another day, another audition

Today’s audition was for the Cincinnati Opera young artist program. I wasn’t scheduled until 2:15, which gave me plenty of time to sleep in, have a leisurely shower, and a nice long warm up. Though I had planned to make Smanie implaccabili my starter this season, I have yet to start with it on this trip. Today, I decided right before I left the apartment to start with Nicklausse’s violin aria from Tales of Hoffmann. The company is doing it this summer, and I feel like it really shows my voice well. It’s not flashy, but it’s lovely, legato, and has a big high A at the end.

Cincinnati schedules their auditions 4 minutes apart, so in general, people only get to sing one aria. This was the case with everyone I heard while I was waiting. Nicklausse is about 4:30, so I figured that would be all I would sing, and they might even stop me before the end. But they didn’t. I was really happy with it, and the A at the end was great. A has traditionally been a troublesome note for me, even after my higher notes got under control, so it’s nice to finally feel like I can count on it to be there every time. I noticed that they perked up after I had sung the first few lines, and started looking over my rep list and other materials. At the end, they smiled and said “thank you,” and I assumed that was it, but then they asked for the beginning of the Rossini! I didn’t get through all 7 minutes of it, of course, but I did sing the entire first section, which has a nice balance of fireworks and legato line. Overall, another successful audition!

Now, I’m on the train to Philadelphia, where I will be staying with a friend tonight and then singing tomorrow for Lake George. I’ll let you know how it goes!