I'd say you should definitely be sure that one of your arias is in Italian
- so if you're doing "Die Bildnis", that means no French or Russian for
the other aria. IT should be in Italian. Indeed, some opera companies -
e.g., The Washington Opera - absolutely REQUIRE that one of your arias be
in Italian.
Also, the auditors are going to be more impressed by really good singing
than by any attempt to dazzle them - unless you are absolutely solid
technically, the attempt to "impress" with something that sounds
"virtuosic" could, unfortunatley, fall flat and give the opposite
impression than what you intended. I'd say you'd do much better to find a
simple, lyrical Italian aria that you can totally master and make your own
than to try to do something overly ambitious that will push you to (and
possibly beyond) your technical limits. Your audition arias should be
arias you can sing well even if you're suffering from partial laryngitis,
extreme edema, or sheer exhaustion. As you get technically more secure,
the technical demands of the arias you can do well under these conditions
will increase; but your audition arias should only ever push you about 80%
of the way towards your technical "limits" - in other words, leave
yourself some room for the effects of nervous adrenalin. If you feel
absolutely confident, "solid", and otherwise in complete mastery of your
audition arias, you will not only enjoy singing them more, but you will be
able to completely shift out of "technique mode" and into "performance
mode" - which is when you get to concentrate on WHAT you're actually
trying to say with your aria, and HOW you want to say it. If you've got an
aria where you're worried about its technical aspects, you won't feel free
to go on "auto-pilot" technique-wise and lose yourself in your
interpretation.
Also remember that most opera chorus auditions limit the amount of time
they give you. So you're much better off finding two short, sweet arias
i.e., not much longer than 3 minutes and absolutely NEVER more than 4 -
the exception, of course, is when they tell you exactly which aria they
want to hear when you're auditioning for a particular role. The only
exception is if you are told you must include a Wagner aria in your
audition. Richard Wagner was constitutionally incapable of writing an
aria... :)
...of less than six minutes in duration; usually his arias run into the
double-digits in minutes.
With this in mind, I suggest you look at "Di pescatore ignobile" from
Donizetti's LUCREZIA BORGIA - or better yet, "Fra poco a mi ricovero"
from Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR - which has the benefit of being a
short sweet aria, but which also shows some good variety in terms of
range, and which has a fairly impressive cabaletta which
you can learn and add when you are less restricted in terms of time and
more advanced and confident in terms of technique. Also, not all Verdi is
created equal, and I suspect you could certainly do justice to "Ah, la
paterna mano" from MACBETH or one of the Duke's arias from RIGOLETTO.
You might even look at the recit and aria "Lunga da lei...Dei miei
bollenti spiriti" from LA TRAVIATA (though the breath management demands
of this one may be more challenging than you want to take on for an
audition aria at this stage), which also has a cabaletta ("O mio rimorso")
which you could learn for future use.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
---
Hillaire Belloc's flawed but insightful essay on Islam:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/HERESY4.TXT
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsyl., 1759
|
|  |
