What I Wish I Knew: Getting My First Role

Hello fellow readers!

We are getting to the final week before Le Nozze di Figaro opens and I couldn't be more excited. I've been saying for years on this blog, that Le Nozze di Figaro is one of my favourite operas and I was floured when I got asked to sing Cherubino. (Who has been on my list of dream roles, not only once but twice!)
I felt confident when accepting the role, as I knew both the arias and figured that the libretti would be a piece of cake. I had done recit before!...kind of. Like maybe 10 bars of music before an aria...but that's the same thing anyways!

Boy, was I wrong.

To my credit, I am only in my third year. I haven't had the chance to sing a role yet or learn the hard truth about recitative...but it was a wake up call that came with a huge learning curve.

I went into my first read of the opera thinking I knew all of my music. I had looked it over in the summer and had highlighted all my parts. I was familiar with the ensembles and I knew my aria inside and out, thanks to my university auditions in grade 12. (I sang that bloody aria for every. single. audition.)

Again, I was so wrong.

No. 1, When you think you know and have learnt your music, learn it again.

I didn't realize how much work it takes to learn recitative, yet be able to make it flow to sound like speech. Then you add in your colleagues dialogue, which adds another hurdle. When I was talking with my voice teacher about my struggles with recit, she just laughed at my naivety and said "you should spend twice the amount of time practicing recit that you would spend on an aria." I thought she was crazy until I took her word for it. The more time spent practicing with my colleagues and with different recordings, it all slowly started to piece itself together.

So after a few cold runs with scores, we had to be off book and ready for staging. Everything I thought I "knew" went right out the window the minute I had to put my left foot in front of my right. I felt confident that I knew my aria though, so I found comfort in that amid my on stage panic.

I went to sing my aria and it no longer fit.

No.2, When revisiting an old aria after 3 years, Re-learn it from scratch.

Two teachers later, and three years past, my technique, voice and body has changed a lot. My sweet, small, airy voice from high school doesn't exist any more. I found this to be a huge challenge. Revisiting a familiar aria and trying to get rid of all the bad habits or mistakes I had made when learning it the first time, is much easier said than done. I found it to be more difficult than learning my current rep. The one positive thing about this situation, is when I sang it incorrectly using the original technique I had had at previously, it hurt my throat and tired my voice out quickly. I had no choice than to learn sing it properly, or else there was no chance that I could run around and sing.
But having learnt the aria properly and refreshed, I've been able to discover new nuances and details that I hadn't seen or understood previously.


 No.3, If you're playing a pants role, wear a sports bra to every staging rehearsal.

Cherubino is a young, hormonally charged 15 year old boy. I knew this, everyone knows this. But for some odd reason, I was surprised when my director had me crawling under furniture, jumping off of beds and the stage, as well as constantly running. If you are a woman with breast larger than a B, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD wear a sports bra. Your director will thank you, your character will thank you, and most importantly, your boobs will thank you.
The amount of times I made this mistake...oof. I remember one time, I was wearing a new bra and a flowy top. Nothing scandalous, but I felt confident and great. I waltz into rehearsal and think nothing of it. This happened to be the day that we were staging Act IV and Cherubino is harassing who he believes to be Susanna, in the garden at night.  My director had me jump around and chase my Susanna/Countess which led to Cherubino stumbling over a bench. Well, of course when I do this, my top flies up and flashes everyone my new pink bra, and I can't do anything about it because we are in the middle of a scene with a conductor (who gets paid by the minute). My shirt finally gets adjusted to normal and I keep singing. However, I flop back onto the bench, and this stupid flowy top decides to slide down and expose an entire breast. Great. The best part about this entire story is that our TA/assistant director caught it all on tape....

Moral of the story: when the director says wear comfortable, athletic gear...listen to them.

No.4, You are going to meet some wonderful people and it will touch your heart.

Le Nozze di Figaro was a university production. You know the familiar faces from the halls or classes, but I didn't really know any of my colleagues that well until I spent countless hours with them in rehearsals. I feel like the shared stress and fatigue brings everyone together. It was in these countless hours, that I got to know my colleagues well and that I was able to learn and appreciate all their talents and abilities. These people have helped me in numerous ways and are a great support team. It's so lovely getting to work with a bunch of team players. That too, makes a huge difference in a production. When you all work together as a team to put on one beautifully cohesive show, it makes all those long rehearsals and exhausting tech weeks worthwhile.It makes it feel less like work, and more like fun.

FYI -- if you don't think Diva's and Divo's exist at the university level, I hate to break it to you, but they do.

Anyways, back to the subject!

You also get to meet those who support you from a distance. The University of Ottawa is lucky to have Mr. & Mrs. Pal support our operas every year, especially when it's Mozart! We were asked to come and sing excerpts for them. Getting to see the pure joy that this music brought to this sweet couple, made my heart feel good.
Mr. Pal knew the words to every single aria and number performed at this concert. You could see his love for music and Mozart on his face, it was a contagious joy.  It made me feel so good inside to see that we were bringing happiness to such kind and sweet people. Mrs. Pal spoke to her guests at the beginning of the concert about the importance of Opera and keeping opera alive in Ottawa, especially since Ottawa's professional opera company has closed its doors in the last 5 years. Hearing her words of encouragement made me feel so supported, by someone who I had only met an hour prior! It was such a beautiful experience that I am so grateful to have had.

(Thank you so much, once again, Mr. & Mrs. Pal!)

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you were able to laugh at some of my woes! I would love to continue this blog series as I go about learning the ropes throughout my career.

Until next time,

Tessa