Friday afternoon Gayletha Nichols, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, presented a masterclass focusing on what judges and panelists are thinking as a singer presents a 10 minute audition. To simulate an audition, each singer performing in the masterclass brought four prepared arias, and began their time by introducing themselves and their pianist, then beginning with the aria of their choosing. Following discussion of their selected piece, Ms. Nichols selected their second piece from the remaining three prepared arias. During the two hour masterclass six graduate student singers sang: Tory Wood, Lonnie Reed, Rehanna Thelwell, Elaina Robbins, Paul Grosvenor, and Kaswanna Kanyinda.
Tory Wood began the program by singing The Presentation of the Rose from Der Rosenkavalier providing the audience with a “precious” and “tender” interpretation of the duet. Ms. Nichols pointed out that this piece is a less than ideal as audition aria because it is actually a duet in the opera. Due to this, Ms. Wood’s interpretation of the piece could concern a panelist since the volume required to be heard over an orchestra as well as the mezzo-soprano would be much greater than the volume required to be heard over just a piano as in the audition setting. Ms. Wood cast volume concerns aside after her presentation of Tornami a vagheggiar from Handel’s Alcina, however, Ms. Nichols desired a more varied character from the first aria to the second – a recurring theme throughout the night.
Lonnie Reed began with a big sing, Asile héréditaire from Guillaume Tell. While Mr. Reed stated that he felt very comfortable with the piece, Ms. Nichols suggested that the piece was not quite ready to be performed as his opening aria and that he could be far more successful using another piece from his list to open an audition. Here she stressed that the 1st two pages of your first aria must show off only your strengths, and should be some of the strongest material in your repertoire. By showing that you are technically sound in the first two pages, you allow the panelist to connect and “stay with you and your character” emotionally for the entire audition.
Following Paul Grosvenor’s performance of Warm as the autumn light from Ballade of Baby Doe Ms. Nichols addressed the strong, specific character choices which a singing actor must make. Here she reiterated that if the performer believes it, the audience will as well.
The masterclass ended with a brief Q&A session which focused on resumes, type casting and repertoire choice. However, before leaving Ms. Nichols emphasized how important it is to have something to say in every piece which you sing, reminding her audience that music must be about so much more than the notes on the page.
