Hagen, home, studying…
Hi there! I hope you are well. This week I started it in Hagen. I went there to sing the beginning of La Boheme (Puccini), for 8 candidates for the 2nd Conductor at Theater Hagen. There were 4 candidates in the morning and then the next four during the evening. I had the afternoon free, so I went for a little walk and then back to the Hotel, which was located just in front of the Stadthalle, where the rehearsals took place. Hagen is not a really charming but I enjoyed my little walk. During the audition I could talk a bit with some colleagues from the theatre, also the Intendant and GMD.
I got invited to this, because I guess their tenors were busy rehearsing for an upcoming premiere this weekend and also because I met the current Intendant back I think 1 year ago in Darmstadt while Akiho was jumping in as Olympia in Hoffmann. During the pause I was there and we exchanged info. Few months ago I texted him and he now invited me to this and also it served the purpose of him listening to my singing. So, it was a sort of audition. This is the first time it happens like this, normally you prepare arias, play with a pianist and hope for the best, instead, this time I had the chance to sing one small part of Boheme as Rodolfo and with Orchestra, plus 8 times (plus repetition) and across the whole day. So, I guess something that for sure I could demonstrate was, Stamina hehe.
I was glad I had this kind of experience, and I thanked the team for the invitation, regardless of the future collaboration, I was happy to be there and to do this work and specially to sing with orchestra and meet 8 new conductors. Some of them were more precise than others. What really was interesting for me to see, was the energy and personality of each of the conductors, and to see how the orchestra reacted to their energy. It was mostly about the body language of each of them, because on the little time they had to conduct (around 30 min each) most of the communication was non vebal. Each had a very defined body language and the more closed they were body wise, the orchestra reacted less and the more they were with their eyes on the scores also the orchestra, sort of looses a certain interest. I believe the conductor most be on top of the preparation, style, education, talent, etc, the must have an incredible ability to communicate and overall to do it with their bodies. For a moment although I was kind of auditioning, I was really caught on the interaction between orchestra and conductor.
The following day I started my pilgrimage back home which took almost 9 hours because, as I have mentioned in previews blogs, the rail system here in Germany is just getting worse, so each of the trains I was supposed to take, had delayed or cancelled. I knew it could be like that so I was prepared to accept my fate, so I had few chapters of a series downloaded on my mobile phone, I had also my Kindle where I have some of the books I am currently reading, and I decided to enjoy the ride. At one of the trains, I saw a very beautiful sunset sky out of the window next to my seat, with trails of airplanes and 2 of them still visible going in parallel lines.
I was glad when I got home and since then, I have done some office work, paper work for insurance, etc… Because now that I am freelancing, much changes.
I also dedicated to go back to basics on my singing, and really looking deep inwards, after the encounters in December with Marcelo Álvarez and what I have been working on so far, I finally had time this week to work on. Since the last few weeks I had always some repertoire I needed to prepare, with the Operetta Gala, audition in London, then Hagen, now finally I could work again in “ruhe” on my sound. I am glad I have the time to keep recycling, filtering, reusing information learnt, to apply in different brain sequences the concepts learned. Plus as you know for us singers our instrument is our body, that changes too and that is why is challenging to apply everyday a sort of fixed idea. Our brain changes, we change, our body changes and so we must have the tools, to be able to understand and use this living instrument, which in the end “yes” it is us, so the implications are big, the intimacy is extreme. “Know yourself” said the wise men, and also 100 years ago some very famous teacher concluded with this phrase for the same advice applied to our singing.
I kept my daily reading, my morning pages and my exercise routine. I hope you are well and had a wonderful week. Take care and see you next week.
