Auditions On Saturday! I think I Am Ready!

I plan to audition Saturday for a musical revue at Poteet Theatre. Most of the directors who are directing revues of shows are people with whom I have worked in previous shows, and I am friends with most of them. With all of the buzzing on posts about spring recitals and similar things, I am rather jealous of that aspect of college life, but if I had to abandon performing in my usual surroundings for musical theatre, I do not think life would be nearly as fun for me. The audition itself shall not be difficult for me since I know most of these directors as friends, and I know that most of them think well of my talents. I would like to sing Con te partiro for my selection, but I do not know how well that would sit with the directors, but we shall see. I think that, even if they did not like my audition piece, if my voice sounds like I have worked and trained it to sound, then it will overcome any shortfalls I may have created with the judges. Let us hope so. Do not worry, though; I shall be prepared with another Broadway song if they ask me for another song to sing. Just pray for my dancing. Even though I took lessons, I am a terrible dancer! By the way, the director of Fiddler on the Roof is still looking for more men to round out her cast, so I might still do that show over the summer.

As for opera, I could only dream of auditioning with Che gelida manina from Puccini's La Boheme, which I probably could get by with any way I sung it since they have most likely never heard it, but this might be a little much for my first audition with a song in foreign language. I heard Bellini's La Sonnambula live from the Met on Saturday with Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez, and it was excellent! I could not think of a better performance, except perhaps for the exquisite pairing of Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti, which I think is on disc through London (Decca). Florez held the few lines he had in Ah, non credea mirarti... for a little longer than I have heard them sung by others, but they did provide a nice twist to the aria I have frequently heard. Natalie Dessay proved her stardom again as Amina, and she made us believe her character. I am not sure that I enjoy this new production's subplot, but the rest of it was innovative. Mary Zimmerman originally was going to put the story in a traditional setting of a Swiss village, but Dessay said that she did not want to do it that way. When Zimmerman realized this, she figured that she would just resign from the production, but then she had the idea of putting it in a rehearsal space instead, making the story much more relevant to today's audiences. I missed the Live in HD screening, giving me a record 0 for, what, 18 now, but I am not sure that it is not better that I just heard the music. Perhaps the "rest" of the story might have distracted me; despite this, I still would have liked to have seen Dessay and Florez singing while spinning on a bed! Was that not exciting? The radio audience never had a clue they were moving!

I cannot wait for Wagner's Ring cycle to begin next Saturday! It promises to be one of the great casts assembled for our generation. I long to hear Waltraud Meier and Christine Brewer and all of the rest of the grest artists singing this epic of operatic literature. When I first was exposed to opera, I thought Brunnhilde was the climax of every soprano's career, and if they could not sing it, they were not true sopranos. I know better now, but I cannot wait to hear all of this!

Thank you for continuing to read my posts. I hope they are as relevant and engrossing as they were when you began to peruse my musings.

-Tyler.

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