r/opera

Hello all!

Tomorrow afternoon I am auditioning for my states primary opera chorus. It is a 6-minute time slot and I want to make sure I am fully prepared.

I have marked music for the accompanist and extra copies for the judges. I printed one large head shot on photo paper and will have a smaller picture set on the top of my resume that I will make multiple copies of.

It has been 6 years since I graduated with my BA in opera performance and I am just getting back into things. I am looking at my resume and everything is 6+ years old. My voice definitely isn’t what it was when I graduated, but I am going to start up lessons with an old voice teacher I used to work with soon.

Should I add a disclaimer at the bottom regarding the 6 year gap? Today my voice has been less than ideal and I am starting to lose it a bit so I have been on vocal rest since this afternoon. Should I cancel the audition? Would that be a worse look than just showing up and doing my best?

I appreciate you taking the time to read this far!

I love going to NY from my home base in NoVA - I've gone 6x in the last year. I'd really like to see Macbeth with Lise Davidsen, and will likely be on vacation the weekend it's streaming in theaters. So if I'm going to see her, I'll probably have to bite the bullet and go see it live. Do we think it's going to be so good that it's worth building a trip around??

Been awhile since I posted here, and even longer since I did a request thread, but right now I'm on a film noir kick and wondering if there's any opera that has those vibes of cynicism, corruption, fatalistic passion, crime and detection, urban decay, and smoky atmosphere. Even better if we have an actual gumshoe or a femme fatale. If there's a jazz score, even better, but it's not absolutely necessary.

The closest I can think of is Carmen, which doesn't meet every criteria (there's no way in hell you're going to confuse the early-1800's Seville of the show with mid-1900's New York, LA, or San Francisco), but is the ultimate femme fatale/criminally doomed love story. And the Threepenny Opera, which is about the affairs of a notorious criminal, has a heavy dose of cynicism, and has jazz elements in the score

Contraltos are not that rare in popular music and basses are the actual rare ones.

In classical music/opera it's the opposite it seems.

When I was a kid a family friend (RIP Don) was an opera enthusiast and he disliked Wagner and Gilbert & Sullivan with a passion. I didn't understand because I was still a kid but to think again I still don't understand 😅

When I was in college I hitchhiked in this guy's car and he said Gilbert & Sullivan stuff ain't true opera. What does that mean?

Interesting expose on Tosca. I hope this staging will surface somewhere on video.

I kind of find this charmingly in character for the city. The whole furry thing’s a bit mystifying to me but Seattle’s gonna Seattle.

I love these types of voices the most. Most baritone roles have been the brother, best friend, uncle and comic relief. Contralto roles also tend to be old women or villains.

It is going to be such a hoot for those four days next March. I can’t wait

Sondra Radvanovsky has withdrawn from the new production for personal reasons and will be replaced by Vida Miknevičiūtė.

I grew up going to the MET with my father in the late 70s I'm 62 now. Over the years subscriptions got more expensive and I moved away. Dad got sick and I moved back. We were fortunate that they started live in HD and we'd go to every performance. It was easier to get Dad to NJ and go to the movie theater than going all the way into Manhattan from Staten Island. Since he passed I try the rush lottery once in awhile and only won once for a new Spanish? Opera. I'm old school so I put in for Il Turandot 2 dates and La Traviata. I loved the Zeferelli productions and hate all this bland modern stuff. So I won Turandot for last night, and got orchestra seats for $25. It seemed on our side every row had two to three empty seats. Then today I won again for tomorrow? The performances were wonderful but I wasn't wowed by the vocals. Is that why these shows have such high availability? I find it also odd that three different singers sing the main roles? Maybe these singers aren't liked as much as the others? When did this start happening?

Great singing. In my opinion, the best Otellos ever along Plácido Domingo, José Cura, Mario del Monaco and Jon Vickers.

My fav part is the dancing skeletons they are so adorable for some reason ☠️ Isabel is astounding 🌺 Gabriella Reyes just wow 💀