This article is part of the July 2022 issue of Classical Singer magazine. Click HERE to read all of the articles from this issue or visit the Classical Singer Library.
Thinking of auditioning as “giving a gift” rather than trying to get a job creates a new mindset for positive audition experiences. Read on to find out ways to embrace comfortable repertoire and processes for career advancement.
Springtime in New York is host to a wide range of career-advancing performances, including competitions and industry showcases. This spring I attended a number of these performances and, as always, each one was a learning experience. Here I’m going to focus on two events centering on vocal performances, and both attended by industry insiders—including Broadway and opera casting executives, agents, and “civilian” audience members.
At the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition Grand Finals Concert, star soprano and 2009 winner of the competition, Nadine Sierra, served as the event’s host and guest artist. The 10 finalists each had two opportunities to share their meticulously honed interpretations of 20 arias. I enjoyed the concert from the first row of the grand tier and had an excellent view of conductor maestro Marco Armiliato and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and a direct view into the stage left downstage wing.
I love seeing singers in that moment—the dying applause for the last singer, a brief moment of quiet, and then the polite applause greeting them. I breathe for them and project all sorts of feelings and physicalized memories onto them. The Metropolitan Opera House is a cavernous space, daunting to newcomers and many veterans of its stage. And I couldn’t help but wonder how each singer was steadying themself in those moments of pregnant silence before the downbeat. And this really got me thinking about feeling comfort, safety, and freedom onstage.
As a voice teacher in a musical theatre program, I’m always banking observations from operas and other vocal concerts to share with my MT students preparing repertoire that’s largely different and usually much newer and that frequently demands different applications of resonances. I knew that after the Grand Finals Concert, I figured I’d be sharing with my college students about the power of preparation and pacing—which I did.
But I was also so taken by Nadine Sierra’s singing of “È strano! è strano!…Ah fors’è lui…Sempre libera degg’io” from La Traviata while the judges deliberated. The ease with which she executed the pyrotechnics of the piece while moving so naturally across the stage made it seem somehow much smaller than it had just been for the 10 finalists. And this brought to mind what I’d seen two weeks earlier at the height of senior showcase season—the period in spring in which agents & managers attend musical theatre program capstone concerts.
Collegiate showcases like these are frequently the culmination of an accompanying showcase course in which a wide variety of repertoire is experimented with and ultimately chosen. Compared to honing a five-aria package over the course of (usually) a bachelor’s and a graduate degree or two, the process is largely different. Each year, I see how this rapid rate of rep change helps emerging singing actors diversify and familiarize themselves with their physicality while singing.
I asked one of my seniors in the Pace University BFA Musical Theater program, Liam Pearce, to share with me a bit on how he chose his showcase repertoire and the experience overall: “I had to sing a song that made me feel like a rock star on stage. I had to do something that let me fully be in my body as a front man in a rock band.” He continued that this strategy was based on a combination of his psychology and how he wants to be perceived.
“I knew if started with something I felt comfortable with, whatever I chose for my second song, I would [feel] grounded—which I did, even though I was literally jumping around the stage. I felt so grounded coming from that because I feel most comfortable singing like Elton John or Queen or Harry Styles or Led Zeppelin. I feel most comfortable with a mic in my hand, jumping around a stage doing that. Once I finished that, going into ‘Come To Your Senses’—which is a song I picked just because I love the music of Jonathan Larson and that song just moves me—I [felt comfortable] to sing something that meant a lot to me.”
To explore this further, I reached out to my friend and colleague Lisa Brescia, associate professor at Stephens Conservatory for the Performing Arts. Brescia has headlined on Broadway as Elphaba in Wicked, Donna in Mamma Mia and, most recently, as Heidi Hansen (Evan’s mom) in Dear Evan Hansen, to name a few.
“I confess that I’m generally much more comfortable when playing a character, when there has been a full rehearsal process for a production, when I’ve had ample time to engage in script analysis, character development and in-person rehearsals to make discoveries with other actors. As a singing actor in concert, I feel much more vulnerable to negative self-awareness as it’s more ‘Lisa singing/acting songs.’ I’ve found that the more preparation I do for concerts that goes beyond the technical preparation as a singer, the more I delve into the intention and actions of the song, the more comfortable I feel in the concert work.” I asked Lisa to share some advice on performing in less than comfortable situations (e.g., in a small audition room, without benefit of rehearsal process and scene partners).
She responded, “Remember that when auditioning, you are a potential solution to their problem, which is fabulous! The people behind the table want you to succeed so that they can do their jobs well. If an artist can approach an audition like an offering, as a chance to give a gift rather than get a job, it may be helpful.”
Brescia’s advice on gift giving can also be applied to what Pearce reported about his showcase experience—the gift can also be one that we give to ourselves. And there can be more than one gift. I can give myself a gift too through my repertoire selection while simultaneously offering a potential solution to a listener with casting and signing and responsibilities.
Wherever you are on the crossover spectrum, I encourage you to consider the process of gift giving as part of your practice. Start by asking yourself the following:
- How can I do more of what makes me feel safest?
- What kind of pieces can I sing more of in order to make routine these feelings and thoughts into my body?
- How can I make them into a standardized part of my regular practice routine?
Get creative and try a mash-up: maybe vocalizing the first line of “Deh vieni, non tardar” puts you in the right head (voice) space for Sondheim. Next, make a list of the things you feel restricted from doing, whether it’s because of an old jury sheet with a comment you’ve given too much power to or a false narrative of “I shouldn’t.” Then make an easy to remember and easy to accomplish plan for your practice aimed at replacing a restriction or two. A gift I give myself is shifting my repertoire down a few keys and warming up on it. Here I lower the stakes a bit and trick my body and brain out of some habits of excessive tension and move with a different freedom.
What will you do to create new physical references to draw from the next time you’re up there?
