True Artists

In the past week I have seen two of the top mezzo sopranos singing today in concert; Joyce DiDonato in Hong Kong and Elina Garanca in Guangzhou.  What I have appreciated is not only their fine voices, but their style, musicianship, and how the characters they portray become so clear to us as a listener.

As young singers, and other mere mortal professionals, we worry about our sound, our technique, but are we truly understanding how many other facets of performing are also important.   Don't get me wrong, I love loud, healthy singing! But when we get a 'total package' of pianissimo, thundering high notes, a phrase properly on the breath and presented with feeling, understanding, and a committed choice of presentation, we then are listening to a true artist.

I was able to hear two such artists this week.

Rehearsals at the Met

I have been rehearsing the role of Dancaire in Carmen at the MET and the 1st performance is February 6th.  in the 7 days of rehearsal before the 1st performance, I will have worked maximum 16 hours on the production.  This means 16 hours in the opera house in the rehearsal room, individual coaching,  and the final 2 rehearsals on the stage.

This is a very little amount of time.

The reason we have so little time is because it is an old production and only so much time is reserved for rehearsals.
We must remember that not only is Carmen in Rehearsals, but also Don Giovanni, and La Donna del Lago.  Also,  The Tales of Hoffman, Iolante/Blackbeard's Castle, and The Merry Widow are currently playing.  This means that the opera house is extremely busy, and there are only so many rooms that can hold a large rehearsal and also share those spaces with the other operas.

What you must do is be as prepared as possible as we will only run the scenes 5-6 times before opening night.
The process is such that we are talked thru the scene by the assistant director, and we work through the scene with music.  We are then critiqued by the director and adjust the spacing, put more ideas and motives into our work, and then work thru the scene again.  Some artists have ideas and we share with each other and work out the blocking (movements)..  The we run the scene again.  After a couple times we should be ready to go.

This is the level that a professional singer must work at, especially when we have a very short rehearsal period.

All of these things will help you get acclimated to the new time zone and within 2 days your body can be back to normal.

Traveling challenges for a singer

Traveling in this modern world becomes a challenge for today's singer.  We travel by wonderful modern jets, but we are put into a cabin and in close proximity with so many other people, some who travel when not healthy.  This air that we all breathe within the airplane carries many germs, and at high altitudes also becomes very dry, which does not help us to keep our throats and noses moist to help us fight of any illnesses that may be wafting thru the air.

We also at times travel great distances, remaining on an airplane up to 16-18 hours if traveling internationally.  So how do we stay healthy, and also deal with the accompanying jet-lag when flying between continents?

What I have done over the years is develop a routine that works for me, and helps me come off the plane in fairly good physical shape.  Indeed, in the past I was able to fly 10 hours, arrive and in an emergency, sing well the same evening of arrival.

My travel secrets:

1.  When possible, stay up late the night before so that you sleep a great deal on the plane.
2.  If possible, avoid some of the starches in some of the airplane food like the bread and butter.  I generally will avoid the starches/carbohydrates when possible.  This helps to keep you away from the bloated feeling that you might get when flying.
3.  Get up and walk and stretch minimum every couple hours between naps.
4.  Of course, drink lots of water on the plane.  Also, make sure your seat is an aisle seat because if you are drinking lots of water, you will need to visit the toilet frequently!
5.  Take a medicine that will moisturize your throat; something like Mucinex, Robitussin or Mucosolvon.  This will help your immune system fight off any bugs in the air.
6.  When you arrive at your destination, you might nap on the bus or train into the city, but once in the hotel or home, do not sleep until after 10pm at night.  In the morning get up at a realistic hour (after 8 hours of sleep hopefully) and do some exercise.

How to Prepare to Sing an Opera Role

As you see by the drawing above, this is how an instrumentalist can learn an opera.  But what does a singer do to prepare an opera role?  A singer must not only learn the music, but research the opera on several levels.  It takes time, but it is much more rewarding when an artist is totally informed when performing.
I have had times when I have had to learn an opera quickly.  I once had to learn Luisa Miller in 36 hours.  I also learned Aida in 5 days.  Luckily I had the time and facility to focus and succeed.  As I get older I find it harder with the myriad distractions in life to focus as I did when I was younger, but when I do have time, anything more than a couple months, this is what I do to learn a role:

1.  I buy a score and a CD, and find a good translation, hopefully more word for word and not poetic.  I am fortunate that I speak multiple languages, so I can read a great deal of most scores.  I read through the score and when I need help I look at the translation.  If the phrase or translation doesn't seem right, I use a dictionary to find a particular word..  If this fails, I call someone who speaks the language of the opera and resolve the issue. Sometimes this leads to a wonderful conversation about linguistics and historical use of language.  But the important thing is to do as much as I can by myself so that I can make it mine: I have to understand and feel the message of the opera.
2.  I listen to all of the recording while reading my score.  I do this to get a feel for the scope of what the composer wants to present to the audience.
3.  I listen again to my role and read carefully so that I can circle words that catch my ear as maybe a bit odd to pronounce and how they fit in with the music.
4.  I sit at the piano and go through the score with the recording.  I stop every few phrases and sing the phrases, making sure the breathing and support are correct.
5.  I sit at the piano run thru my scenes and sing thru them with the score.
6.  Hopefully my musicianship is good enough so that by this point all is in order and I am ready to go to a coach who is experienced, knows the repertoire, and can correct me if I have missed anything.  By this point my score is basically memorized.

Learning an opera is a process, but also a joy that is exhilarating and very satisfying when done correctly.  If  done correctly we can come into the first rehearsal full prepared to share the experience of the great music with our colleagues.

How to study at a summer language school in Europe or the USA

I wrote the other day about staying out of China long-term to learn as much as possible about classical opera.  If any of you have ideas to attend a summer language school in Europe or in the USA, I have a recommendation on how to handle the situation:

While I was the Head of Vocal Studies in Hong Kong I was able to find scholarships and sent several students to Italy to study Italian.  The first year was of course, finding out what really works.  Five Hong Kong students went to the University in Perugia, Italy to study Italian.  They lived together.  

Another two students went to a language school in Florence.  They lived together but were not really friends so they found other people to do activities with.  

Who learned the most Italian?  Yes, the two who went their own way and did not associate so much with other Hong Kong students.  

The five HK students had a great time but came home after classes and spoke Cantonese.  They came back to HK and their progress in many was was negligible.  The two students in Florence who were more independent ended up studying in Paris and London, respectively, and have become better performers and better at languages.  

Over time I have found a great language school in Verona, Italy.  I sent several students there and they have returned having learned a great deal of Italian.  The key is there was only one student in the school each year.  They lived with an Italian family and were forced to speak Italian every day, a great deal of the day.  My top student studied there, returned to HK and we performed an Italian opera.  She arrived at the first rehearsal with the complete opera memorized and translated.  The next summer she returned to Italy and studied Italian again.  After just those two months she spoke excellent Italian.  

This is the solitary path that you must follow if you want to progress and be cost effective. 

Beijing Gathering

While I was in Beijing meeting prospective students for my summer program in Verona last weekend, I was asked by one of the students, "What must we as Chinese singers do to have success in the opera scene in and out of China?"  

My answer was:

Stay out of China.  Stay out as long as you can.  This is not a negative comment on China, not at all!!!   What I mean is young Chinese singers must live outside of China for years.  Not one or two years, but many years.  If you can live outside of China for 10 years, then come back, you can raise the level of teaching and singing in China.  If only two years, you have barely taken care of yourself and your needs.  If you stay overseas for many years you can truly become more competent in languages, style, repertoire.  We must realize that classical opera is a western art form:  it takes time to assimilate all the details of what it is.  If you can stay out of China and learn more about it and it's languages, then when you come back you can be a great teacher, coach, and better performer.  By staying away from home, when you do come back, you add so much more skill and expertise to what is China.  So in the long run, you are helping your country by staying away.  Does this make sense?

The Met rehearsal process

I was asked by a Weibo follower what the rehearsal process is at the Metropolitan Opera.  I am covering now, but will sing in February and March of 2015. 

 

First, this is very important to understand: when you arrive at the MET and ready to work, you must already have the music well learned and memorized.  You cannot arrive and not know the music. 

 

I often work in Asia and I arrive to work with different companies and all ages of singers.  Many of them are not prepared with the music.   This is a shame for a couple reasons:

 

1. if you are not prepared, it is almost impossible to catch up.  If you do catch up with memorization, you may not have a good feel for the translation or for the singing, as you have been too busy memorizing.

 

2.  You make the process slow for your colleagues and you waste their time.  If you are wasting their time, they know it, and you will not be respected.

 

3.  At the Met as with many theaters, there simply is not enough time during a production schedule to ‘catch people up’ in the process.  If you arrive not prepared, you may be terminated quickly.

 

In the end, not being prepared means that you don’t give the audience all that they need and have paid for.  You cheat them.  You should NEVER cheat your audience.

 

So, you arrive with everything well memorized and then you have a coaching with an experienced pianist who knows the music and language.  After that you have an ensemble rehearsal, and maybe one more individual coaching to clean up any problems. 

 

Then there is a rehearsal with orchestra where we sit and listen to the artists.  We make notes what the conductor does for tempos so that if we need to sing we are able to do exactly as he wants it.

 

The second step is the stage work where as a cover (I am covering remember, I will sing in February), they give you maybe 2-3 times to rehearse each scene  -This is very little time.  Then we have a piano run-through of the opera in the large backstage room. After this  we are generally free unless we must go on for another artist because of illness. 

 

I cannot stress that truly being professional means being totally prepared, a good colleague, and on time for every rehearsal.  In fact, I am very nervous if I am not at the MET and near my rehearsal room a minimum of 15 minutes before the scheduled time.

 

These are the procedures at the MET for a cover artist. 

 

I will write about a singing artist and what is required, soon.