Opera in Concert chorus audition time

My email box was just hit with the announcement of the 2010-2011 Opera in Concert chorus auditions. Anyone in school, or new to Toronto may want to check them out. A lot of the soloists came up through there as it gives Guillermo Silva-Marin a chance to see what you're made of, as well as getting a chance to work with the excellent Robert Cooper. Plus, all of the comprimario and a lot of the small roles are filled from the chorus. Get on down and sing for them. The email is:

Please consider joining us this coming year or forward this along to a colleague or a student who might be interested and available.

The OIC Chorus under the expert musical direction of Robert Cooper has been a positive starting point for a great number of artists now enjoying a national and international solo performing career, among them, Bret Polegato, Monica Whicher, Jacklyn Short, Torin Chiles, Russell Braun, Isabel Bayrakdarian , Michele Bogdanowicz, Wallis Giunta and Giles Tomkins. All benefited from the Opera in Concert experience early in their careers.

It is part of Opera in Concert’s vision and mandate to promote the advancement of young Canadian soloists. Many of our chorus members are selected for solo assignments throughout the season.

The 2009-2010 Season was filled with passionate and thrilling music from LA DONNA DEL LAGO (The Lady of the Lake) by Gioacchino Rossini on October 25, 2009, 3 of Each GALA CONCERT on Nov 29, 2009, GIULIO CESARE by George Friderik Handel on Jan 31, 2010 and I PURITANI by Vicenzo Bellini on Mar 28, 2010…maintaining the trend of cutting-edge success so typical for Opera in Concert.

OIC’s 2010-2011 Season will present single performances of:

RUSLAN AND LYUDMILA by Mikhail Glinka on October 24, 2010
LA DAME BLANCHE by François-Adrien Boïeldieu on November 28, 2010
LA FEDELTA PREMIATA by Franz Josef Haydn on January 30, 2011 (no chorus in this opera)
THE DEVIL AND KATE by Antonín Dvořák on March 27, 2011

Join the Opera in Concert Chorus for the 2010-2011 Season and add OIC to your career development plans. Call OIC’s administration office to make an appointment.

Audition Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 starting at 5:00 pm
Place: Edward Jackman Centre: 947 Queen Street East, 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON M4M 1J9
Telephone: 416-922-2147
Website: www.operainconcert.com

Email: email@operainconcert.com

Please prepare 2 contrasting arias. OIC will provide you with an accompanist but you are welcome to bring your own.

Audition: Winnipeg

The Little Opera Company has just passed along their audition notice for their upcoming Dido and Aeneas co-production with the Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers. They'll be hearing singers on May 1st. To arrange a time, email auditions@littleopera.ca

The first company survey/profile: DragonDiva Operatic Theatre

About eight months ago I published a post wherein I talked about getting some of the small and medium sized companies to answer some questions so that I could put together profile posts of their companies on the blog to get a state of the industry for singers who haven't yet made the jump to A and B level houses. The thought was that, in addition to a little bit of PR for the companies involved, singers could have their questions answered without having to email every company to ask. I'm also willing to ask questions that most individuals don't. It's also a good, if brief, look at some of what goes in to setting up auditions and a production, as well as the costs involved. The answers are pretty much verbatim with the questions in bold and the responses following. As always, let me know if I've missed a question that you want answered.

Well, I may not be fast, but I'm slow. My friend and colleague John Arsenault, Music Director of DragonDiva Operatic Theatre has bravely volunteered to be the first one up. DragonDiva has been around since 2007 and is run by a dedicated group of singers who saw a gap in performance opportunities in Vancouver and actually decided to do something about it, for which they should be loudly applauded.


DragonDiva Operatic Theatre
Location served: New Westminster/Greater Vancouver Area
Number of productions/year: 2
2009/2010 season's operas: Iolanthe - Gilbert and Sullivan
Hansel and Gretel (in concert)- Humperdink
2010/2011 season's operas: Cendrillon - Massenet
Hansel and Gretel (staged) - Humperdink
Approximate annual (or per-production - please specify) budget. I know that it varies, but try to guess: Approximately $8,000-$10,000 per production
Rehearsal period length and frequency:Generally. we rehearse 3 times a week for 3 hours each rehearsal.
We rehearse in the evenings so as not to interfere with "day jobs". For a typical show we will have 2 weeks of music rehearsal, 5 weeks of staging, and a tech week.
Are rehearsals generally evenings or days? Evenings.
Number of performances per production: 4-7
Performance venue(s) and size:Mainly the Bernie Legge Theatre, Queen's Park, New Westminster.
What are your ticket price ranges?$18
Typically, are your productions with orchestra, piano, or small instrument ensemble with piano?Sometimes piano, sometimes piano with small ensemble.
Are your roles paid? Lead roles? Secondary? Small roles? Chorus?Unfortuately not. We are only a 3 year old company and are still building our "nest egg". We just beacame eligible for grants last year, and so were able to offer the value of the grant to our cast as an honorarium (approximately $50 each). It certainly wasn't much, but maybe covered some gas money for trips to rehearsals. We are very much working toward paying our singers, as we strongly believe in performers being paid what they are worth. Our board has four regularly working singers on it, and our Artistic and Music Directors are both professional opera singers, so we certainly value our casts.
Do you have a relationship with Actor's Equity/Union des Artistes?No (and yes) see below.
Regardless of a relationship or not, how does Equity effect your management of your company?We are absolutely limited at the moment. The Artistic and Music Directors are Equity members. We often have colleagues who we work with in a professional capacity who are interested in taking principal roles with our company, however at this time, with an $8-10K budget per production, there's no money left for Equity contracts. Of course we hope to change that in future. So at this point, the artist has to approach Equity to ask for permission to do our show. Equity has been quite gracious so far, but at some point the grace period will end.
What is the typical level/amount of performing experience that your lead and secondary singers have?Generally our leads are graduates of a university level opera training program, or at least current students in an opera training program. Our secondary roles are often either students or avocational singers, but sometimes they are also graduates of university level training programs as well. It really depends on the show, for example a G&S show tends to bring out a different kind of singer than say, Cendrillon!
When do you hold auditions? Generally in the spring of each year (March or April)
Who do you want to hear from when you audition singers? Established artists? Fresh faced kids hungry to prove something? Anyone who wants to be in a show. We've had everything from high school students to seasoned performers to emerging young professionals in our shows. We think everyone brings something valuable to the table.
How far in advance do you cast? We cast about 3 months in advance of the first rehearsal.
How far in advance do you choose productions? We have a general 5 year plan. So, we know what we would like to do over the next five years, but we finalize approximately one year in advance. Sometimes it is necessary to change the show depending on our current financial situation.
When you audition, do you want to hear arias from the operas you're casting, or not at all? We're open to hearing arias from the opera. However, I want the singer to sing what they feel shows off their voice the best. You don't need to sing the aria from the show for us to hear whether your voice will fit it or not. So, I encourage people to sing what they sing best. However, if you feel that the aria is a great fit for you and you would us to hear it, I certainly am not opposed to that either.
How often do cast members get re-cast in other productions if they do well in their first one? It is impossible to hear a singer and discuss their potential casting in a show without remembering the excellent (or not so excellent) work they have done for you in pervious productions. I would say it is quite influencial. Often you will have someone in a supporting role in one show, and if they do a really great job and they are vocally appropriate for the lead next time, we certainly would tend to consider them for a bigger role.
In an audition: Sing it or act it?A little of both. Sing as you would sing in any other performance. You don't need to go over the top with the drama, but please look alive. Our director is very capable and can show you what to do on stage, but we do want to see that you can be engaged and present in your performance.
What else would you like singers to know about your company?We would like singers to know that DragonDiva is a company that LOVES singers. We are here because we are professional opera singers ourselves and we know how difficult it is when you are starting out to find opportunities to get on stage and hone your craft. We do regret that we can't offer compensation at this time, but we will not ask you to pay any fees to be in our shows. We do fully staged productions with sets, props, professional lighting, newly built costumes and though we do our shows with piano rather than orchestra we hire one of the top opera pianist in our city, who is also on staff at Vancouver Opera. We also make DragonDiva a safe and collegial working environment, where a singer can feel comfortable with themselves no matter what their current level of experience.

Free Classical Singer subscription

Alright, I suck. It's kind of been a busy month and the blog's fallen by the wayside but at least I'm back with something good:

Classical Singer magazine, which started out life as The New York Opera Newsletter and was really the only place to get opera audition listing for a very long time (until Yap Tracker,) and who's forum spawned NFCS after some bad blood between some members, has a pretty great deal surfacing via their Twitter account: A free subscription to the web service.

By going to www.ClassicalSinger.com/onefree.php and signing up you get access to a number of things but most importantly the Audition Listings and the Magazine Archive. The audition listings are great because, although they're not as thorough as Yap Tracker's they are purely company submitted so you know when you send a package off to a company listed that they want to receive it. The catch is that it's only for the first month after which it's $12/year (regularly $52/year so there's that).

But for my money, the real gem is the magazine archive (which doesn't go away after a "trial" period). Here's why:

For a long, long time, before the Opera America Career Guide books (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should!) everyone who was anyone who wrote articles for auditioning singers wrote them here. To be honest, most of it was before my day but in the short time that I've been looking through them, there are some really great thoughts put to paper from people who know what they're talking about.

Long story short, use the link. Sign up. It couldn't get any easier!

College Faculty positions

Speaking of today's audition finding post and not wanting to slight any opera stage managers out there, the Equity newsletter just sent out a notice for a stage manager job - a faculty position at Douglas College. Head on over to the College website for details!

Updated: Now that I check it, they're also looking for voice (and other instrument) instructors as well!

Finding Auditions

It just occurred to me today as I scanned my inbox that while I had mentioned YAP Tracker before, the fantastic subscription site that brings together virtually every opera audition worldwide, (email me, or leave a comment below with your email address, to get a 10% off discount,) I hadn't yet mentioned the other great place to find audition information: Equity Online.

Canadian Actor's Equity Association runs an email mailing list that forwards audition information about Equity shows that are casting in the near future. To sign up all that you need to do is go to Equity Online and fill out the form. Many of you will want to tweak your email filters to limit the number of notifications that you get about, say for instance Stage Manager calls (unless of course you're a stage manager,) but in general, it couldn't get more convenient than having audition notices delivered to your inbox.

"But I'm not an Equity member" you might say. Well good news: You don't have to be. Just remember to respect the audition rules surrounding Equity roles and you can apply to any of the postings that come through, Equity or not. Just don't go applying for too many bass roles....

My favourite time of the blogging year

Ahh, it's that time again! Kim Whitman over at the Wolf Trap Opera Blog is gearing up for audition season. If you're unfamiliar with it this means that from now until the Wolf Trap audition tour is over, this blog should be visited daily by every singer out there, Canadian or not. Right now we're in the middle of the "Fall 2009 Audition Season Mini Course" covering everything from Depth vs. Breadth in choosing audition rep, to a guest professional every Friday weighing in on their take on auditioning. All of culminates, of course, in a daily run down of what she sees during the auditions and the famed "Aria Frequency List" detailing how many of what aria was offered at this year's auditions, (last year's is here). Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic! Go Now!

Competition season

With competition season upon us, it's time to brush up on the little ins and outs that make competitions different from an audition. For most, auditions mean that you're up against a small handful of people for a specific role whose requirements are often nebulous: Tall, short, fat, skinny, smooth tone, comedic - who knows what's wanted for this particular production. For me, particularly as a bass, it also means that my competition is limited to those within my voice type. In an open competition, especially an international comp., there are a lot of other factors at play.

One of the best singer blogs out there, Jean-Roland LaFond's "Toreadorssong's Vocal Technique Blog," covers some of the factors at play here in a recent post. An example from the post:

Know the politics of the situation

The French-Quebec prize was given to a young French coloratura. The prize is a series of concerts sponsored by the Quebec organization directed by said judge. The same coloratura was indubitably edged out in the mélodies category by a fanstastically gifted French baritone who received well-deserved bravos for his performance. However the two prizes for that category (1st and 2nd) where changed to two first prizes, and the soprano was announced first. The same soprano was also a finalist in the opera category and was given first place in the female category although a Russian coloratura with a near flawless technique edged her out, in my opinion. It might have appeared strange if she had also won the overall grand prize. That honor went to a French-Chinese soprano. The prize was announced by the mayor of the town who reminded the audience that this soprano had sung the soprano lead in The Pearl Fischers two years before in the town where the competition takes place.

This entire blog is a fantastic look at vocal technique from one of the modern day gods of technical vocal workings. I never read his blog that it doesn't give me something to think about vocally but check this post out for a first hand account of some of the concepts surrounding competitions.

Winning International Voice Competitions via Toreadorssong's Vocal Technique Blog

Video of ENO auditions

Okay, admit it. You've really wondered if international A level house auditions look the same as the auditions that you've been doing, especially if they've not been international A level house auditions. Apparently, they do.

English National Opera has been (fantastically!) posting video all the way along of their production of Carmen and some of the first video is of the audition process. They have a couple of videos, here, of David Kempster singing for Escamillo and Julian Gavin singing for Don Jose. Interestingly, neither of them wears a tie.....

North Toronto Players auditions

I just got an email letting me know about auditions for the North Toronto Players and their upcoming version of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore. This is a community group with some very good local singers involved in it and it's non-paying except for a couple of available slots for some Equity singers under the Amateur Agreement. For more information, contact my friend and one time opera wife (Marcellina to a Bartolo,) Karen Bojti at karen.bojti@rogers.com

Shaw Festival singing auditions

The Shaw Festival is holding auditions for both acting and singing, in September. For the singing auditions they want one monologue and two contrasting pieces, one of which needs to be a traditional musical theatre piece. For more information, see here.

Off to the movies

For those of you who missed it, Saturday's Met broadcast into the 83 movie theatres across the country was not, as has been for the past two years, a full length opera. The Audition featured a behind the scenes look at last year's Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, or the Met Competition as it's known to singers across North America. This was a chance for young singers (and old) as well as the general opera-going public to see just what goes on back stage at a high level competition where thousands of dollars and major career opportunities are on the line. A definate must watch. Find show times and get tickets (if they're not already sold out,) for the repeat performance on June 15, 7pm (EST, I think,) here.

Opera Kitchener Auditions

Opera Kitchener looks like they're holding auditions in June for next season and beyond. They'll be held in Brampton and Kitchener June 17-20. Just visit their audition page here to sign up. They're looking for soloists and chorus and tend heavily towards non-Equity singers. The 09/10 season looks like this:
Cosi fan tutte (Mozart) - October 3 & 4 - 2009
Die Fledermaus (Strauss) - January 2, 3, 9 - 2010
Madama Butterfly (Puccini) - March 14, 15, 26 - 2010

I've worked with them a few times when they were Brampton Lyric Opera and they're a great company. Full orchestra and costumes with performances not only in Kitchener but actively selling their shows all over the GTA so there are typically multiple performance opportunities.