Finally Approaching Violetta....

So, I had an audition today with a small opera program up in Wisconsin. They had held regular auditions in Chicago last weekend, but I was away in Boston, so I contacted them and they generously agreed to hear me (and Jon) in a private audition.

We trekked up to Lake Geneva, admiring the fact that there is a place COLDER than Chicago in the winter, and got there in a timely fashion. And I warmed up and went in and sang.

The only thing that was different in this audition from all the others is that I was singing for a role that I normally wouldn't sing for. Violetta in La Traviata. Violetta is one of the most challenging roles in the Lyric Soprano repertoire, because she has to sing distinctly different types of arias/ensembles in each act. In Act I, with her aria 'Sempre Libera,' she sings in the style of a Lyric Coleratura - which I am, so it wasn't that hard for me to sing today. However, in Act II she sings more of a Spinto repertoire - a Spinto is a very heavy, intense, singing that sits lower than the range of a Coleratura. And in Act III, Violetta sings a Full Lyric aria - a very powerful voice that has to carry over heavy orchestration, with many sustained notes that are sung just above the staff. And her character is just as complex - Violetta is a whirlwind of emotion, sickness, vitality, love, hate, jealousy - she goes through SO MANY changes as the opera progresses, and it takes years for someone to really get inside her head and portray her convincingly (though many singers have succeeded!)

I did not go into this audition asking to be cast as Violetta. Rather, I'd like to "cover" her (similar to an understudy - I get to sing in some rehearsals and am present for all staging and music rehearsals that Violetta is involved in). The artistic director was very, very, very nice - one of the nicest people I've ever met in this business. She heard me sing Violetta's first aria and said "well, you've got the voice for it, you've got the body for it, you know what you're doing." I'm proud of myself for having a realistic expectation of this job, and I think she recognized that I had a good sense of where I am in my career and what I could get out of her program. While she didn't promise me the role, she did commend me highly on my audition and say she'd be in touch within a few weeks!


Great audition, good day - I wrapped up the evening by watching Yasuko Oura, Mark Crayton, and Susanna Phillips in concert. They presented an evening of "The Tudor Queens" - music that focused on Elizabethan poetry and the letters of the Wives of Henry VIII. It was beautiful - Susanna is an artist that I admire very much, a similar fach (voice type) to mine, and a treat to see in concert.