area where kayak.com can help you.

9) Stay with friends

This might seem obvious, but some singers really waste their money on hotels. Singers are a friendly community! We all have to travel, we all know how it is. No one minds if you crash on their couch for a night. Bring a sleeping bag if you have to. If you're a picky sleeper, share the bed if you're (and they're) cool with that, or try buying a camping cot. They're quite portable, and much more comfortable than a hardwood floor!

Just make sure to call your friends a long time in advance to give warning.

10) Eat on the cheap

This may be the biggest saver of all. When you're staying in a foreign city, it's easy to eat out for every meal. Even if you're only eating at McDonald's, three or four days can add up. Imagine eating at McD's for three meals a day, four days in a row - eugh. Actually, just imagine your budget. At $6.50 per meal, you're spending $78. And that's not including going for coffee or drinks with friends, or doing any of the other important networking stuff.

(complete non-sequitur: check out McDonald's website about their dollar menu. Maybe the only flash-enabled website that talks to you that I actually enjoyed visiting. Seriously. Pretty funny stuff.)

Compare that budget to the austere life. You're already crashing at a friend's place, so borrow a corner of their fridge while you're at it. Go grocery shopping, and try stomach even one less-than-healthy meal per day to save cash. Every meal of Ramen Noodle costs 35 cents. Every meal of hot dogs costs $1.50 (for four dogs, if you buy cheap). Or go luxurious and eat chicken and rice for $3 per plate. Burgers aren't bad either, at about $3 per plate with fries. Eggs or bagels are dirt cheap breakfast, too. Let's say you have one unhealthy meal a day, and eat at home for breakie and dinner. Your food budget for four days just dropped to $20. That's serious money saved, over the course of an audition season!

I'd love to hear from you all about what other cash-saving tricks you've found. Leave a comment! (Note to facebook-ers... I'd really rather you commented on this post on my website, rather than on facebook. Here's the link)

Sorry for that lats post... I've learned that being homeless is a major stress factor for me! 

Things have mostly turned out better.  My funding did come through at the last minute, so I'm now a full-time student at UC again.   I still have an anxiety-inducing load of bills to pay with no way to pay them, but at least I can finish my degree.  Ah, college life.

And I've reconciled myself to living in Oxford this quarter.  With any luck I'll be singing with a Young Artist Program for the season from January to April, so I won't have to put up with small town Ohio for very long.  Besides, places really are cheaper there.  

On the positive side, I feel really good about my singing lately. All that bass-baritonal work at Ash Lawn did me good, and now I'm learning to support more and more with my breathing muscles.  Funny thing about vocal progress - every time you make a big leap, you tend to lose stamina in the short term.  For instance, if you were using your jaw muscles to help stabilize your vocal mechanism, and you learn to cut that out... suddenly all the other muscles (the right ones, ideally) have to take up that slack.  Usually, they're not used to the extra strain, so you have to train them up.  

I'm having this trouble lately, because I just got back to lessons with my teacher Kenneth Shaw.  I've learned a lot, which is great, but it's while I'm recording audition arias... which is hard.  Where I can usually record four or even five arias in a sitting, I'm finding it a challenge to get through two or three!  

But the recordings are all done now.  I think several of them will be good enough to put on this website.  Keep your eyes (ears?) peeled! 

I think it's safe to say that I'm losing it here.

We still don't have an apartment in Cincinnati. We're subletting in Covington (just over the river, in Kentucky) for the month, and we were expecting to start a lease in a nice area of Cincy on October first.

Now my funding situation at UC is changing, which means I probably have to be a part time student. Which means I'm only going to school in Cincy 2 or 3 days a week, while Bryn is going 4 or 5 days in Oxford; which means it's stupid to spend gas money having Bryn commute from Cincinnati. So now the apartment search is starting all over again, but I get to live in Oxford OH, and move AGAIN at the end of the year to try and find a place in Cincinnati as a home base.

Did I mention my funding situation has changed? The head of the opera department left CCM last year, and I sent emails and phone messages all summer trying to get the status of my stipend from that department. It looks like the money isn't coming now, so I can't take any of the courses I wanted to (Russian, slavic diction, acting); only the one I need to graduate.

Meanwhile, without full time student visa status, I really won't be able to work. In about 90 days I'm expecting work permission with my green card application, but 90 days is a long time. Especially with first months' rent/deposit, utilities, gas, and application fees.

Oh yeah - between Bryn and I, application fees are set to eat up about $800 of our non-existent money this quarter. That's not counting recording costs ($180 so far), pianist fees (I'll have to pay my own rehearsal pianist since I'm not in school), coaching and voice lessons.

And I'm spending my time filling out applications by hand, which always drives me crazy. A small handful of companies now have electronic applications, and they are the psychological life raft to which I cling. I'm sick of making a mistake at the end of a form, when they ask you to list "roles studied", and on the next page, "roles performed" (I'm looking at you, LA and Washington National Operas!). That got me both times: I included as "studied" the roles I had performed, with a mark to indicate that they were performed. Both times, I turned the page and realized I had to start from scratch. Both times, I cursed loudly enough to embarrass the lady next to me at Kinko's.

In the middle of all this, I'm trying to prepare new audition repertoire, a performance, and a concert. Amazingly, this is a little island of control I have... one area of my life where I can still enjoy myself, work hard, and expect reward. If only I had more time to do it!

I know, this is the career I've chosen. That's fine: I don't mind being itinerant, moving every two weeks, not being able to plan my life as far as a week in advance, or being broke. It's when it's all crashing together at once that it kills me.

I'm sick of moving house every three weeks. I'm sick of "where will I sleep?" and "how will I eat?" being unsolved mysteries until literally 24 hours beforehand. I'm sick of the unnecessary paperwork, and the obscene expenses involved in starting an opera career.

But I'm sure I'll get over it by next week. In the meantime, I'll try and post about Europe a little.

Lucino Pavarotti died last night, at home in Modena with his family. I don't often use this space as an obituary, but this is too significant a life to ignore.

Pavarotti was not known for his acting, his stage movement, or his physique. He was known for his extraordinary singing. In this sense, he was one of the last members of the "old school" of opera.

Nowadays, we're taught that you can't make it anywhere unless you learn to act. What's more, most all of my colleagues are in physical training of some sort, in an effort to beat Nathan Gunn at his own game. Pavarotti "made it" into the opera industry in an age when none of that was necessary. He was at home among contemporaries who would stand and sing, and let the glory of their sound captivate the audience. And Pavarotti remained long after the rest had changed or retired, reminding us all of the power of an expertly produced beautiful voice. The man simply stood and sang, and audiences were blown away.

Every once in awhile, an amazing voice comes to the stage. A voice where you can just close your eyes and listen, and be completely satisfied with a performance. Pavarotti symbolized that experience right up to the end of his career. He gave hope to all of us who worry that audiences have forgotten how to enjoy great singing on its own merits.

I leave it to all the other obits to remind us of his 17 curtain calls that night at the Met, his title as "King of the High Cs", and his rise to fame with the Three Tenors. Those are great achievements no doubt, but to me Pavarotti was a man who really knew how to sing - and who made his career on just that and a smile.

"Penso che una vita per la musica sia una vita spesa bene ed è a questo che mi sono dedicato."

"I think that a life for music is a life well spent, and it is to this that I have devoted myself."

-- Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007)

This year all the applications for Young Artist Programs seem to be coming up awfully soon.  Most of the big ones are due this month!  This has Bryn and I scrambling to put together our recording for the year, and most of all: getting our letters of recommendation ready.

You see, not only do most of these places ask for a fee (exactly $500 this year, but that's another post), a recording and an extensive application; many of them also want two or three letters of recommendation. And as if it wasn't painful enough chasing directors and coaches around for these letters normally; this year they aren't expecting it so soon.  Everyone's still on vacation!  So I'm interrupting the last weeks of vacation time, to ask for a stupid recommendation.  I'm sure it makes me very loved.