Saturday evening was my first audition of the season - Sarasota Opera, hearing singers in Chicago.
For a first audition, I felt good about it. At the last minute I quailed and took La Vendetta off my package. It's just not quite at the point I want for an audition aria... I like my audition pieces to be roll-out-of-bed-and-sing confident, and this is just not there yet. I'm leaving it on for the rest of the season though: I'm about to spend two weeks working on that role. I expect it to pass that line of comfort by the time the shows are done.
Anyways, this audition was in a room I hadn't seen or sung in before. It was an odd, long hall with a boomy quality to it... though pleasant for the performer, to get to hear oneself so well. The committee was friendly and nice to sing for (as far as committees go), and I felt good about my singing. There were a couple of notes that were a bit out of control - pitchy or not quite in full resonance. Still, I think I sold the arias just fine.
I ended up making some stupid decisions about my focal points, which I regret. In an aria you always have to focus somewhere in the room - usually it's a mimed character you're singing "to" - and you generally want to place that focus just above the committee's heads. This way they get the "full blast" of the acting, without feeling assaulted by you. Me, I got stupid and placed my key focus somewhere in audience right. I guess something about the odd dimensions of the room got me confused. Not that it destroyed the performance or anything, but it wasn't optimal. Oh well - a lesson to remember for the rest of the season.
I found a bit of an obstacle in the cold I've been working through. My throat is fine, so I haven't really mentioned it here. But my right ear is stuffed up completely... I can't hear out of it at all. This has some consequence for how I hear myself sing, but that isn't so critical. (You have to learn to ignore your own perception of your sound, since it will change so dramatically depending on the space you're singing in) A larger problem was the fact that the pianist was to my right. Which means that while I think she played very well, I really just had to take that on faith most of the time. I tried to get in front of the piano a bit, so my left ear could pick up the slack.
Tomorrow I leave for Mendocino California, to sing my first ever Nozze di Figaro! Stay tuned...
