We all know them.
The 40-year-old soprano who’s been using the same headshot for 10 years, who sends out 20-year-old demos, convincing herself that nobody notices the wrinkles and the wobble invading the beauty of her youthful image and tone.
The light lyric baritone who’s dragged his once supple, attractive voice through three Fach changes in as many years and is currently the devoted acolyte of a teacher widely acknowledged as a complete hack.
The wonderful mezzo who’s stuck doing character roles, because she needs to lose 30 pounds and fix her top register before anyone will hire her for the Carmens she should really be singing.
The talented tenor who spends thousands of dollars on teachers, coaches, workshops, consultations, demos, auditions, you name it—and still can’t get a job, because he insists on marketing himself as Calaf when he’s at best a Goro.
All these singers have something in common. They lack a realistic perception of their talent, abilities and place in the market. Often they are frustrated, sad, even bitter—constantly searching, constantly overspending their financial, temporal and personal resources in the quest for that increasingly elusive Magic Pill that is going to unlock the key to career success.
And there but for the grace of God go you and I. Or do we?
What does it take to be a successful singer? Do you have it? If you don’t have it right now, do you have a reasonable expectation of getting it in a reasonable amount of time? How much of your time, money and personal resources have you dedicated to this pursuit so far, and how much more are you planning on giving?
These are questions all singers should ask themselves on a regular basis. Most of us do not enter the singing profession thinking of it as a business undertaking as well as an art form. Most of us spend so much time and energy focusing on developing our talent. We become so wrapped up in our progress that we forget to notice how we stand in relationship to the singers who are actually getting the jobs we want. Many of us fail to give much thought to our own definition of success, or to the steps we must take to achieve that success.
How can we develop a good sense of self-perception? How can we avoid beating our heads against the doors of the opera companies and symphony halls?
Take inventory
“Singers have a very hard time being completely aware of their talent/skill level because they are their instrument,” says Michael Ching, composer and general director of Memphis Opera.
It’s true. It can be very difficult to divorce statements and feelings about your voice from statements and feelings about you as a person, and this stands in the way of many a performer. It’s an essential and delicate skill, however—to self-evaluate with as cold and unemotional an eye you can muster, without losing touch with the unique mix of talent, ability, and personality that makes you an artist.
How can you figure out how to market yourself—to agents, to opera companies, to your fan base—if you don’t know what your true strengths and weaknesses are?
Start by taking inventory. Before I meet with a new consultation client, I ask them to fill out a questionnaire that encourages them to think about who they are as an artist. Ask yourself what you like about your voice. What don’t you like? List the top 10 things that make your voice unique. Use the juiciest adjectives you can find.
What do you sing well and what is more challenging for you? Do you still have areas of technical difficulty, and how serious are they? Can you overcome them 99 percent of the time, or are you still inconsistent? What kind of feedback do you get from your audition arias? Do you notice any patterns or recurring themes? What are your areas of frustration associated with auditioning—specifically, with your performances and the results?
How’s your acting? Do people comment more on that than your singing? Does it come naturally to you, or do you often feel frustrated or confused, not sure of how to fulfill a director’s vision? Given the choice between a scenery-chewing, rolling-on-the-floor, blood-and-guts dramatic role or a rippingly funny comedic part that would be sure to have the audience howling with tears of laughter, which would you choose? Or would you be completely torn?
How do you look when you go to auditions? Does your physique suit the types of roles you sing best? Do you dress the part? Are you aware of what you’re doing with your body while you sing, how you carry yourself, and what image you project? Are you sure?
Teachers, coaches, YAP (Young Artist Program) administrators, other singers, audience members and even critics can offer valuable insight and feedback into your performances. Listen for consensus, and listen with a basis of knowledge that you yourself have developed about your own abilities. But mostly, listen with a grain of salt.
“If you believe the good reviews, you also have to believe the bad ones,” says my friend Gary Rideout, a tenor who’s had enough of both (with the good far outweighing the bad, in both number and substance) to have developed the necessary discernment.
Soprano Cheryl Evans sums it up beautifully. “You have to think for yourself with your own brain. I see too many singers dutifully going to lessons and just doing what their teacher says, without being engaged themselves, or asking why and how. Your teacher may have all the answers —but sometimes to get the answers, you have to ask the questions,” she says. Explore every area, every aspect of your package as a performer. Make lists. Get to know who you are—who you believe you are—and don’t just rely on what your teacher and your coach tell you. Remember, you are in charge of your talent and your career. Question the answers!
Use the right measuring stick
Recently, I met a singer who feels he is ready to move up a step professionally, and has what seemed like reasonable goals, given his background and experience. Yet when I heard him perform, it became apparent that as intelligent as this person is, he is basing his expectations on his recent progress rather than any realistic comparison to singers who are already out there being paid to sing the roles this person hopes to be hired to sing. Furthermore, while the singer has clearly given a lot of attention to vocal development, he has ignored the importance of developing physical and dramatic skills. He has no idea how uncomfortable and disconnected from the character he seems when he’s singing. Sadly, this person, though not lacking in talent, is far from being ready to move to the next level.
What is this singer’s mistake? Quite simply, he is over-focused on one aspect of his artistic development, and not paying enough attention to the competition. If he were familiar with the skill levels of the people who are working at the level he currently aspires to attain, he might have a better perception of what he needs to do to get there.
It’s important to listen to other singers with an analytical ear. In her must-read book, Complete Preparation (Excalibur Publishing, New York), Joan Dornemann titled an entire chapter “Analyze, Don’t Criticize.” Ms. Dornemann discusses the importance of working in groups and learning to interpret what you hear; not only in other singers’ performances but also in what they do and don’t say about your own.
“Part of the reason that singers don’t get better faster is that they don’t know how to listen, how to interpret their teachers and their coaches. And they don’t know how to digest and use the information they do get,” Ms. Dornemann writes. “Has nobody out of twenty people mentioned your high notes after you sang Queen of the Night? Did not one person mention the quality of your voice, even at least as being interesting? Did nobody say anything about your low notes, your acting, your phrasing, your language? What comment was missing?”
Michael Ching agrees. “I think one of the most useful things a singer can do is try to figure out a way to hear other singers in audition—singers of their age range and singers of their voice type.”
It’s a terrific idea, if difficult to implement. I have recently begun to have more opportunities to hear singers in audition-type settings, and it is enormously educational. It’s true—as Darren Keith Woods, Fort Worth Opera general director, avows—that you can tell whether you like a voice within the first five measures of the aria. It’s also true that far too many singers have no idea what they are doing physically while they sing. They have not rehearsed or even planned very much the dramatic aspects of their performances.
Outside of a YAP, pay-to-sing, or some other type of program, it may be difficult to hear many auditions (except through a door), but the principle can be applied to other situations. Hang around after your own audition—and listen through the door. Form an audition practice group with your friends and take turns pretending to sit on the panel, or induce the occasional “celebrity guest” (local coaches, conductors, voice teachers, higher-level singers) to attend by proffering a nice bottle of wine or other appropriate bribe.
Attend as many live performances as you can—operas, recitals, choral and symphony concerts, anything with a soloist. Don’t restrict yourself to classical music, either. One of the most educational and inspiring concerts I ever attended was Patti LuPone’s cabaret act at the Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles. What a performer! What a lesson in stage presence, interpretation, creating character! Those lessons can be applied to any genre of singing. I count myself lucky if I can put a little bit of Patti into my operatic performances.
Watch performances on DVD and video. Go to the library and play drop-the-needle with some of those fabulous older recordings. And always, always, analyze. What do you like about a performance and why? What qualities do you find yourself neglecting to mention? What do these performers have that you don’t, and vice versa?
Figuring out where you fit in the market is part of your homework as a singer and a businessperson. So is knowing your competition, not only who they are, but what they are up to. If you are a young dramatic coloratura just out of your first YAP, Ruth Ann Swenson and Elizabeth Futral are not your competition—they are your inspiration and your aspiration. Your competition is Suzanne Ramo, a former Adler Fellow whom San Francisco Opera recently brought back to sing the Queen of the Night. Your competition is Georgia Jarman, a favorite at New York City Opera and the Caramoor Festival. Your competition is Amanda Pabyan, an alumna of Santa Fe, Glimmerglass, and the Vilar Young Artists Program in Washington, D.C. who recently made her City Opera debut.
If you don’t know who these people are, Google them. Thanks to the Internet, it’s fairly easy to find out who is singing what for whom. You should be asking yourself about the competition every day. What makes them special, these singers who got your job? Why were they hired instead of you?
Dare
Now, here’s the tricky part. For every quality you can put on a list of “essentials” for creating a successful singer, you can find stars and everyday working singers out there who are missing big chunks of that list. Those who succeed in spite of rather than because of often achieve greatness—and those among us destined for stardom don’t need any list. Besides, the lack of some important qualities that certainly make a career easier—such as good physical and mental health, support of family and spouse, even the lack of a beautiful tone or acting ability—is an impediment that many singers overcome. How do they do it? They find a way to handle the difficulties imposed on them, and they have other special and engaging qualities that compensate for what’s missing.
What are your special qualities, or more importantly, your special combination of qualities? The next step after creating your personal inventory is to figure out how you can develop those qualities and use them to your greatest advantage. Perhaps that means finding roles that point up your freakishly high extension and allow you dramatic reign. Maybe it means combining your early music vocalism and stylistic acumen with your crackerjack musicianship to carve a niche as the singer to call for world premieres of difficult new scores or remountings of lesser known early works; or playing up your passion for Slavic languages and vocal literature as more companies mount Czech and Russian repertoire. Look for trends in casting and in productions being mounted, and identify what needs you can fill.
“When I go to auditions, many singers are ‘hireable,’ but the one that gets the job usually has a special uniqueness: a stage personality, a vocal color, great acting ability,” says Michael Ching. “At the risk of eccentricity, we need to cultivate what makes us unique.”
Mirror, Mirror … You are Cracked!
This advice may seem quite contradictory. Try to divorce your singing from who you are so you can evaluate—but don’t detach so far that you become an automaton. Listen to your advisers—but don’t listen too much. Make sure you meet the qualifications (which are hazy to begin with)—but don’t worry too much if you don’t have them.
The fact is, there is no One True Path to a successful singing career.
There is no Magic Pill.
What is there? There’s your talent, your skill set, your business acumen, your personality, your ability to turn your unique combination of qualities into something people want to see and hear—along with a whole lot of hard work and a whole lot of luck.
What are you waiting for? Take a look in the mirror, take a deep breath, and get out there. Show us what you’ve got.
