June 10, 2003, Vienna
Meeting Erich Seitter is like stepping into a metaphorical opera museum where Mr. Seitter is the tour guide. A former singer and now well-established Viennese agent since 1987, he possesses an extensive knowledge of the operatic world, its history and trends, its myths and facts. At the same time, Mr. Seitter is endowed with a keen awareness of the business demands of the operatic profession.
I would like to thank all of you who sent me your questions and comments on dealing with a European agent. I am grateful to Mr. Seitter for having taken the time to answer those questions and present an agent’s perspective on the business.
Singers from more isolated parts of the world don’t have access to much information about auditions for European agencies. They have asked for suggestions on how to proceed in obtaining information and approaching an agent.
Everyone would have access to everything if they checked the Internet. After finding out addresses, all they have to do is write a letter to the agency. They must include information about their performing experience, education, repertoire, a photograph, and also which arias they are offering at the audition. Now it is also very important to add a tape, a CD, or even better a video of a recital or performance. In this respect, the women are at a disadvantage. When yet another soprano-there are so many!-sends materials, it is more helpful to include a video, because that gives the agent a better idea: Is it a young singer? Does she have a routine already? Is she still building her performance style? Avoid sending the overly glamorous, Hollywood-style photos, especially if you don’t look like your picture. That is why a video is important, because less-than-perfect looks can be compensated for by a beautiful and solid performanceÉ
In Europe, of course, one of the audition arias has to be in German. I ask for five arias; one has to be Mozart and one in German, so if you come with a German Mozart aria, you have already fulfilled two requirements. The singers I decide to invite for an audition have a choice of possible dates. If someone comes from very far, and is good, they should give themselves three weeks’ time, and then I can organize an audition tour right away.
One other suggestion I have for young singers is to take part in competitions. Of course, it is not a requirement, but a competition with agents and general managers as part of the jury is ideal. It is not important whether some retired opera singer judges you. Yes, she may know about the voice, but what can she do for you? Perhaps she can make a phone call to a conductor… Singers should look for competitions judged by those who are on the business side of this profession and could hire them.
In some ways, I am not a fan of competitions; they can be unfair…and you must have money to travel and participate in them. Asian singers have more money than someone from Siberia, or some parts of Latin America, for example, and they are also very stress and travel resistant, so they constitute a large number of competition candidates…Going back to auditioning for agencies, the best months for central Europe are October and November, because that’s when the bookings take place for the next season, unless you are a Heldentenor or some rare Fach, then you can come in January or February too.
Speaking of rare Fachs, what voices are in demand in Europe?
Good voices! Well…worldwide, there is a lack of low bass voices: Sarastro, Osmin, the type of voice Kurt Moll, Kurt Rydl, or René Pape has. Italian bass roles are sung by Russians a lot, but the beautiful German repertoire bass voice is missing. As for women, dramatic sopranos, real spintos, are badly needed! From Senta onwards… Chrysotemis… In the Italian repertoire, a voice that can sing Amelia in Un Ballo , then Trovatore ,Forza …She doesn’t have to sing Turandot , but we need the real Verdi soprano… what Tebaldi and Antonietta Stella were, and Maria Chiara.
Now you have someone like Maria Guleghina who can handle these roles, but the Italians complain of her strong Slavic accent.
We actually have tenors at the moment, despite the general idea that there are no tenors. The young Italian cavalier baritone is also in demand-what Piero Capuccilli was ten years ago. We need a young Bruson or a young Nucci, who can really sing Posa in Don Carlo , di Luna in Il trovatore . I sound like Jonathan Friend from the Met when I ask, “Who can sing the role of di Luná today? You go to Florence and see Il trovatore or Un ballo , and where are the Italian voices? All you find is Russian, Russian, Russian!”
When a singer auditions for you, what qualities do you look for right away?
Most important for me is technique. The beauty of the voice comes second. There are singers who don’t have a beautiful voice, but an excellent technique: a clear, even voice with no wobble, bleatiness or obvious register changes. The voice has to seem like one smooth register from top to bottom.
I am old-fashioned… In former mass auditions, I would always ask a lyric soprano (Now you’re going to say, “How mean!”) to sing Pamina’s aria. The first six measures tell you if she can sing. How she begins is crucial, as well as the jump from “es” to “ist”! Once I hear that, I already know how well she can handle her register changes. That was so wonderful about Mirella Freni-the high passaggio register between E flat and A, so important for the soprano repertoire!
Freni always had this purity in what I now call the “Freni lage” (the Freni register/spot), she could color these notes and do anything from soft to loud. That is what I expect from a lyric soprano.
If the technique is excellent, the singer can sell himself/herself very well, and the image is not that important. Singers who are unattractive in real life step on the stage and the artistic miracle happens: they transform themselves due to a complete control and mastery of their technique. That is all. Timbre is a matter of taste. If someone sings without a wobble, screaming, or tightness, that pure sound spreads throughout the body and endows the singer with an aura of grace and eleganceÉlike a dancer with a great techniqueÉwhat do you care if the singer is cross-eyed? My father would have said, “It doesn’t hurt a woman to be beautiful,” but it is not as important in this profession as many make it to be.
If someone displays a technical security, they can transport you to a place of beauty. Believe it or not, art comes from this technical control.
Is age important?
Well, today there is this obsession with youth. It depends on the Fach. If a lyric soprano is thirty-three, and has only studied until now, there is something strange there. I would wonder. But age is not the determining factor. When a Blonde or Olympia is just beginning at thirty-five, I have reservations, but if a Tosca comes to me at that age, that is not so strange.
I think the age group between twenty-five and thirty-five is very important for a singer’s career development. The career should start sometime in this period of your life. Below twenty-five, I would say you have time, above thirty-five, I don’t know…it can be a little late.
Do you ask the age at auditions?
Yes, especially if they are beginners. If someone is thirty-four and has only sung three roles, I wonder what they have done the last nine years. But again, when someone sings well, everything comes together at once: personality, charm, confidence, artistry. ItÕs like a puzzle that just fits together.
Do you work with beginners as well?
Of course. We try them out, and if they give good results, we continue. People are so interested in new singers today. “Don’t you have a new singer for us?” is a common question.
What is your definition of a beginner?
A beginner to me is someone who has finished their studies, and preferably participated in an opera studio or Young Artists program. These are important because they teach you to work with partners and listen.
Is it important for you that a singer has worked with orchestra before?
Helpful, but not required. I look for ensemble work. The ability to listen even if you have nothing to sing in the scene is important. If you are in a good opera studio or Young Artists program in a big house where you sing small parts, you can learn from the great singers there. That is, I can’t cook yet, but I go into the best restaurants. I can’t afford them, but I order a salad and observe what the others are eating! Quality can be learned! It is not always an innate characteristic.
So, you don’t think it is detrimental to a singer’s future marketability to sing small roles in a big house?
No. It also depends on your circumstances. If you come from a provincial town where you have no cultural activities except your TV, and your own voice lessons and coachings, I suggest you try to get into a big opera house Young Artists program for two years. Then you learn so much from the established professionals, even if you just sing: “La cena é pronta.” However, if you grow up in a big city and have the chance to attend many opera performances and hear the great singers from a young age, I would say, try to go to a smaller house where you can sing-perhaps not leading roles right away-but roles like Marcello or Musetta. Then after three years you can ask yourself, “Where am I? What are my possibilities? Can I be freelance? Can I go one step higher? Am I the type to audition?” The first five years in a singer’s career are a crucial period. You must discover if this profession is for you. It is not a matter of having success or not in those initial five years, it is answering the question, “Am I made for this profession?”
When you decide to work with a singer, what is the next step?
Well, I don’t draw a contract in the first three years, but only when we realize we can do something together. Each agent has their own nose for a singer, their own instinct. You begin to know what singers fit in what theaters, but as an agent you have to know your limits too. So, when you arrange auditions for singers, you have to be very aware of the needs of the particular theater or casting director. Then if the singer actually gets hired several times, that builds a trust between agent and singer. There are situations in which you have to say, “I can’t do anything for you. You are good but there is no chemistry between us.” Or, “I have tried everything possible and you never get a job.” Then sometimes, the same singer goes to another agent and gets a contract! The contrary is also possible. Someone leaves their agency, disappointed, comes to me, and starts getting hired. It’s the right thing, the right theater in the right moment! In the beginning, that is always very hard. I always refer to it as, “Who will turn the light on for you?” It doesn’t matter if there are three or four light bulbs, once the light is turned on, that is the most important step.
Do you hold auditions only in Vienna?
Yes. I also pick singers from competitions, and then they don’t need to audition for me. But I have to state it clearly; I don’t hire, I deliver. I can only take you by the hand and lead you to the opera house. Your duty is then to maintain the contact with that house, and once hired, to build yourself a good reputation there. That reflects on my reputation as a good agent. Whenever things don’t work, we have to ask, “What did you or I do wrong, and what did the theater do wrong?”
What happens after the first three years of working with a singer, assuming everything goes well?
Then we sign a three year representation contract. Now you have someone to represent you and the theaters are aware of that, so when they need you they call me. It makes it easier for them.
Is this contract exclusive?
Well, it is not prison… when someone is established and other agencies or theaters I don’t work with call me, then I am prepared to collaborate with them.
What about the competition between agencies?
Yes, well, it’s just like between singers! You can work together when you have to, but you don’t put all your cards on the table! Now this business has become so “tight,” everyone knows about everyone else, especially through the Internet. When another agent says, “I know a theater doing Berliozos Les Troyens in England, but I won’t tell you where it is,” all you have to do is search the Internet and you find out it is the Scottish Opera! However, auditioning directly for the opera house is harder; it’s all very much under the control of the agents. The theaters trust us more than they would an individual singer going there on his or her own.
So, your responsibilities as agent are
To be in constant contact with theaters-to know what they need. I travel everywhere I have singers performing, mainly to check up on their development. If they are growing, I take them to the general managers directly and say, “Do you have something new for this singer?” I have to get jobs, openings, to check the singers’ schedules, to be part of this whole network. A good agent needs to put pressure on the theaters all the time: “I can take my singers to three or four other theaters, if you don’t give them the premiere next year or pay them better!” It’s a constant persistence.
I imagine this can be tiring work…
Very. And you are always guilty for what happens. If singers are successful, of course, they are proud of themselves-as they should be-but if not, it is always the agent’s fault!
What about getting your singers to perform in concerts?
I don’t produce concerts, but when some producing organization asks me for a singer for a mass or a requiem, I deliver. The singers are responsible for their flights and hotels. The producers and theaters used to help with travel arrangements before, but they don’t have the personnel anymore. We have actually become a travel agency for some singers! In the last five years, the work of the agent has doubled, because it’s not just about where there is an opening and how much money can I get for the singer, now the agent has to be a promoter as well, and take care of photos, publicity, everything.
But you earn more money with more responsibilities, don’t you?
Truthfully, the income has been frozen at one level for the past ten years. I make the same amount as I did then in proportion to the number of singers I have. The poor singer has to spend so much more, too, for his or her promotion. They need a website now, especially after the first five years. It is more practical for the theaters, too, to get information about you from your website.
Is there a tendency here to cast one Fach heavier?
It’s a big trend. The orchestra sound has become higher, more concentrated, more brilliant-I don’t want to say thinner-but more transparent. Even the stages in general are less crowded than thirty years ago. Voices too are lighter, clearer, fresher and more lyrical. A soprano that is hired for Isolde today would have never even been considered for the part twenty years ago! But with this change in orchestral sound, a lighter voice would be hired for a heavier part, yes.
Why do you think the orchestral sound has evolved this way?
Because the dramatic voices are missing! It’s a vicious cycle. Even the appearance of human beings has changed in general. They are thinner, taller, better looking… My nephews are two heads taller than me, but thinner… such a body build cannot hide a big voice. But this Fach issue is very tricky for singers. For example, when you sing Isolde in a small house and are successful, you might be bombarded with offers from bigger houses, so you would force yourself because the jobs are tempting.
Do you obtain both Fest and Gast contracts for your singers?
Yes. It usually depends on the theater. We can also get a part-of-the-season contract. A freelance singer lives from Gast contracts. A Fest contract is important for the first three years in a beginner’s career. Being Fest, you can also have a Gast permission, which means you can sing somewhere else occasionally, but you are a member of your particular opera house and get a monthly income whether you sing or not.
In a smaller house you can earn in a month as much as a colleague at a bigger house earns in two evenings. It’s a discrepancy, but I believe it is important to go through the Fest contract because it is a way to build repertoire and test yourself. I perform on Tuesday night, let’s say. Can I sing full voice in an orchestra rehearsal the next day at 11:00am? Maybe I went to bed at 1:00 after my performance… These tough experiences give you confidence, so when you are freelance, you know what you can handle.
Is there a problem with the reduction of funds in Europe, so that foreign singers are not hired as much?
In the theater/acting department, that is more likely; in opera, not really. If someone is good, nationality does not matter. Your agency is focused on opera… Yes. I have conductors, designers, stage directors and of course, singers. I don’t deal with musical theater.
What about operetta?
I am the top casting agent for the M_rbisch operetta festival where we have almost 250,000 visitors annually. However, we only do one operetta a year. It’s fifty kilometers from Vienna, outdoors, a very popular festival. But there are no more specialized operetta singers, really.
I am surprised there is a lack of interest in this field, especially here in Austria.
Actually, these operetta performances are always sold out, but I suppose it is not in fashion. The older generations attend them.
There are cases in which so-called agents do nothing for singers, but take advantage of their hunger for work, promising much and delivering little, while somehow managing to take money from them. Do you have any comments on that?
If you fall into the hands of such an agent, you must simply trust your instincts, which will tell you from the beginning and from his behavior not only what kind of a professional but the type of person he is. I can’t imagine what kind of agent would promise things and do nothing. Then he is a terrible agent. They should not ask for money or anything else from you at the start. The money will come with the contracts, not before. All I have to say is: keep your eyes and ears open. Do not believe everything!
A singer-agent relationship is like a marriage. If you feel there can be no trust, because your instinct tells you so, go to someone else. Do not get pulled into anything you feel uncomfortable with. There are many agents around; you don’t have to settle for anything you feel is not right.
A good agent has the duty to tell the singer, “I tried, but your Fach is not in demand at theaters.” The responsibility of a singer is to notice if they don’t do well in a theater-if they are not getting any roles, for example. Then the agent would have you change the theater. Honesty and the ability to communicate openly with your agent are crucial…But sometimes, it is all very subjective.
As a Fest singer, you can perform all the main parts in one year, and then they hire a new stage director who doesn’t like you-perhaps you remind him of his ex-wife-and all of a sudden you are on the sidelines, not singing anything. Well… that applies more to theater, but it can happen in opera too. However, if you are excellent, even a hostile stage director will be forced to give you a good part.
Sometimes you have to fight for yourself and say, “I have the right not only to get my income but also to get time on stage, to be heard and seen!” You must have at least two roles per year!
I heard about a case in which a singer was exclusively signed by a famous agency, and now she does not get any work. How is that possible? Why would an agency sign someone and then keep them on hold?
Perhaps she is too passive or not building a good reputation. Sometimes when I hear that one of my singers is not doing too well, I am disappointed and pull back. However, I don’t just keep them on hold; I try to find out what is wrong. It can also be an unlucky time; all singers and agents go through that.
How are American singers viewed in Europe?
They are fast learners and very practical. They buy a Eurail ticket and travel everywhere. Ask a Viennese, “Today is Tuesday; can you go to Hamburg on Friday?” and they complain they are so tired… The Americans would say, “OK, no problem! Tomorrow!” They know, “If I don’t grab this opportunity, there is a huge line waiting behind me!” But the Americans are not coming as much now as they did in the 50s and 60s. Now there are many more opera companies in the States, so they can actually start their career there, too. The road from America to Europe is not as traveled as before.
Do you work with American opera theaters?
Of course. Just this week, I got a German tenor and Italian bass engaged to sing at the Met. Interestingly enough, I have had more luck with the Met than with Chicago and San Francisco. I get a lot of requests for singers for the German repertoire.
Do you like your work?
Yes. There are many happy moments…when you sit in the fourth row, look up on the stage and think, “No one believed in this singer; no one wanted to give him this part! And now look at him or her!” That makes me very happy.
