I spoke in a meeting recently with three fellow women who are good friends and also 10 to 15 years older than I am. Before the meeting began, we exchanged chitchat while reviewing our notes. One of the women jokingly asked that we please not judge her by the size 16 font on her page. It was either enlarge her text or wear her reading glasses, which she frankly refused. The second woman laughed that she had a size 14 font. The third woman confessed that her everyday glasses were actually bifocals. Then, flaunting my Times New Roman 12, I bragged that I was still young.
Upon further prodding, however, I divulged that I was wearing contact lenses (I have worn glasses since the third grade). So while I could read my notes sans contacts, without corrective eye wear I wouldn’t be able to find my way to the podium.
In the end we all needed something—whether a bigger font size, bifocals, or contacts—to help us focus, to see clearly, and to accomplish the task at hand. Likewise, in life we often need something external to help us to internally see things more clearly—or, in Oprah Winfrey’s vernacular, an “aha moment” (a term recently added to the Merriam Webster Dictionary).
While attending the Young Artist Series at last May’s Classical Singer Convention, I didn’t have just one aha moment but many as I listened to William Florescu, general director of the Florentine Opera. His presentation on auditioning was chock full of gems of wisdom that turned the light on and brought new ideas into focus. As another audition season is well underway, here are a few of his gems, along with corresponding articles in this issue, which will hopefully help you see things a little more clearly, too.
“Failure is what we are programmed to expect.”
When it takes 20 to 30 auditions to get one “yes,” the “no”s become very familiar and, unfortunately, expected. Soprano Laurie Rubin knows all too well the reality of “no.” And yet, for her, the “no” often comes when others misjudge her abilities. You see, Rubin is blind and, despite the many “no”s, she has persevered to find those who will say “yes” (p. 58).
“We should judge the success of our audition on how we performed, not if we got the job.”
For years, mezzo-soprano Jean Madiera (p. 48) longed to sing at the Met. She was enjoying an international career, and her Carmen reviews were what many singers would die for. But that role was spoken for at the Met, and Madiera had to wait years before she could get the job she wanted.
“Most people are better artists if they have a life.”
Soprano Susanna Phillips, featured in this month’s cover story (p. 26), learned this lesson early, thanks to sage advice from an aunt. When Phillips was on the fence about a Juilliard education, her aunt told her to do it—she could always do something else later if she wanted. Phillips says that keeping that in mind has added balance and perspective to her life and career. There is more beyond singing, and “it’s totally fine to go off and do something else if the sacrifices are ever too much or I’m unhappy doing it.”
“It’s the singer’s job to keep himself in the mind of the general director. That is how you get rehired and that’s the challenge of the business.”
Your first impression often starts with your initial résumé (p. 40) and headshot, and sometimes a recording (p. 44). Then hopefully comes an in-person audition and, even better, a job offer. But once hired, how do you continue to make a good impression? It often comes down to many simple rules of etiquette, which Greg Waxberg lays out beautifully on p. 22. The stories from hiring agents of things to do and to not do will astound.
For even more vision-changing ideas on auditioning from Florescu, see his article on p. 18 of this issue. Allowing others’ thoughts to focus and clarify our own can often make all the difference.
