We’re pleased to welcome Joseph Volpe, general director of the Metropolitan Opera, to Classical Singer. Many of the questions Cristina Necula asked him in this interview were submitted in response to the e-mail sent out to the Classical Singer community. [To sign up for the free e-mail, go to our home page, www.classicalsinger.com.] We are grateful for his candid responses to those questions and hope it will demystify a bit of the process of singing at the Metropolitan Opera, and also the process of getting into the Met’s Young Artists Program. Thanks to Mr. Volpe, Gayletha Nichols and Cristina Necula for making it all happen.
One of the strong possibilities as a first career step for a singer out of college used to be the European audition trip. This is where many singers cut their proverbial operatic baby teeth in small opera houses outside of the critical eye and then would burst onto the American opera scene as an “overnight” discovery. [Read Jennifer Larmore’s interview of June 2002 as an example.] Since the Berlin Wall came down, it has not been so easy for Americans to find work in Europe. But as this issue will show, it is still possible—singers are being hired in Europe—not just from America but from all over the world.
We wanted to let you know that Classical Singer is now carrying the European equivalent of Musical America. It is called Deutsches Bühnen Jahrbuch. (It is written entirely in German —but you already know not to do the auditions until you are fluent in German, correct?!) In the book you will find all the contact information you need for managers, opera houses, language schools, theaters, orchestras, festivals, choirs and more. [As I wrote this, I thought of all the singers who are new to the Classical Singer community and don’t know about Musical America either. This is a very large book which is published once a year and is like the yellow pages for musicians. If you are near a college, you can see a copy in the library. Every musician who is seriously building a career needs a copy. If you are a subscriber to CS, you can get them at a discounted price of $65. (The price for non-subscribers is $70.) Just call our office. Even with the discount they are expensive, but you might not need to get one every year.]
I also wanted to tell you about a wonderful translating service which may interest some of you who have to get an aria/song/opera translated quickly and don’t have access to a coach right away. I just tried it out and had wonderful results. It is called www.elance.com. If you need something translated (or actually just about any service performed for you), you simply post your project and people bid on it. I was able to get two archaic aria songs translated both poetically (beautifully) and word-for-word for $50. The translator corrected the misspellings on the archaic Italian and gave me a translation which could’ve been used for supertitles, it was done so well. I typed in the text, and within hours I had my translation. He also faxed me the phonetic symbols which I didn’t need, but I thought it was a very nice touch. I’m not sure how many languages can be translated via elance. (Can they translate this Czech opera I have coming up?) Only two people bid on my project in Italian so I don’t know. Payment is done via credit card on the Internet through elance, only when you are satisfied with the work. You can also get bids for elance people to do all kinds of other jobs for you.
I hope you enjoy the issue!
CJ Williamson, Editor
cjw@classicalsinger.com
P.O. Box 95490, South Jordan, UT 84095
