First and foremost I want to say thank you to all of you who said a prayer, sent well wishes and general good luck today, you all are such amazing and wonderful people and I really could not do this without you. I feel like I audition all the time but some are just downright terrifying….thank you so much for believing in me.
This morning I started late in the day which was so nice, I got such a good night’s sleep and for the first time here actually felt rested. I met with Maestro this morning to have one final coaching. He is just so lovely, I wish I could bring him back to the US with me. I started with Oh Quante Volte, it is a new piece for me, so I really wanted his advice and general thoughts. I started with the recitative and sang it fine, in rhythm with good sound. He stopped me to say…”OK you sing it like this for an audition I would say ok, thank you bye, because you sing it like a student and very boring”……. It was true I really did sing it boring…… so I asked him if I could try it again. He said yes and I threw everything I could into it, phrasing, style, emotions. He stopped me after the first page and say, “Wow, why do you not sing like this always? This is real this is much more interesting”…….the answer is because I get nervous……..…. Maestro waved his hand slicing it through the air and said, “Stop…. no more nervous.”………. It was fitting advice for the rest of the day.
Next was my consultation with Martin. He is lovely as well and very honest. Unfortunately the bad news is he started right away to tell me his opera house in Pilson is not hiring sopranos, and they will not be for the next two years. Which basically meant the big scary audition I was having later today really didn’t matter because, well, I am a soprano and they currently don’t need one. I did go on to ask him a lot of questions about the business and what I should do or change. He was really impressed with my resume and said I had a good one with the right kind of roles so that was a nice compliment. Some really interesting information I learned is the pay is not near as good as I thought it was and I was grateful for his honesty about that. I also asked him his thoughts about management, he advised me that if I could an agent in the states to do that, in Germany I would need a manager, but not in the Czech republic. So if I wanted roles here I would need to find out what the role is learn it and have Jelena get me an audition. So all in all I walked away with a lot of new information about the business, but really sad that no matter how amazing I sang in the evening the fact is there are always too many sopranos. Which in some ways I was really grateful the pressure was kinda off.
My audition was at seven pm this evening but like everything here we are always running behind so they didn’t even start the whole audition process until seven thirty. I had five people in front of me and then I sang. I was actually feeling really relaxed and confident before I sang which was totally a God sent. I went in and there were only two people listening, which was a bit of a disappointment but again I was not angry it made it more relaxed. Jelena the artistic director played, she stopped me before I begin and reminded me that we were going to have a coaching on Monday and that she would help work the cadenzas… nothing like a casual talk to set the tone. Then I sang Una Voce Poco Fa. I really felt really good about it. There are always things to fix or improve little side notes here and there but in general I was pleased. I performed it better than I had the first day and I learned two new cadenzas within the piece. So I felt good. While I was still standing there Jelena said “Super Kathleen, I am so proud you put in everything that I told you on the first day, I am so proud of you”
So the good news is I feel like I did well. I don’t think I will get offered anything from Martin due to just the simple fact there are not enough slots for sopranos, but he gave me a raised eyebrow when I got done and said, hmm ok Kathleen…… so I feel that is something. There was a definite improvement from the first time I worked with him so I feel very happy about that.
Tomorrow is gala day. I have to be up around six to get ready and get on the bus. I am so excited to sing tomorrow with orchestra and just do what I love to do. There are two more general directors that will be watching tomorrow and our concert will count as an audition for them.
Whew it has been a roller coaster of a day today and will be even more so tomorrow… I can’t believe my time here is coming to an end. I didn’t know really what to expect from this week but I am so grateful for the journey…..till tomorrow
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try just one more time. ~ Thomas Edison