Audition Rep Redux

November 30, 2007 - Okay, so I've gotten some responses to my audition post-mortem post, particularly my frustration at singers offering arias that are somewhat irrelevant to the repertoire we are casting. I must say it was quite illuminating to find out that just publishing the repertoire for the season is not sufficient. Evidently singers want to be told that I want to hear prospective Donna Elviras sing "Mi tradi", prospective Octavias sing "Addio, Roma", prospective Nancys sing "What would Missus Herring say". Well, besides being a bit too wordy and cumbersome for the average audition listing, I have to say that prior to receiving these comments, I would have thought that such a spoon-feeding would have seemed patronizing to most singers. Isn't it self-evident that the best way to show that you are appropriate for certain roles is to sing a part of those roles? I guess not. So, in future we will be even more specific about what we want to hear. Hopefully that will save frustration on both sides of the audition table. - John Bowen

'Tis the Season

November 25, 2007 - So I've been getting a lot of questions about our upcoming Holiday Cabaret ("It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year?" on December 14th at 8pm) so I thought I'd tell you a little more about what you can expect at this festive event. The evening is going to informal with plenty of opportunity to chat with the other guests as well as the artists and to enjoy delicious holiday nibbles and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The musical element will consist of five themed sets of songs and will conclude with a carol sing-along. Don't worry, I'm not nearly as critical of audience participation as I am of auditioners so in the words of Mama Rose "Sing out, Louise!"

Here's a brief summary of the sets:

Set 1 ("Signs of the Season") will include such classics as "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" and "Silver Bells" as well as a rewrite of "My Favorite Things" entitle "These are a few of my Holiday gigs" and the nostalgic "Christmastime is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Set 2 ("Holiday Blues") ranges from the timeless "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to rarities such as "I remember" noteworthy as being the only Christmas lyric to have yet emerged from the brilliant pen of Stephen Sondheim.

Set 3 ("Christmas Traditions") sails through a broad swath of holiday repertoire from musical theatre ("We need a little Christmas") to holiday pop ("Santa Claus is coming to town") to cutting edge ("The Better Tree" a duet between a traditional live tree and a shiny aluminum one which gets a wee bit argumentative).

Set 4 ("Holiday Wishes and Dreams") is sure to elicit a big "awwwww" from the audience ("I'll be home for Christmas", "White Christmas") but might also elicit some naughty giggles with "My Simple Christmas Wish". Believe me, the wish is not for world peace.

Set 5 ("Holiday Romance") keeps the temperature rising with perennial snuggling favorites such as "Sleigh Ride" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" as well as every Material Girl's favorite holiday song, "Santa Baby".

So, hope that all is not only informative but enticing. To purchase tickets give the box office a call at 410.547.7997. Life is a cabaret, old chum, so come to the cabaret. - John Bowen

Audition Post-Mortem

November 18, 2007 - Well, my friends, yesterday and Friday I spent a combined 14.5 hours listening to singers who wished to be considered for our 2008-09 season. While we (I was joined by JoAnn Kulesza - conductor for Albert Herring, as well as Ron Gretz and Braxton Peters from Annapolis Opera) heard some very fine new singers, there were some trends that were so prevalent and so worrisome that I feel compelled to blog about them in the hopes that maybe some singers will read this post and mend their ways. I won't be so ungallant as to name names, but I am categorizing the issues for clarity's sake.

1) No-Shows - To those singers who simply did not show up for their audition times and also did not have the courtesy or professionalism to call or email to cancel, please be advised that your names will be kept on file as people who will not be granted an audition in the future. This may seem harsh to you, but the fact that you didn't have the common decency to inform us that you would not be showing up already tells me what kind of artist you are, thereby making an audition superfluous.

2) Last-minute Cancellations - To those of you who cancelled less than 24 hours before your appointed time (and in some cases, less than 1 hour before), while I appreciate the fact that you did inform us that you would not be coming, a little more notice would have allowed us to contact one of the singers on the waiting list to see if they would be interested in taking your time. Rather difficult to do with virtually no advance warning.

3) Baffling choice of audition rep - Opera Vivente posted that we were casting for the following shows: Don Giovanni, Albert Herring, and The Coronation of Poppea. It is therefore astonishing to me that many, many singers showed up for their audition with no arias from any of these shows, and indeed, in some cases, no arias even by these composers. Your ability to sing "Quando m'en vo" in no way shows me whether you can sing Donna Anna or Miss Wordsworth or Drusilla. This trend became even more baffling when we encountered singers who had actually done some of the roles that they were auditioning for and yet still didn't bring any of the arias from that role. If you've done Nancy in Albert Herring, and you'd like us to consider you for Nancy in our production, why on earth wouldn't you bring "What would Missus Herring say"? It simple doesn't make sense. If there is someone out there advising singers to not bring arias from the roles for which they are auditioning, please cease and desist. If you want to sing Donna Elvira, you better darn sight be prepared to sing either "Mi tradi" or "Ah, fuggi traditor" at the audition.

4) Out of tune singing - This is something that I've been noticing with increasing alarm over the past few years. However, what was originally an isolated problem has grown to epidemic proportions. When a singer singing in tune is actually attention getting rather than being a given then it is time to say something. More often than not this comes from singers trying to sing repertoire that demands more than their voice can give. Please, please audition for roles that are appropriate for your voice.

Okay, I'll step down off the soapbox now. My hope is that singers will read this and at least take what I've said under advisement. The next post will be about something of more general interest, but this needed to be said.

See you at the opera! - John Bowen

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

November 11, 2007 - So now that Alcina is behind me, I've turned my attention to our upcoming holiday cabaret show, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year?, which is happening on December 14th at 8pm. Working on this show, I'm reminded of 1) how crazy and hectic this season can be, particularly for performing artists (BTW There's actually a number in the show called "These are a few of my holiday gigs") and 2) how much I love this time of year. Yes, I admit it, I'm a sucker for holiday music (every year I buy at least one new CD of seasonal numbers), and I enjoy all the hustle and bustle of preparing the various and sundry performances that I'm in charge of during the holidays. I'm also aware that the holidays can also be a time of intense emotions, both positive and negative, and that music can often serve to give voice to the sadness or to lift the soul to a child-like sense of wonderment and joy. Therefore, our holiday cabaret is going to try to run the gamut from poignant tunes like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to uplifting carols like "The Christmas Waltz" to just plain fun romps like "Santa Baby". So I invite you to make Opera Vivente part of your holiday hustle and bustle. Come have some delicious holiday goodies, sip a warming beverage, and bask in wonderful music performed by fantastic artists. See you at the cabaret. - John Bowen

Twin Tyrants and Frail Beauty: Life after Alcina

November 6, 2007 - Well friends, it's over. Alcina closed to a packed house of enthusiastic patrons on Saturday, and now many of us are experiencing the inevitable post-production blues. Towards the end of Act II, Ruggiero sings a reflective aria on the ephemeral nature of Alcina's beautiful island. "Verdant meadows, charming forests, your frail beauty shall soon die." As I listened to that aria for the last time on Saturday night, it struck me that people who work in theatre really experience the elegiac emotion of this aria at the end of every show. After all the hard work preparing for opening night and the joy of performing the show (a joy that is often very brief in the opera world with its average runs of 4 or 6 performances), suddenly one is presented with a sea-change that is truly astounding. In a matter of hours, chairs are stacked and concessions tables broken down; where a curvilinear psychodelic set once stood there is now a pile of lumber, torn paper, and discarded gels. The singers who so recently stood on this stage singing some of the most brilliant and powerful music ever written for the stage are on to other projects, often in very distant parts of the world. Theatre is indeed a frail beauty.

On the other hand, we have the charge to keep creating this ephemeral beauty because the legacy of the performing arts demands it. Handel's notes and his unknown librettist's words are merely an inanimate, historical document until someone performs them. We feel the great artists of history calling us from the page to make them live again eventhough we know that we can only animate their creation for a brief and irreproduceable period of time. And that's why I include the words "twin tyrants" from Bradamante's Act I aria in the title of this post. Performing artists are constantly being pulled between the tangible, permanent legacy of the past and the inherent transience of making that legacy live and communicate to our audiences.

Alright, that's enough philosophy for one post. Luckily, the tension between the abovementioned "tyrants" is also the cure for the malady. It's what drives most of us on to the next project. And I'm fortunate that I have another project looming on the horizon, namely "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?", our holiday cabaret on December 14th at 8pm. Featuring some favorite OV artists, Joy Greene, Jennifer Blades, Frederic Rey, and Will Heim, singing holiday selections from classic to cutting-edge the show will also have holiday goodies to eat and festive beverages for purchase. To reserve seats call the box office at 410.547.7997. Hope to see you there.

John Bowen

Life on Alcina's Island

November 1, 2007 - Hello all. I'm back. Not that I ever really left, but at the moment I finally have my head enough above water to post again. So here we are on the verge of the second weekend of performances of Alcina, and I must say it feels really good. The show opened to very enthusiastic crowds and garnered very positive reviews from Tim Smith at the Baltimore Sun as well as Michael Lodico at Ionarts.org. The cast feels good about what they've accomplished, and I feel proud of what I've produced. There are still a few tickets left for this evening and Saturday so I encourage you to get a ticket and not miss out on this chance to see a rarely performed work in a really good production. And just to entice you further, here are some images from the show. Pretty groovy, eh? See you at the opera - John Bowen