“You are your greatest asset. Put your time, effort and money into training, grooming, and encouraging your greatest asset.” Tom Hopkins
It’s not often that we have the pleasure of putting a recital program together and performing it. There is so much repertoire to peruse; so many delicious choices. And how it is structured needs to be paid close attention to.
One of the beauties of lieder and art song is that they each tell a complete story; they each have a beginning, a middle and an end. But Arias from opera on the other hand, usually let the character express what they are feeling right at that moment, so taken out of context, you have to put in your program notes in a much abbreviated way, what comes before and what happens after the aria so it does have context and meaning for the audience.
There are a couple of things to consider when putting a Recital Program together.
If you are new to the Recital process, it would be good to find someone to help you find the suitable pieces and composers for your program that fit your voice and fach.
As you start building your program make sure that you time each of your pieces then add around 4-5 minutes for each set, which is how long it will most times take for coming on stage and off between your sets. The first part of the program can be a bit longer than the second part. And you must keep in mind, it’s not just how long each piece runs time wise. You have to include the time it takes to come on stage, get settled, sing, take a small pause between pieces and then the bows after each group or set of songs, how long you take coming and going off stage between sets, etc. So my rule of thumb is no more than 30 minutes including all I have described above, for the first half of your program. The second half should be about 20 minutes including all I have described above. That leaves time for a 10 minute intermission and an encore. That way, the audience gets the benefit of an interesting and varied journey which is your ultimate job. We are story tellers. And you have to love that!!
There is no applause between the individual pieces of each set. At the end of each set/group you acknowledge your audience with a short and gracious bow. Then turn directly to your accompanist with an extended arm and hand, on your upstage side, so the audience knows it’s the accompanist turn to be appreciated, as this is a collaborative effort between the two of you. Then, as you turn back to the audience, you can very briefly nod to the audience once again and both you and the accompanist leave the stage together. Once off stage, take the time to mentally, and character wise, prepare for the next set.
In building a program, you need to capture your audience’s attention right off the bat; hook them in emotionally, so to speak, so they are enthusiastic and look forward to being part of this journey. Most times this first piece will fill as much time as each of your sets/groups of music that follow. It could even be a piece with a few other instruments besides the piano. Think early composers with all their brilliant, bravura pieces. Find one that is right for your voice fach and give it a whirl. You might just surprise yourself at how well the piece fits your voice. And I’m not suggesting that you should miss any interesting and beautiful music from other musical time periods. I myself have often sung “Ah Perfido” by Beethoven as my opening piece. Another benefit of learning a piece like this as an opener, is that moving forward with your career, it can usually be sung with orchestra.
So after your big opener, you go off stage and come back to do your first set. Here are some suggestions as to how you might choose these sets. You could do it by musical time periods from early composers through to even ending your recital with some really great musical theater pieces. Or perhaps by creating a story line, a thread that goes through all of your pieces like: Love songs through the ages; Life as it unfolds from childhood to death; or Nature, etc. Another point to keep in mind, build the energy of the whole recital by creating an emotional musical arch, a story line if you will, that with each set moves the energy from faster, to slower, then the next set would start with a softer, slower piece and build to a faster pace, then the next set starts with a faster pace again, etc. And you could replace your set before intermission with an aria. Lots of choices!
Then comes your encore. I suggest to my students that they look back in history to find some really great encores that the great singers of yesteryear used. They are sometimes kind of corny but usually also brilliant and witty and audiences love them.
So have fun with this process. Do a lot of research and build yourself a great recital program. Keep me in your loop. I love hearing from you and am finally figuring out how to use twitter (@CarolAriaReady).
Ciao until next time. Carol
