On Wed, 3 May 2000, Lisa M Olson wrote:
>
> Hi all! I am finding that I'm singing (practicing and in lessons) better
than I ever have in my life! This is good.
>
> HOWEVER, I have done a couple of auditions since I moved to Chicago and I
find that I get completely flustered and lose all sense of purpose and
concentration. I pull back (in fear of being judged or rejected, I suppose.)
I've been given this comment in auditions and competitions before. And they
say that there is good potential, but I still need some work. I always want to
say "if only you could hear me in my lessons!!!!"
>
> I'm wondering, how do all of you "psyche yourselves up" for auditions and
competitions. I am a good performer, unless I feel I'm being judged (which is
after all the POINT of auditions).
>
> Any ideas would be appreciated!
In the days/weeks before the audition, I really psyche myself into not
caring that much about the outcome. I tell myself all the reasons I would
rather NOT get the role I'm auditioning for - inconvenience of rehearsal
location/times, desire to do something else (a different role, a vacation,
etc.), all the trouble it will be to learn new music, etc. I work very
hard to persuade myself that this audition is nothing more than an
exercise - just a chance to get up and show off in front of some people
(like any other performance). The objective, of course, is to not care
very much about the audition, and to stop seeing it in terms of a
life-or-death judgement on my abilities.
The other thing is to be as well prepared as possible. I am always
tempted to try out new audition pieces, but in the end I never do.
Instead, I fall back on "old tried and true". That is, those pieces I can
perform in my sleep with both hands tied behind my back - preferably arias
I've performed at least a half-dozen times in non-audition situations.
The auditions I hate most are the ones where you have to audition with
some specific piece that isn't in your repertoire - I have one such
audition coming up, and the only saving grace is that the non-repertoire
piece has to be a folk song, and I used to sing lead in a folk band, so
it's just a matter of choosing an "old favourite" that will show off my
vocal and interpretive ability, and for which I can find a decent
pianistic arrangement. I'm pretty close to settling on the Vaughan
Williams arrangement of "The Turtle Dove", with Aunt Jane's ballad-aria
from Vaughan Williams' ballad opera HUGH THE DROVER as an alternate
offering (the music director I'm auditioning for is a bit odd, and likes
to be given several different pieces to choose from). In addition, he
wants arias "in the style" of the other two operas he will be doing - one
by Donizetti and one by Charles Strouse. Knowing he does all his operas
in English, I know it doesn't matter so much if I sing an aria in Italian
- rather I need to be sure I have something Bel Canto. As for the Charles
Strouse - well, I have to wing that one, because the only Charles Strouse
works I know are his musicals RAGS and FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON - I'm totally
unfamiliar with his operas. I figure my standard English-language aria
(Menotti) will have to do for that requirement.
Which brings up another thought on being well prepared: learn as much as
you can about the expectations and tastes of the director and music
director you will be auditioning for. I made the mistake, with one
director, of bringing in two French arias, both by Massenet, to one
audition. Only to have him tell me he HATED Massenet. So I was unable to
satisfy his desire to hear something in French. Yes, of course he was
being unreasonable - and he should have stated the "No Massenet" rule in
the audition announcement. As it was, I think I was disqualified not so
much because I didn't get to sing the second aria, but because I managed
to annoy him by daring to offer arias by a composer he passionately
disliked. You will come across strange personalities like this when you
audition, and if at all possible, you'll do well to know about their
little quirks beforehand. Being able to plan your audition pieces (as
much as possible) around such prejudices will make you feel even more
confident (by the same token if you learn that one of the auditors has a
passion for a certain composer or opera, and you happen to have an
appropriate aria in your audition package to cater to that affinity, USE
IT; I was lucky, with this same unusual director, the year before the
Massenet incident in offering an aria from SADKO by Rimsky-Korsakov that
turned out to be one of the man's absolute favourites; I ended up getting
two solo recitals out of that lucky choice of rep).
The day of the audition:
My latest discovery, which seems to be working for me, is to start
obsessing about an hour BEFORE the audition to the point where I work
myself up into a real panic attack - full-blown adrenalin surge, with all
the shaking, sweating, shortness of breath, palpitations, etc. - about
20-30 minutes before the actual audition time.
Then, as I'm "coming down" from this panic attack, I start concentrating
very hard on getting in character and on the actual music. I perform it
several times in my head while I'm waiting to be called.
Learning to totally immerse myself into the charcter during the 30 minutes
or so before the audition has been a godsend. When I first started doing
this, I admit I did have a little trouble doing the administrivia that one
always has to deal with at auditions - filling out forms, etc. But now I
just do these administrative things *in character*. The only time I got
into a little trouble was at a Gilbert & Sullivan audition. I was totally
in character as Katisha from THE MIKADO ("Alone and yet alive" was my
audition piece), and I walked into the audition room ready to hand the
music to the pianist, introduce myself, and begin. But instead, the
audition panel all stood up, came forward, and started introducing
themselves and shaking my hand. I know they must have thought this was a
great idea: put the poor auditioner at her ease. But the result was
really hilarious: there I was, feeling very Katisha at her most
self-pitying - and they wanted me to be all smiling and sociable. To be
frank, I couldn't do it. And the whole experience threw me off kilter,
because it pulled me out of character just enough that I was totally
confused when I finally got to start singing - and it didn't help that the
pianist couldn't seem to sight-read very well, or to hear me, or to follow
me during the very rubato recitative - with the result that I had to do
one of the famous "ignore the pianist and wing it" types of auditions that
always make the singer sound bad even when it's the accompanist who's
screwing up royally. Sometimes I wish I could just tell the pianist to
stop playing, and finish the audition a capella. One of these days, I
will have psyched myself so well into not caring about the outcome of the
audition that I may well do this.
So the final word: All performances are just that - performances. No
more no less. No one performance is any more or less important than any
other. And no audience is any more or less judgemental than any other.
Yes, auditors are judging you. Yes, panels at competitions are judging
you. And when you perform in a concert or an opera (or a musical or an
oratorio or...), there are critics out there who are also judging you -
and whose judgement will go permanently on record when the review is
published: which terrifies me a heck of a lot more than the idea of a
fleeting 5 minute audition.
Karen
-----
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt,
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt,
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
-- J.W. von Goethe, WILHELM MEISTER
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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