What advice would you give to a young person who wants to make a career in music today?
Robert Merrill: In my concert tours I met young artists who would come and ask me, “Can you find me a teacher, because I want to come to New York and sing?” When I would ask what business they were in they would say, “Well, I am an accountant, but I think I can make it in New York.” I’d tell them to think a great deal about this because when you go to New York you will be talked into studying, talked into agents and getting involved with things. How much time would you give yourself, a year or two?
I was reluctant to advise them because I didn’t want to ruin a human being. When I felt that someone had a quality, I would recommend a teacher and tell the person to invest time into working. Some people would like to immediately tell that singer, “Oh yeah, you come into New York and call me.” They ruined their lives. They’d study for years and waste their time when they could have been good accountants, business people or whatever. It’s very dangerous.
But if you do want it, you have to feel it and understand it yourself. Even when you secure management, you have to have the instincts. I did the Metropolitan Opera auditions when people encouraged me to do so and I didn’t win. They told me that I was not ready. I was fortunate that I didn’t get upset and quit. I was patient and told myself to wait. Two years later, Wilfred Pelletier, who was running the auditions at the time, called and asked me to audition again and I won. He conducted Traviata, my debut. That’s how it happened for me.
What is the best “next step” for young singers after they finish their formal education?
RM: It depends on how much you want a career. While you are in the university, there are choruses and musicals. Do it! Have in mind, “Is this really what I want to do after I graduate?” And if it doesn’t happen after you graduate, then you go on to become something else. But if you have that feeling, that love for singing, if it’s there it’s going to break through and you take a crack at it. But you have to give up a certain number of years.
It’s difficult to do, but find that one teacher that works for you. When you do, know whether you are studying correctly. Someone can work with a teacher and not know whether they are making progress. Then you’re in trouble!
Get involved with people in the business; singers, etc. Learn through them. Go to the operas. Then ultimately you find an agent and other people who are interested in you. That’s how you build it!
Marion Merrill: I would assume that if singers are in a vocal program in college they must have had performing opportunities in school. The more experience you get the better, so there are always church jobs you don’t have to think that just because you want to be a classical singer or an opera singer that you can only earn money that way. Bob first started in the Catskill Mountains as a pop singer. He was earning the money to pay for the serious stuff.
RM: I was doing that to make a living but I was also enjoying it and growing, getting the experience. I reached the stage where I learned the Barber aria and I did it every Saturday night for the people [in the Catskills], so by the time I went to the stage to perform it I was ready.
MM: We know that there are several competitions that are going on like the Richard Tucker Music Foundation for one, which is excellent. The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia is also good. I think that if a young person has the talent, the background and feels prepared, he enters those sorts of things. If that comes through then that will lead you to agents and managers. That’s the way you have to go.
If you are not ready to compete there are plenty of places in the country where you can go in the summer for more training. There are also advanced programs such as the ones at the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools. New York is a great place to see and absorb a lot. I would say, listen, learn, get your experience if you haven’t had enough and get into it.
How does one choose repertoire and when do you know it is a good time to move into different things?
RM: You have to be honest with yourself and what you can do. When I came to the Metropolitan I was very young, 26 years old. I made my debut in La Traviata. I was the elder Germont but really the minor in the cast! Then the general manager at the time, Edward Johnson, offered me the Trovatore for the following year. I thanked him but said that I wasn’t ready for it. He said, “What do you mean not ready, we know you are!” But I said, “No, I’m sorry but when I am really prepared vocally and musically for it, I will do it.” So I didn’t do it. It was a feeling I had. Even my manager said, “Bob, don’t pass this up, you won’t get that chance again.” I said, “The better I get the more chances I will get!” I went into Lucia, Faust and so on until I built up for the harder roles. That’s what I did throughout my career.
MM: Bob was always very careful about what he was doing and when. He didn’t do Gioconda for eighteen years and Trovatore for twenty years and Otello after that. He was offered these parts and turned them down.
RM: Don’t listen to people, listen to yourself. People will tell you that you can do it but you have to know yourself. The young people today don’t wait. Throughout my career at the Met, I heard them do roles that they weren’t ready for, and they didn’t last.
MM: And stick to a repertoire. Today they jump around. The singers of today are great musicians, but they don’t progress slowly, grow into things and let their voices mature. And there is too much travel. The jet airplane is going to kill singers. The ability to get there quickly doesn’t necessary get you ready for the job vocally.
If you are a singer with things to offer the music but are still solving problems, should you pursue a career in the world or stop to “fix” the problems first?
MM: Bob devoted the first few years of his vocal training to only vocalizing and doing some very light singing in the Italian vocal anthology so that his technique was set. He wasn’t worried about things like not hitting this note, etc. He stayed with that for a long time before he advanced. All this he did with one teacher, Samuel Margoles.
RM: Prior to that there was another singer who sang locally and my mother sent me to him for a lesson. I came out of that lesson vocally tired and decided that I didn’t like it. I told my mother it was no good. Then my mother found Mr. Margoles through a friend of hers. I knew I had met the right teacher after my first lesson with him. It cost me ten dollars, and we couldn’t afford it so he gave me a six month scholarship. I continued to progress and remained with him for a lifetime!
MM: It took a few years to do all that technical building of the voice.
The old Russian School of piano teaching was the same way. They spend a year or two on nothing but scales and technical things. So in other words, once your technique is set, then you can go on to anything. If you are having technical problems then you are not ready or perhaps you haven’t learned things correctly.
RM: People will tell you all sorts of things but you’ll know. I had a pretty high voice with B flats and such. So for awhile people would hear me in the studio during my lessons and say that I was a tenor. Mr. Margoles would say that we should wait and see what progresses. I had a natural baritone sound but I had a great range. How long could I have sung as a tenor? I felt it and he felt it. Go by the nature of it. Instinct is very important in making your decisions.
Would you have preferred to have been a ball player, for the Yankees, maybe?
RM: Absolutely, I would love to have been a professional big leaguer but I wasn’t good enough. People that I played with later would say, “You know you’re lucky you had a voice because you’re not a very good ball player!” I would have missed singing because ball players’ careers are short. If I were playing now, though, I would be a millionaire!
MM: But he’s had the best of both worlds because he had the singing career and now he’s working with the Yankees.
RM: When I was eight years old they would take us to the stadium and let us in to sit in the outfield. I saw Babe Ruth. Well, he was the Caruso of baseball and I never forgot that feeling! When I walk out there and see the stadium, even now, I feel like a kid again!
Next month, the Merrills discuss balancing a family with a career, the demands of professionalism, and tactics for survival in the world of opera.
