Madama Butterfly The past few posts have been few and far between, this time though I have been practicing since the last post. There has generally been no news so I have not been able to find anything to post about. My voice has now come back to full strength after the long break from practicing and I feel a lot more confident in my abilities. My confidence however does not always directly translate into more opportunities. The only thing that I have had recently was an e-mail from the Artistic Director of the Commonwealth Opera. They are doing Madama Butterfly this fall and were holding auditions. Clearly this is an opera that is right up my alley, Puccini, nice tenor part that isn't on the heavy end, high C at the end of the first act, etc etc.

I drove out to Springfield MA yesterday to audition and overall I feel the audition went well. I opened with "Addio Fiorito Asil" from Butterfly and then sang the Hines "131st Psalm" and the Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin. The Lensky's moved the Artistic Director to stunned silence for a couple minutes after I finished. It was either very awkward or very reassuring, I haven't yet decided. All in all I am not holding my breath for this role, however I think this would be a great stepping stone for me to larger opera companies. When I hear back I'll fill you in!

- Gregory - ¶ 11:59 AM