Auditions

[soho_iced]

A successful audition for once: with Guildford Opera again (Oskar in Un Ballo in Maschera). I am waiting to confirm until I hear whether N also got the part he went for, though as he was one of three men auditioning on the whole day vs about 20 women, I'm pretty confident

Comments

[soho_iced]

Not a naive question - singers I know who only do choral or session work, for instance, have been surprised at the amount of unpaid or almost unpaid work people wanting to get into opera are prepared to do. At this stage (I'm 29) I'm still pretty young in singing terms so I try to do at least one production a year, even if I only get paid expenses, to build up my CV so it looks more attractive to professional companies. I have worked with some small professional companies in the past, though the dividing line is surprisingly blurry: some companies are quite well funded, they just rely on young hopefuls or students who they don't have to pay, then spend their money on sets or an orchestra instead.

Learning a new part - I manage about an hour of practise a day after work, but I can do some of the actual work of memorising while I'm commuting, as long as the music is not too complicated. If I have an emergency I will take the afternoon off work, but I find 'little and often' is the best way.

Do you have a procedure you follow when trying to learn a new concerto, for example?

[spiritsense]

I don't 'do' concertos - unfortunately. I'm one of the many musicians who learnt whilst at school and then - due mainly to life coming along - my musical pursuits were left on one side. Then after my divorce I took up the viola again more seriously. So now I play in the Sinfonia of Leeds - which involves attending the weekly rehearsals and giving four or five concerts a year. But I don't have time to do much private practice for that at home. I have two sons who come to stay at weekends and one night mid-week, so my time is pretty much taken up. But I do sometimes dig out my old solo music from my teens and have a play through...