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 0 comments

Silence, it is not golden So I fell prey to the lull. I took some time off from practicing. When things got slow I stopped practicing every day during the week, which quickly lead to not practicing at all. After that happened, I stopped writing posts because there was nothing going on. The longer I went without practicing the less I felt that I wanted to practice. I was finally able to shake off my funk and start practicing again, but that caused problems too. Coming back from not practicing always leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Never sounding as good as before I take the break and it always feels like my voice is slow and cumbersome. Just now I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of my voice getting back in gear and I have renewed my efforts to get ready for the Met competition at the end of the year. I apologize for the lack of updates recently, hopefully there will be some auditions soon that I am qualified for.

On one last note, my good friend, Dan Draper (baritone), tried to help me out of my funk with this e-mail...

"Hey Dude This audition looks right up your alley... You like early French
music, right? he he see you Friday"

Description: The Boston Camerata is holding auditions for professional level singers and instrumentalists with an interest and/or background in early music. Knowledge of Camerata’s work is very helpful. Foreign language skills, especially French, are also helpful. Auditions will be for cast openings in The Boston Camerata’s upcoming 2008-2010 Seasons.

If you did not already know, early french music and I are not the best of friends...

- Gregory- ¶ 8:33 AM 0 comments