Opera Singing in Germany and other adventures....

Okay, this particular infographic got a lot of facebook shares about a month ago, and I'm just getting around to breaking it down for you all.  I'm not sure if looking at it once (though they say that a picture's worth a thousand words) really communicates the concepts, for those of you who aren't visual learners, and because I think it's very important to grasp the information that this graphic presents, I'm going to talk about it a bit in this blog post, so that we can fully appreciate all the wonderful benefits of music, be thankful for them, and share them with others as often as possible! :) But first, if you haven't already- look at the infographic below (my commentary follows at the end).    The Psychology of Music infographic First of all, the most important message that is contained in this infographic isn't found at the top- it's found in the middle- where the two graphs show the importance of music in education.  These two ...

This past Saturday, a combination of nice weather and guilt (we've not been there once yet as 'tourists') inspired my boyfriend and I to take the train to Bonn and look around with inquisitive attitudes and wide-open eyes.  Well, in case you were worried, fear not- we certainly liked what we saw!  Bonn is a beautiful city located on the banks of the Rhein river, about a half an hour's train ride from Cologne (also known as "Koeln" when speaking German).  The charm and beauty of Bonn lies in the architecture of its buildings and their color palette.  I'd wager that 98% of the buildings were painted in pastel hues (light yellows, pinks, blues, greens, oranges, and various shades of ivory) and looked as if NYC's Greenwich Village was relocated to Germany- I kid you not!  Nearly all of the buildings in the center of the old part of the city ("Altstadtkern" in German) had large multi-pane windows, which were sometimes also arched or in the shape ...

On Saturday of this past weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to visit a local organic produce stand, which happens to have a small farm on the premises where you can see all of the animals in their stalls.  After we had finished purchasing our produce, we took a stroll around the grounds, visiting and petting the goats, pigs, ponies, horses and cows, and it was while we were looking at the cows that we witnessed a true crisis situation unfolding right in front of our eyes.  Someone had accidentally left the door to the chicken house wide open and nearly all 500 chickens were now emerging onto the grounds outside of their house, as if they did this every afternoon.  The only thing that made us realize it was an emergency was because the workers were running around screaming and waving their hands in frustration as chicken after chicken flew, hopped or ran away from them.  It was quickly unfolding into a full-blown catastrophe when we realized that they were calling...

I'm writing this post today because I have seen more and more performances of Opera springing up on all sorts of stages and concert calendars, and often they are being performed 'in concert'.  I'm sure you've all seen concert performances of Opera throughout the years, and therefore I'm going to assume that you know what I'm talking about.  (If that assumption was wrong of me to make, ask me in the comments section of this post and I'll clarify.)  Anyway, I feel as a singer and budding stage director, it's important for me to examine with you the idea of performing Opera in a concert setting, so that we can find ways to make it a tad more interesting for the audience members.  Although it could happen that most of the people in the audience are there because they just love this opera, we could also go out on a limb and suppose that there might be people in the audience who were dragged to this event by their spouse, or if they'r...

Although in the past three months I've been very busy singing at lots of different places and experiencing the joy of being able to perform and bring enjoyment (hopefully) to lots of audience members, I have been experiencing quite a lot of depressing thoughts and having trouble motivating myself to keep moving forward on this (seemingly endless) career path. I sang the role of Konstanze in Laubach, Germany in my first-ever open-air opera performance, and I also participated in Joan Dorneman's IVAI in Virginia for the second year in a row, where I got many hours of vital coaching and lessons with the best vocal professionals from New York and around the world.  I have two other potential engagements coming up in the months ahead, and I have received positive critical feedback from more agents than ever before.  Even though it seems like I should be 'on cloud 9' right now, I am feeling more like I dropped into a labyrinth of delusion and despair. I am guessing th...

There is a, perhaps outside of the professional singing community, little-known phenomenon called "vocal rest" which has recently made a big difference in my life.  I'd like to share how it all happened, because--a blog necessitates that sharing between me and you (the reader) goes on to ensure that you know more about me, and through writing I know more about me, and through reading my writing, perhaps you find out more about yourself, as well. Anyway, I've been on "vocal rest" (which for a non-singer just means not talking at all for a certain period of time...literally 'resting your voice' by not using it---simple enough, right?) because I actually have been singing too much and my voice isn't sounding or working as well as it normally does.  Now, even though I actually went on "vocal rest" because I wanted to allow my singing voice to recuperate, in addition to that happening, it has also given me the time to notice a number of t...

Are there such things as audition tactics for Emerging Opera Singers to use to their advantage in order to be the one chosen for an engagement?  That's exactly what I've been asking myself these past few months in order to figure out how I can improve my number of successful auditions completed, and in this case, successful means that I got chosen to sing the role.  So, I've read a LOT of industry publications, Classical Singer, for example, and every interview I could get my hands on with someone who is right beyond where I currently am (a.k.a. working consistently at reputable opera houeses and not just intermittently) and, I have come to the sad, but perhaps logical conclusion in this very fickle business of mine and yours, that there is no straight forward way to systematically improve yourself in order to get hired.  Everyone is looking for something different (in terms of things that you can change outside of having a good voice and being a believeable actress...