The rest of Macau

My trip in Macau came to an end last Sunday. We had three performances, and they were very well-received. The trip was a great opportunity for me, and getting the chance to travel to a place like Macau was amazing, but I'm definitely happy to be home in my nice, soft bed again.

Our soprano, Melanie Diener, arrived on the 24th, and was shocked that we had started rehearsing already. She had no idea whatsoever that everyone else had been here a week and a half already. We quickly put her into the scenes we'd already staged, and finished staging the rest of the opera. Melanie was wonderful to work with and super friendly. We went out to eat a couple of times and I really enjoyed spending time with her.

The week before opening night, we were very busy. Thursday, we had our only piano dress rehearsal. Friday, we had our first rehearsal with the orchestra (just a musical rehearsal), then a dinner break, then a full run-through with orchestra. The following day we had two three-hour orchestra staging rehearsals. The next two days we had orchestra dress rehearsals. I was so glad to be singing a nice, low role like Ännchen and not Marie again, because there's no way I could have done that so many times in a row! Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were performances.

The first piano dress rehearsal was a mess, starting with the makeup and hair. I was given eye-liner that looked like a drunk person had put it on, a tiny bit of lopsided blush, and light lipstick. Then I was told I could do it myself the next day. I had my one little diva moment and said "I am one of the stars. I am NOT doing my own makeup!" Turns out, they were confused and thought I was part of the chorus. Also, when they curled my hair, they did not put any product in it, despite my request, so it immediately collapsed. Here's my ugly mug from that day:

There were also all sorts of problems with hearing the orchestra, and it can be very frustrating when the conductor is constantly telling you you're off. I'm not usually the one with that problem on stage, but the way the theater there was set up, it was almost impossible to hear the pit when they were playing softly. The set, which was beautiful, was also huge, and in my first scene it completely blocked the speakers backstage that were supposed to allow the singers to hear the orchestra better. The first pair of shoes they costume department gave me were an inch too big, then they ordered another pair that were a half inch too big (even though I tried on pairs in the wrong color to find the right size), so they added two inserts and a heel pad while I waited for my third pair of shoes to arrive. I tripped a number of times during that first rehearsal. Luckily, time fixed all of our problems. The makeup and hair improved, a louder speaker backstage helped with the orchestra, and I was given a new pair of shoes which turned out to be a size too small but were fixed with the shoe-stretcher overnight.

Here I am with improved hair and makeup, and with Melanie:

The Chinese audience is not big on clapping, so it can be very strange when you've sung an aria and you either get about three seconds of wimpy applause or none at all. However, at the end, they go wild. On opening night, I couldn't really tell, but our rehearsal pianist who was in the audience said that I got the strongest applause! I thought the clapping was about equal for myself, Kurt, Clemens, and Melanie, but who am I to argue? My sister was there for opening night and told me that the opera was very entertaining, so that's good enough for me.

My favorite part of the opera is the Wolf's Glen scene. There are dancers dancing with the devil, and the beginning of the scene, costumes and all, is straight from the beginning of Michael Jackson's Thriller video. Makes me chuckle every time.

I had lots more excellent food, including a quarter roast suckling pig from the local Portuguese restaurant that we all frequent. Best piece of meat I can remember eating since the Peking duck I had in Beijing. On my last day, I had a big glass of fresh squeezed mango juice for about $1.25, followed by some yummy potstickers at the big Chinese meat market's food court, and a really fresh seafood salad at a Thai restaurant.

Here are some more Macau pictures to enjoy:

Here I am on Hac Sa Beach on the island of Coloane.

This is the gaudy Grand Lisboa casino and hotel in the shape of a lotus flower.

There were absolutely not enough bad English signs around like there were in Beijing, so this gdumplng shop made me happy. I didn't eat here.

It took me a LONG time to finally stand on the glass floor at the top of the Macau Tower and look down (I think it was 64 stories high). People bungee jump off this thing, it's the world's highest.

Here I am with the super famous Kurt Rydl and Clemens Bieber at our opening night Chinese feast.

My sister and I got a very Macanese dinner her first night in Macau - African chicken on the left, curry crab with shrimp on the right.

And last, but not least - a sideways (oops) video of some crazy person doing the bungee jump off the Macau Tower. It costs about $370 and it's a loooonnnnggg way down.

Fun times in Macau

It's been a week and a half since I arrived in Macau to sing Ännchen in Der Freischütz. Macau is basically the Las Vegas of the East, without the Vegas-style entertainment. This is a place to gamble, gamble, and gamble some more. I've walked into many of the casinos, and while they're definitely large and gaudy, they're nowhere near as interesting to see as the ones in Vegas. I did, however, spend about 45 minutes trying to find the exit in the maze of shops that is the Venetian (it's three times bigger than its Vegas counterpart).

There are certainly things to see here that don't involve the casinos. Macau is very interesting architecturally. There's not much that's Chinese about it except for the occasional temple and the Chinese store signs. There are a lot of grimy high-rise apartment buildings, the huge casinos, and a lot of neoclassical-style colonial Portuguese buildings, which are absolutely gorgeous (Portugal owned the place until 1999 when China took over). I have officially seen everything in the guidebook, since you can pretty much walk from one end of the peninsula to the other in a half hour.

Our hotel is conveniently located, we have free internet, and thanks to being on the top floor facing south, I have a great view of various casinos and the harbor. My bed is not so much a mattress but a hard box spring. One of my colleagues had to change rooms to a non-smoking floor and it turned out that his new bed had a thickish mattress pad on it. I requested one this morning, and let me tell you, trying to explain a mattress pad to the front desk folks who barely speak English was rough. I came back to my room after rehearsal and whatever I said and (mostly) mimed, worked! Hopefully I'll sleep a little better for the rest of my time here.

I arrived a few days earlier than everyone else because I wanted to be well-adjusted before my first rehearsal, which I thought was Oct. 16. Turns out, we didn't have rehearsal that day, or the next day, and  on Tuesday, we simply had a meet and greet and didn't sing. Left me with lots of time to explore. On the most recent day off I had, I took the ferry to Hong Kong and had a wonderful time. (I did not have a wonderful time on the ferry, however, which tossed and turned just enough to make me upchuck my breakfast.) I hope to get to Hong Kong again, but I'm not sure if I'll have any more days off.

I've eaten lots of delicious food, mostly Portuguese and Cantonese, although I did have a fabulous Indian dinner tonight. The food is fairly cheap, and it's fun to try lots of new dishes.

Rehearsals have been going very well. I really love the director. It's so refreshing to have a director with a plan. He stages very quickly and with a lot of detail, and then we repeat things a lot, changing or adding little nuances each time. It's a welcome change from the directors I've had recently. The unfortunate thing is that our lead soprano has not shown up yet. Supposedly she will arrive by plane tomorrow morning and will be at rehearsals all day. All of my big scenes rely on her character's reactions, so it's been difficult staging without her. The assistant director has been walking her parts, but he's really not the ideal leading lady. Everyone is pretty unhappy that she hasn't been here, and I hope that when she arrives, that she is friendly and ready to jump in.

Before I forget, I added an mp3 of highlights from one of the Daughter of the Regiment performances to my website. There aren't any complete numbers, but you can hear bits and pieces of my big numbers.

Here are some pictures to enjoy:

Cool architecture in Senado Square, a lovely pedestrian area:

View from my hotel room at night:

I think I took this from one of the fortresses high up in the center of the peninsula - the big building in the shape of a lotus flower is the Lisboa Hotel and Casino. My hotel is next door.

Yummy food - another singer and I shared marinated roast pigeon, veggies in curry sauce, and duck rice (basically rice fried in duck fat with pieces of duck and Portuguese chorizo):

This little piggy went to market (apparently with two of his little piggy friends). This is not the grossest picture I took at the meat market that day, just so you know:

At the bird market in Hong Kong, probably my favorite part of the day:

More colorful birds from the bird market:

Most interesting plant I saw at the flower market in Hong Kong - I will call it a condom plant:

Me on the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Central to Kowloon, with the Hong Kong skyline in the background (this one only lasted about 6 minutes and I did not puke):

Success!

Well, it's my birthday today, and what better way to take my mind off turning 31 than writing another post about singing Marie! I should start by saying that I've had two performances so far with two left, and they've gone very well. The audiences are loving the show, and the critics are, too! I've gotten two reviews so far, both from opening night.


The first is from the Houston Chronicle (click here for the full review):


"Soprano Erica Miller as Marie, mesmerizes us and takes us to that place of coloratura heaven where few have trod. Her bright and shining instrument so powerfully and profoundly touches us, that all we can do is wait until the end of every aria she conquers so we can scream 'Brava!' Ms. Miller finds the center of Marie and runs with her, taking us with her as her life changes drastically." 


The second is from the Houston Press (click here for the full review):


"And what a stunning cast: Coloratura Erica Miller sings Marie as if it had been written for her. She sails through those treacherous roulades and filigreed passages for which Donizetti was so famed and then, slowing down, wraps her supple voice around those honeyed tunes of romance. She's also an agile comedian, with her hairs in tufts and sporting a corset, she's an appropriate tough girl."


The process of putting this show together has been very similar to that of Mitridate, the opera that I was in in NY. Our director for Daughter is not very hands-on (he, like my director for Mitridate, comes from a theater background, not a music one), and instead wanted to see what we could bring to the table ourselves. I got to put on my director hat again (thank you USC and Ken Cazan for that doctoral minor in opera directing!), and explore the character of Marie and her actions and interactions myself. There were a number of times where the cast met in the afternoon to work through some staging by ourselves, and I like to think that the scenes I'm in have my own personal touch. By the end of the rehearsal process, the director added much-needed finishing touches, and staged some wonderful chorus scenes. Again, the directing style is very different from what I'm used to, but all in all, I think we all worked together to put on a terrific-looking and sounding show.


There were originally two roles that were double-cast - Marie and Tonio (the tenor with the famous aria that has nine high C's). Unfortunately, the tenor in my cast was having some health issues and had to pull out of the production. Almost immediately, another local tenor was hired, and about a day later, decided it would be too much for him to have to learn the role in just two weeks. We now have one tenor doing all seven shows, and luckily for us, he's an excellent performer and singer. He is so realistic on stage and it's a pleasure to act/sing with him. His only fault is that he's shorter than me by a few inches, and at Saturday night's performance I accidentally forgot about the height difference and ended up kissing his nose.


Our bass, Sulpice, is sung by Stefano de Peppo, who is a very seasoned performer who has sung all over the world. He has sung just about every comic bass role in the Italian repertoire (he's from Milan), but this is his first role in French. Lucky for us, he knew the conductor and decided to try out this new role here at Opera in the Heights. Having someone with so much experience on stage is absolutely wonderful. He brings so much to the production, and I can't imagine anyone singing and acting his role any better.


The orchestra is marvelous! Many of them play for Houston Grand Opera, and it is so nice to sing with a real orchestra again. The theater does not have a pit, so all 22 players are sitting bunched up to the right of the stage. It's a little tricky to catch cues from the conductor because he is off to the right instead of centered, but with each performance, it's getting a little easier.


My parents flew out for opening night and really enjoyed themselves. Hal will be flying in this afternoon, so he'll see this Thursday night's show. I've gone to see Hal in so many productions, and it is really nice to finally be the one performing with him in the audience instead! He almost made me cry opening night when I went into my dressing room and saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers that he had sent. What a sweet husband I have!


Two down, two to go! I'll leave you with some pictures, all taken by Shannon Langman at our final dress rehearsal. My hair is now in French braids, and I have a blue dress instead of a white dress. (For some silly reason, the costumer thought that a 5'8" size 6 and a 5'0" size 0 would be able to share dresses for Act II. Not so much.)

Goodbye nice weather, hello Houston

Just when I thought the summer was ending, I flew to Houston. They're rationing water (they're apparently about 40 inches short this year) and have had around 50 days this summer over 100 degrees, including all three days I've been here. Luckily, my host family has A/C, and so does the theater. And speaking of weather, just in case you were wondering, the hurricane put downtown Mt. Holly under water, but not my house. It made my marigolds very happy, though.

I've spent the last couple of months really working on Marie in Daughter of the Regiment, and I have to say, there's no way I could get through this role without my teacher, Lindsey Christiansen. Every lesson I had, she fixed something major that I just couldn't sing without doing. It's both a scary and a great feeling to leave a lesson knowing that if I hadn't gone, I'd have some serious hold-ups. Good news is, after the first few lessons of fixing everything, the last lesson I had was the perfect ending where I was told everything sounded much better. I'm still working on the technical stuff, but it's starting to feel a lot more natural.

So, I left for Houston on Tuesday, and moved in with my lovely hosts, Mike and Pat Journeay. They have a gorgeous house and I have the whole upstairs to myself. They love to travel, and the house is full of artwork and souvenirs from all of the countries they've lived in and visited. Mike builds houses for a living, and he built this one eight years ago to look like an older style house - high ceilings, hardwood floors, crown moulding, etc. It's 18 steps up to my room, which should tell you how high the ceilings are. It's really stunning. They also like to cook, and I have a standing invitation to join them for dinner when I'm not stuck in a rehearsal during that time. And they only live two blocks from the theater. I couldn't have gotten more lucky!

We had our first rehearsal last night. My cast sang through Act I and the other cast sang through Act II. The singers are all wonderful, and very friendly. Best of all, everyone appears to have excellent French, so I don't think we'll be in need of too many grueling dialogue rehearsals. My tenor, David Robinson, sounded wonderful despite being jet-lagged (he flew in a couple of days ago from Vienna, where he currently lives). I was told by a colleague this summer that the bass, Stefano di Peppo, was terrific, and he certainly lives up to his reputation. The other Marie is tiny, but has a big bright voice, and a high E-flat that I would kill for.

Today I had a private coaching with the conductor. He is very clear and easy to work with. He seems very impressed with my legato line (thanks, Mrs. Christiansen!) and overall musicality. Tonight, we're rehearsing a few scenes between the tenor, the bass, and me.

It appears that the opera will be coming together quite quickly. We have a basic schedule for the month, and assuming we stay on schedule, we're having a stumble-through with the lighting crew next Thursday. We don't start staging until this weekend, and we have Monday off, so that doesn't leave us much time to stage the entire opera. The good thing is that while I was in Berlin, I grew accustomed to short rehearsal periods. Hope I can remember a few things!

I'll post again soon once we get deeper into rehearsals. Wish me luck!

One down, two to go!

Mitridate has been over for almost a month, and now that I'm no longer still hearing the recitatives in my dreams, I think it's about time to tell you about my experience before I forget it entirely.

This was definitely a different experience from any of the other operas I've been in. With a low budget, there just wasn't enough money for certain things that I've gotten used to more recently. One of these things was having stage managers backstage to give you your entrances. The last time I can remember not having someone tell me when to enter was during my years at Westminster for undergrad. I remember thinking when I got to USC and found out that it wasn't my job to know when to enter the stage, that having someone paid to do that was very silly and unnecessary. After one production, I was sold. There are so many other things we need to worry about as singers, and having someone else be responsible for a small part of them is wonderful. The good thing with Mitridate was that at our little black box theater in the JCC Manhattan, the backstage area was right behind the stage, so we could hear exactly where we were in the show at all times. This made entrances far easier. Speaking of the theater, it was unfortunately not built in any way for musicians. The acoustic was, by far, the worst acoustic I've ever sung in, or heard other singers sing in. And just when we thought it couldn't get any deader (singing into a pillow, perhaps?), the audience arrived and it was even worse. When a room is that dead, it makes it incredibly difficult to sing, and due to the lack of any reverb, the audience loses out on vocal warmth and color. It's difficult to work so hard at something and then learn that you're not going to sound your best no matter what you do.

Rehearsals were very interesting, and also quite different from what I've been used to. There wasn't a whole lot of time to rehearse, so we didn't rehearse musically as much as I would have wanted. In a show with so much recitative, more music repetition would have been very helpful (especially since I loved working with our conductor). We spent a lot of rehearsal time reading through the libretto in English, which I don't recall ever doing in the past. To me it seemed like a great learning tool for young singers, but not for professionals. Also, when a show has limited time, I would expect the singers to show up absolutely prepared, and know their translations. In most cases, we did show up prepared, so the repetitions in English just took away from our time to rehearse musically or on our feet.

Our director, who comes from a theater background, ran rehearsals in a way unlike any other with whom I've worked. I've had directors so specific that they even tell you where and when to move your arms; I've had directors who give a basic outline of where to go and let you fill in the rest; and I've worked with directors who let you play a little bit first, and eventually tell you what they want. Our director told us where to enter, and then said: "Let's try it." We would sing through an entire scene, staging it ourselves, then he would have us go back to the beginning, try something a little different, and move on to the next scene. We were double-cast, so basically, whichever cast went first in the staging process staged that scene. We also never had any in-depth discussion of our characters, so each individual singer developed his own character viewpoint. Occasionally, when repeating the staging of the other cast, we would change where we went on stage depending on how we thought our characters would react, thus having two different casts with two different stagings. The director was fine with this, and it gave us a lot of freedom. The lighting designer was not quite as thrilled, since none of us were moving to the same places on stage! I feel like this kind of staging took much more time than something more traditional, but it was definitely interesting doing the majority of it ourselves. With my doctoral minor in opera directing, I started staging the scenes in my mind before going to rehearsals, which I felt prepared me very well.

The performances went well, and the audiences seemed to really enjoy themselves. Thanks to the Manhattan location, some of my friends and even one of my students were able to attend, along with my family. I was especially pleased to be able to perform a lead role for my 91-year-old grandpa. I was told he couldn't stop giggling when the countertenors were singing. Being in the opening night cast, I received my first reviews, and you can read them on my website if you're interested at http://www.ericamillersoprano.com/page13/page13.html.

One of the biggest joys for me in the productions was singing with Serena Benedetti, another high soprano who was playing my (male) live interest. Her singing, her ornaments, her musicality, her stage presence, and the research she had done on the opera before the first rehearsal really inspired me. Our duet, the only one in the show, I will remember forever. As soon as we have a DVD of the performance, I will post some clips on my website and let you know. I'll also have some pictures, which I'll put on my website and on my blog.

Two weeks after Mitridate was over, I flew to Houston to sing for a fundraising dinner for Opera in the Heights, where I will be singing Marie in Daughter of the Regiment this fall. Everyone was very welcoming, and I got to stay a few blocks from the theater in a gorgeous house with wonderful hosts, Mike and Pat Journeay. I apparently made a lovely houseguest, and they offered to have me stay with them when I come back at the end of August. I hope they don't forget! At the end of the dinner, I sang Glitter and be Gay from Candide to an enthusiastic and tipsy crowd (the best kind!). It was a huge hit! I spent the next day getting the tour of Houston from a friend who lives there and will also be in Daughter of the Regiment. Rather than hit the museums and the hot spots, she told me she'd show me what real Houstonites do when it's 99 degrees outside – drink. We started at a coffee shop, since it was before noon, had lunch, and then basically went bar-hopping, with a little vintage-store shopping in between. Bars do keep you cool! After a $1.50 taco truck taco for dinner (can't wait for more of those!), I was dropped off at home, and flew back to NJ the next day. I've started learning Marie, and I LOVE it! I can't wait to get back to Houston.

I also bought my flight for Macau – I'll be flying in two days early, so I can try to get used to the 12-hour time difference before my first rehearsal. I am hoping to have both Marie and Ännchen learned and memorized before leaving for Houston, so I definitely have my work cut out for me over the next couple of months.

At home, my voice studio has been expanding quite nicely. In the past couple of weeks, I have nearly doubled the number of students taking lessons. I might have to start turning singers away pretty soon! I'm really enjoying teaching, although I did just get a 12-year-old belter (humongous voice), and I'm not entirely sure what to do with her. I guess I'll figure it out!

Happy summer (almost)!

China, here I come again!

Great news! In my previous post, I wrote about singing in the NYIOPs. Through that, I was invited to a second audition for the Savonlinna Opera Festival and for the Macau International Music Festival. I am still waiting to hear from Savonlinna, although my agent tells me I have a good chance of getting the lead in a world premiere next summer about the fire of La Fenice. I did, however, get a gig singing Ännchen in Weber's Der Freischütz in Macau this fall!!! My contract runs from October 16 through November 5, with three performances. Before I auditioned, I was told that for this production they were looking to hire "singers with considerable international experience" and that Kurt Rydl would be singing Kaspar. When I was in Beijing in 2008 covering Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Kurt Rydl was singing Baron Ochs, and I am so honored to be able to share the stage with such an amazing performer. I am excited to see who is in the rest of the cast!

A few notes about the audition for Macau....In addition to Warren Mok (who is the casting director for Macau, Shanghai, and Hong Kong), also in the audition was Brian Jauhiainan, who is the American casting consultant for those companies and Savonlinna, and about five little old Chinese women. Kathy, my agents, couldn't be there, so she sent another woman with the agency, Sandra. Kathy told me to start with one of Ännchen's arias, so I sang one even though it doesn't really show off my voice too much. No high notes, but a lot of good German diction. Warren asked me what else I brought, and looked fairly uninterested as I listed off all of my other arias. The last thing I mentioned, which I really didn't think made any sense in this situation, was Madame Mao's aria. Brian immediately turned to Warren and said "You have to hear her sing this, oh my God, I mean, you just have to hear it." Warren looked at me and said "Well, you are a dead ringer for the dead wife of Mao Tse Tung!" After telling him that's why I picked up the aria in the first place, I then, in front of a room filled with Chinese people, sang the second half of "I am the wife of Mao Tse Tung." Brian seemed thrilled, and I am so happy to have him as a supporter of my singing! I can be fairly certain that if he is ever asked to help cast a Nixon in China, I'll be the one he calls for Madame Mao. Warren seemed very impressed also, and asked how high the last note was (a D). Oddly, he seemed surprised that I could sing that high, even though my resume is filled with Queen of the Nights. A couple of weeks later, I got the offer! Macau looks like a fabulous place, and I even know the lead trombonist in the orchestra because we went to USC together. It'll be great to have a friend to show me around and point me in the direction of good street food.

Daughter of the Regiment is definitely a go at Opera in the Heights in Houston this September. I'll actually be heading to Houston in June for a weekend to sing in a fundraising event for the company. I've asked to stay an extra day so I can see some of Houston, and not just have a quick turnaround. I'll be singing Glitter and Be Gay, which is always a fun party piece. Opera in the Heights has just gotten a new artistic director/conductor, and I am very excited to work with him. His name is Enrique Carreón-Robledo, and he has worked all over. I spoke with him yesterday about the fundraising event, and I can't wait to collaborate with him on Daughter of the Regiment. It looks like we'll be doing the version with spoken dialogue, so I will have my work cut out for me.

I have just recently started rehearsing in New York for Mozart's Mitridate. It is one heck of an opera, with very difficult music for every singer. There are no low voices in the cast - there are sopranos, a tenor, and countertenors. No mezzos, no baritones, no basses. I find it very funny that the two brothers who are in love my my character are played by a man singing in a woman's register and a woman dressed as a man. I had previously thought that I'd be duetting with a countertenor, but instead it's a pants role for a soprano. While it would have made me giggle to sing a duet with a countertenor, it now makes me giggle that the "man" I'm in love with is a woman who is about half a foot shorter than me (maybe more) and skinnier than me, too. Hopefully the stage will have some platforms on it so she can stand taller than me on occasion! We had a musical run-through last week, and the singers are terrific. I'm looking forward to more rehearsals! I have the performance dates and the location on my website at www.ericamillersoprano.com.

Tomorrow I get to judge my first competition. Every year at Westminster Choir College, they have a competition for all of the non-graduating students for scholarships for the following year. This year, they have decided to have three alumni as judges. When I was in school, the members of the voice faculty were the judges, and I can imagine that it was very difficult to be impartial when making decisions. The three of us, who don't know any of the singers, will rank the students in each class from 1-10 (and give a score of 11 to all the ones who aren't in the top ten) and then the scores will be added up. We are not allowed to discuss the singers with each other, so it will be about as fair as can be. I'll be hearing singers from 9am to 5:30pm, with an hour for lunch. It's going to be a long day! Wish me luck!

I'll keep you updated as things progress. Happy Spring!

My last Met competition and other goodies

A few things have happened since my last blog post. I finally got a cut list for the first half of Mitridate, so I've been practicing the score like crazy. Thankfully, lots of the recitative is cut, and also thankfully, none of my arias are. I still have a ton to sing and learn, and I'm almost memorized on Act I, and getting there on the first half of Act II (that's all we have cuts for so far). Anyway, it's coming along nicely.

I decided for my final Met competition (or Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as they like to call it), instead of staying in Philly and competing against all the well-known AVA and Curtis kids, I would make a weekend of it and fly to San Antonio, Texas. It was my first trip to Texas, and I think I actually liked it. Looking forward to going back, albeit to another city, Houston, for Daughter of the Regiment in September. The best part, naturally, was the weather (60° and sunny), since I've been freezing my buns off all winter here in NJ. Not so sure how much I'll like the weather in September. Could be brutal.

At any rate, on to the competition. It's two rounds, a preliminary and a final. I have to start by saying that when I did this competition in LA, the organization of the whole thing from start to finish was unbelievably great. San Antonio? Not so much. Maybe they're just a little more laid back in Texas. A week before the competition, I got all the competition info in the mail. It had a lovely section telling us all about how amazing the pianist would be, without mentioning a name or contact info. Being 30, some of my repertoire is a bit more difficult and obscure than, say, something the 25 year olds might be singing. I planned on starting with "I am the wife of Mao Tse Tung," a powerhouse modern aria from Nixon in China by John Adams that I truly believe is the best thing I sing right now. The piano part is really difficult, and it's not done much, especially by younger singers, so I emailed the lady in charge to ask her for the accompanist's info, so I could let him know that I was singing this. I also was changing two of my other pieces I had originally planned to sing. On Thursday (I was to fly out on Friday, the competition was Saturday), still having not heard a peep about my email, I called, and was told, yes, she got my aria changes, and sure, she'd call the accompanist for me. Around 9pm that evening, I got a call saying that the pianist had never played Madame Mao's aria, and could I please email a PDF file to him. I did, and I thought to myself two things: a) I wish the lady had believed me in the first place so I could have gotten the music to him earlier, and b) there was no way he was going to be able to play this piece, so I should be prepared to just keep on singing no matter what. In a way, when you know that pianist doesn't know your music, you at least can accept it as a fact and move on and be prepared.

I was told to arrive at 1, and that my audition would be between 2 and 3:30. When I arrived at 1, I was greeting by smiles, and told that my audition would be at 4:40. Obviously, I questioned what the problem was, and was told that there had been an issue and everyone was moved back 2 hours. All of the singers looked pretty annoyed when I got to the green room. Sitting around an hour before an audition is fine - almost 4 hours is not cool. There were 42 singers, and rather than actually call us and tell us of the delay, they just let us all show up. I finally found out what the issue had been. The original pianist showed up, played for the first singer at 10am, apparently was terrible, was immediately fired, and was replaced by another accompanist who had a 2 hour drive from Austin. Thus the delay.

Many hours later, I finally was led backstage for my audition. I asked if there would be water on stage for us, as there was in LA and in Philly. No. I asked if there was water backstage. Yes. I asked if I could take my water bottle on stage with me. No. I asked if between arias I could slip backstage and get a sip of water. No. Great. I asked the accompanist before walking on stage if he had every played Madame Mao. No. I said "Here's my tempo. Play loudly. Good luck." Not sure exactly what he played, some of it was related to the notes on the page, but I sang the aria the way I know how to, and the head judge (Joshua Winograde from LA Opera) immediately said "Uh, can you just sing that again?" After a bit of discussion, the judges chose Fiakermilli's Aria from Arabella, and asked the accompanist if he knew that one. No. Mr. Winograde told him to take a minute or two to look it over and told me to relax. I asked him if I could relax with a sip of water from backstage, and he of course said yes. I got an evil look from the backstage lady when I said I was just getting some water. Ha ha! I came back and sang the first half of Fiakermilli, and the judges were happy enough to let me leave.

Around 6:30pm we all gathered in the auditorium to find out the finalists. One of the biggest parts of the Met competition is that the singers can go talk to the judges for feedback. We were told that because of the delay and the judges' dinner plans, those of us not called as finalists would only get to speak with one judge. I was in the process of getting really annoyed, when they called the finalists. There were 42 singers, and 8 names were called. I was the eighth name. Woohoo!

The next day we got to rehearse with the pianist for 15 minutes. He did a little better with Madame Mao, and I told him I was starting with it again (the judges obviously liked it). On stage, he reverted back to the way he was playing it before, but whatever, I sang it well again. My second aria was Caro nome from Rigoletto. Did I mention I was being treated for a rather painful ear infection the entire time? Very strange singing when you can't feel the vibrations on one side of your head. The other singers were all terrific, it was the highest level of singing I've seen so far at any competition I've done. I didn't win, but I felt great about the way I sang, and all three judges were really impressed with my Madame Mao, one calling it "absolutely spectacular." I did win enough money to cover my trip, and a little more, so that's always good!

After I came home, I made a recording of Madame Mao and Fiakermilli's aria. You can find them on my website (www.EricaMillerSoprano.com). The pianist I used also had trouble playing them, so please listen to me and forgive the random wrong notes in the piano part. They both really are hard to play.

Next up, I did the NYIOPs on Friday. These are auditions where a number of international and national companies all come to the same place at the same time to hear singers. It's a great way to take care of a number of auditions all in one fell swoop. I sang for the opera companies in Hong Kong, Oslo, Palm Beach, Sovonlinna, Linz, and Bologna. I talked my agent into letting me start with Madame Mao's aria, even though Nixon in China wasn't on the list of operas being cast this year. I really just think that no matter what, I should sing what I sing best and let them choose what they want to hear. My pianist, Craig Ketter, who plays for most of my NY auditions, was fabulous. I sang the heck out of Madame Mao, and was amazed at how much better it feels to sing it with an accompanist who can play it. I must have been on such a high that when they asked to hear Il faut partir from Daughter of the Regiment second, I managed to forget the words to half of the first verse. Oops. Got through it, and after I left the stage Craig said that he thought Il faut partir was a great aria for me. Not what I was expecting to hear. The thing is, everyone makes mistakes and has brain farts every once in a while, so it's not something I should kick myself for doing. However, thanks to singing Madame Mao's aria well, my agent contacted me after the auditions saying that the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland wants to hire me for a world premiere!!! I have absolutely no details at this point, but my agent thinks she'll have some by the end of the month. With today's opera world (companies closing, budget cuts, etc.), I'm crossing my fingers that this actually happens. Until I have a contract, there's no guarantee. But whatever, my agent is thrilled, I'm thrilled, and hopefully in the next couple of years I'll be spending a summer singing crazy new music in Finland!

Happy February!