Singing at the MET: My Debut Day
My debut at the MET was the role of Rodrigo in Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi. The debut came about because Vladimir Chernov, the Russian baritone, had fallen ill. Before walking on stage, I had rehearsed the staging on C Level for several days, and had one ensemble rehearsal with Maestro James Levine and the "A" cast.
The first time I sang on the stage, other than my audition, was in my debut! It was a bit of pressure of course. Luckily I could refer back to my stage audition and knew that there was an echo or 'feedback' from the house. This meant if the acoustics remained the same with an audience, that I would be fine.
The MET is a very large opera house, but the acoustics are still very good. When standing on the stage, one cannot see to the back of the Family Circle (the farthest upper reaches of the theater). With the lighting coming from farther back in the house, or off the facade of the first couple balconies, visibility is next to none. So the area that we can see from the stage is actually about 2/3 of the actual space. This gives the singer a psychological lift as we are 'tricked' into thinking the theater is much smaller than it is. It helps us to relax and sing easily.
The MET is a very large opera house, but the acoustics are still very good. When standing on the stage, one cannot see to the back of the Family Circle (the farthest upper reaches of the theater). With the lighting coming from farther back in the house, or off the facade of the first couple balconies, visibility is next to none. So the area that we can see from the stage is actually about 2/3 of the actual space. This gives the singer a psychological lift as we are 'tricked' into thinking the theater is much smaller than it is. It helps us to relax and sing easily.
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