I had my share of auditions for a place in orchestra, when I was still playing trombone. The first time was during summer 1992, just a year after graduating at the conservatory, I went to Seville in Spain with a colleague. It has been a real experience, without booking any hotel and many other things, the audition meeting time was at 09:00, so this colleague said we could enjoy a bit of Seville night life. Well it turned out the audition examination would have started at 09:00, so every other participant was ready, beside us... And I was the first to be called on stage, whilst still unpacking my instrument. By the way for an instrument player auditions are different, since you can't have any eye contact most of the times, since there is a curtain separating you from the giurie, and even having a "chat" with them is out of question. And there are other problems, like here in Italy you have to do the checkin at for example 08:30 and then wait to be called, and that may be happens to be at past noon.
I knew orchestra auditions were blind but it never occurred to me that you wouldn't be able to talk to them! I can't believe they make you wait the whole time though! 🤯 I think vocal auditions would be much less biased if at least the first few rounds were blind. Juries make way too many decisions based on how someone looks regardless of whether or not the voice is suited or best for the role. That situation sounds so stressful though, my nerves could never 😅
@@operaanna Well not everywhere are blind, I had few where you had the jury was few steps away, like when I went to London for the audition for the BBC Orchestra. In London they were more organized as well, and differently by the Italian auditions, where it was more like a cattle audition, they gave you your right time for the performance; so you could get there just the time you needed to warm up and even have a rehearsal with their pianist, a thing you can forget here where you meet the pianist just when you enter the audition place, you'll give the pianist the tempo and if you are lucky the pianist would even follow it! 😁 By the way I never thought it otherwise, I mean chatting with the jury and I was very surprised and baffled by the jury in London always ready to ask something. 😅 About the waiting it all depend on the sorting of the letter, they take a letter and start calling from that, so you can be the first or the last. And here juries like to do as they please, you have to do the checkin at 8:30 for example, but they arrive when they want. By the way I'm not an Opera expert, my preferred Opera are the Gurrelieder 😁, and I grew up with brad and lieder, may be them from Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Mahler etc. so I can't say anything about Opera singer's quality nowadays! 😁 For me Fisher-Dieskau is what Pavarotti is for you! 😜
Not something I do myself, but my mezzo acquaintance echoes everything you said - particularly about interacting with the panel, and finding something enjoyable about the experience. And congratulations on the great news!
Anna I was so nervous for you going in to the audition, even though I already knew the outcome, and that this was months ago 😂 when I audition for choir jobs, it is pretty common to do sight reading (wo prep time, of course 😅), and I find it very disturbing 😂 great job on the video 🎉 love, Enikő
Hahaha weird how you can *feel* the tension. I don't do a lot of choir but that's good to know!! I guess it makes sense, this one was just SO HARD 🤣 I was like "well it is what it is, it's not gonna get better" 😜 hope you're well!!
Eating McDonald's (or whatever junk food available) after going to a concert or an opera is one of my favourite life's pleasures. Once I ate a fatty kebab while watching Cosi fan tutte in a local park.
Hello, I love your videos! I only recently found your channel and I’m glad I did. Could you talk about how you started with opera, what age, with what education. I am an opera student myself, and I’d like to know more about your background if it isn’t personal. Thank you!!
Gosh I've been to Dublin once in my life, twenty or so years ago and I've been wanting to go back ever since.
New video! Great! Brilliant! Watching it now.
I had my share of auditions for a place in orchestra, when I was still playing trombone. The first time was during summer 1992, just a year after graduating at the conservatory, I went to Seville in Spain with a colleague. It has been a real experience, without booking any hotel and many other things, the audition meeting time was at 09:00, so this colleague said we could enjoy a bit of Seville night life. Well it turned out the audition examination would have started at 09:00, so every other participant was ready, beside us... And I was the first to be called on stage, whilst still unpacking my instrument. By the way for an instrument player auditions are different, since you can't have any eye contact most of the times, since there is a curtain separating you from the giurie, and even having a "chat" with them is out of question. And there are other problems, like here in Italy you have to do the checkin at for example 08:30 and then wait to be called, and that may be happens to be at past noon.
I knew orchestra auditions were blind but it never occurred to me that you wouldn't be able to talk to them! I can't believe they make you wait the whole time though! 🤯 I think vocal auditions would be much less biased if at least the first few rounds were blind. Juries make way too many decisions based on how someone looks regardless of whether or not the voice is suited or best for the role. That situation sounds so stressful though, my nerves could never 😅
@@operaanna Well not everywhere are blind, I had few where you had the jury was few steps away, like when I went to London for the audition for the BBC Orchestra. In London they were more organized as well, and differently by the Italian auditions, where it was more like a cattle audition, they gave you your right time for the performance; so you could get there just the time you needed to warm up and even have a rehearsal with their pianist, a thing you can forget here where you meet the pianist just when you enter the audition place, you'll give the pianist the tempo and if you are lucky the pianist would even follow it! 😁 By the way I never thought it otherwise, I mean chatting with the jury and I was very surprised and baffled by the jury in London always ready to ask something. 😅 About the waiting it all depend on the sorting of the letter, they take a letter and start calling from that, so you can be the first or the last. And here juries like to do as they please, you have to do the checkin at 8:30 for example, but they arrive when they want. By the way I'm not an Opera expert, my preferred Opera are the Gurrelieder 😁, and I grew up with brad and lieder, may be them from Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Mahler etc. so I can't say anything about Opera singer's quality nowadays! 😁 For me Fisher-Dieskau is what Pavarotti is for you! 😜
@@operaanna By the way whilst here, I might add that the whole music world is badly messed up nowadays, not just opera's auditions... 😒
Not something I do myself, but my mezzo acquaintance echoes everything you said - particularly about interacting with the panel, and finding something enjoyable about the experience. And congratulations on the great news!
Thanks for posting!
Oh and congratulations for the successful audition!
Thank you!! I'm really excited 😊
Anna I was so nervous for you going in to the audition, even though I already knew the outcome, and that this was months ago 😂 when I audition for choir jobs, it is pretty common to do sight reading (wo prep time, of course 😅), and I find it very disturbing 😂 great job on the video 🎉 love, Enikő
Hahaha weird how you can *feel* the tension. I don't do a lot of choir but that's good to know!! I guess it makes sense, this one was just SO HARD 🤣 I was like "well it is what it is, it's not gonna get better" 😜 hope you're well!!
Eating McDonald's (or whatever junk food available) after going to a concert or an opera is one of my favourite life's pleasures. Once I ate a fatty kebab while watching Cosi fan tutte in a local park.
Haha that sounds like heaven! I should've just gone with the classics but it was pouring rain and i got flustered 😂
@@operaanna Yes, English rain. Been living here for twenty years and I'm still not used to it.
@@operaanna Oh and the kebab was heaven. Washed down with Pimm's, given for free by the local bar/stand/things.
Hello, I love your videos! I only recently found your channel and I’m glad I did. Could you talk about how you started with opera, what age, with what education. I am an opera student myself, and I’d like to know more about your background if it isn’t personal. Thank you!!
Thank you!! I can do a video on this if you'd prefer 😅
That would be amazing! Thank you!!