If you want to start a heated debate, just ask any group of opera singers what they should sing, or wear, or how they should behave in an audition for one of the nation’s top opera choruses.
Alternatively, you can analyze the audition after the fact. Did the people auditioning stop the singers after one aria? Did they ask the singers questions? Chances are, each singer will interpret the audition in a different way. That’s why CS decided to demystify the process by going right to the source in this exclusive interview with Donald Nally, the chorus master for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
When you joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2007, you instituted prescreening for singers who wished to audition for the chorus. What do you look for when you review their materials?
Screening applications avoids auditions that have no promise of being productive for either party. . . . We’re looking for a firm foundation that includes advanced musical skills, language experience, strong vocal technique, and dramatic ability. We want to know that a singer has studied with a reputable teacher or at an institution that provides this foundation. We also want to see that singers already have confirmation of their potential through previous opera chorus work or apprentice programs. It’s rare that someone walks out of school and into Lyric.
Is conservatory training essential?
In most cases, yes. You can’t get by on a tremendous voice alone in today’s market. You have to have sight-reading ability, experience, and flexibility. Ninety-five percent of singers who are seriously being considered for the Lyric’s chorus have had graduate-level training at a conservatory.
How important are language skills?
Very important. We cannot coach languages from the start in rehearsals. Singers must sing Italian excellently. German and French are also important. Choristers have to be able to sing Manon and The Pearlfishers back to back, as we did at Lyric last season. We can’t go through every syllable with them—there simply isn’t time. So it must be assumed we all come with the basics.
Do you prefer singers who are based in the Chicago area?
We don’t take this into account in auditions. We feel it’s up to the singer. If they are serious enough to fly in for an audition, we assume they are prepared to relocate.
What about AGMA versus non-AGMA singers? Does union affiliation matter?
Choristers have to join anyway, so it’s not a factor in our decision.
What does a singer’s headshot tell you?
We’re looking for a professional, black-and-white, glossy headshot. Some people send a passport-sized photo or a snapshot taken by a friend. This tells me that an audition with this candidate wouldn’t be productive for either of us.
Do you review notes from prior auditions in the prescreening process?
Yes. I keep several lists. I have a “Don’t Ask Back” list, a list of people I should absolutely hear again, and a list of people who have potential—people I should listen to again in a couple of years.
Let’s talk about the actual audition itself. What exactly are you listening for?
The fundamental thing I want to know is that you have to sing, that singing is a driving force in your life and you can’t live without it. That force will motivate you during the tough times of singing in an opera chorus. No one starts out imagining a career in which you’re told exactly what do all the time: how to sing, where to stand, what to wear, how to act, what to think, etc. Despite all these directions, the performance has to be meaningful and real, to the singers and to the audience. This comes from a fundamental need to sing in people who otherwise could not express what they have to say.
A choral musician—even in opera—has to know how to pull the sound back and lean the sound down. Leaning the sound down is particularly important for Mozart and Handel operas, which don’t, and shouldn’t, sound like Verdi. It’s also essential for contemporary works. But we’re also looking for singers who can produce significant volume, since we have a large house with a voluminous orchestra.
Opera choristers must understand rhythmic integrity, which singers sometimes ignore in an effort to create legato. In an opera chorus, the legato line is sometimes irrelevant, because precision and impact is what is heard over orchestral accents. Singers must also have purity of vowels and the ability to use the voice in a variety of colors and dynamics. I’m also listening for intonation—is the singer singing in the center of the pitch in all ranges?
You’ve said that the sight-reading portion of the Lyric’s auditions is “infamous.” What exactly does it involve?
I’ve been using a certain piece for years and years. The first few measures require only rudimentary singing. Then the music gets a little more chromatic. It’s not difficult, but it requires increasing skill as it progresses. It also shows whether the singers can find their way back to the home pitch should they stray a bit.
It’s OK to make a few mistakes, but generally speaking, the ability to read music reflects a certain essential aptitude about music and about our work.
Do you prefer that singers bring popular or obscure arias to the audition?
That’s a good question. Outside my work at Lyric, I do a lot of new music. Consequently, singers think I might like to hear something contemporary. But I don’t necessarily like to hear these kinds of arias in an audition, especially if they’re difficult to quickly assemble even with a pianist of the highest caliber. And, while newer music often demonstrates dramatic ability, it just as often does not demonstrate those techniques required of our basic repertoire. I don’t care if I hear “Va! Laisse couler mes larmes” 20 times in a row, because it shows me volume, range, musicality, and dramatic ability—and it’s short! It shows me whether someone understands what singing is.
What I dislike hearing, for instance, is a Mozart aria that goes on and on, telling me the same thing about the singer over and over. Or a scene from Parsifal (as has happened), which is ridiculous, because if you can actually sing Parsifal, then why are you auditioning for the Lyric chorus, and if you can’t, then why are you singing this in an audition?
I feel that singers deserve to sing their first piece all the way through, but I usually hear everything I need to in the first few measures. It’s a good idea, then, to bring in something brief. Forexample, “Bella siccome un angelo” or Bob’s Bedroom aria, followed by a little Count and then some sight-reading makes a good audition.
How do you judge dramatic ability?
A chorus master develops an instinct about this. An audition is already unrealistic because a dramatic aria “in recital” demands we forego some context. Most baritones don’t bring along a Cherubino to sing to, it isn’t necessary to bring along your jewelry, and it’s preferable to still be standing at the end of the aria. What’s important is the connection to the emotional context, whether it’s clear on a singer’s face, or through body language and connection to the breath that he or she understands the moment and is completely in that moment.
What do you think about singers who bring their own pianists?
It’s fine, but it demonstrates a certain lack of understanding and experience. That’s because it’s unlikely that your accompanist is going to play these works better than those at Lyric. I had to learn this, too. When I auditioned at Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music as an undergraduate, I brought my own accompanist from Pennsylvania. It turned out the audition accompanist was one of the best-known coaches in the country. It wasn’t the wisest decision on my part, but what did I know?
What does it mean if you ask for a second aria?
We usually stop with one, but if we ask for a second, it could be for a wide variety of reasons. It may be a genuine desire to hear more. Or perhaps I suspect that there’s a problem in the voice and I need to hear a different aria to better evaluate this. Often singers with pitch problems will wisely choose to sing something fast-paced, with short, moving notes, so we need to hear something slow and legato. There are a lot of calculations I’m making quickly.
Singers are usually wrong when they second-guess the reasons why an audition panel did or did not request a second aria.
How should singers dress for the audition?
Most people come quite dressed up, so you’re at a disadvantage if you’re in jeans rather than a suit. I’m a casual person myself, but it’s important to honor the gravity of the audition, to give some weight to the three “temples” for which we dress: the church, academia, and art.
Do you consider height, looks, or physical fitness?
Height doesn’t play a role at all. In fact, we largely do not take physicality into account. However, given two completely equal candidates, we will choose the one easier to costume.
How important are personality and behavior?
These are incredibly important. During callbacks, I chat with the candidates because I want to get a better idea of who they are. Everyone is nice in an audition, so we need a sense of how they think and how they will collaborate. Our singers have to be able to sit in a dressing room six days per week with 23 or more of their own gender for eight months of the year and get along.
I don’t do “not nice.” If you’re not nice, there’s going to be something ugly about your art.
Are your criteria different for the regular and supplemental choruses?
They’re not that different. That said, an offer of a full-time chorus position means that we are making a serious mutual commitment to each other—it could be for your entire career. That’s not something we’ll offer if we have any reservations.
Do you have a waitlist?
I don’t really have a waitlist, but I do keep a private list of people I’d like to hire in the order that I’d like to hire them. I might refer to it if I know there’s big chorus needed for an opera we’re performing in, say 2011 and I want to sketch them in for it.
Can you provide some general tips for those auditioning?
To me, making music is an intimate, vulnerable occasion, as well as an incredible gift to us. In an audition, I want to see that a person knows and feels the music at a fundamental and truthful level. Singers focus on this a lot less than you’d expect. Instead, they concentrate on their production, wanting to demonstrate their golden tone. It’s important to remember that we’re in the business of emotions. We get paid to entertain on an emotional basis. We may be in a 3,500-seat elegant opera house with a huge orchestra and chorus in the middle of a big city, but it’s still really just a cart with a little curtain, a few masks,
and a box of costumes, and the villagers throwing a few coins at us to enhance their lives through our ability to move them and make them laugh.
People are often apologetic in auditions, especially during the sight-reading portion. I don’t want to work with a person who is always apologizing for not being at his or her best. I want them to be at their best and improve on those things that need work, to take every situation for what it is and dive in. My job is to inspire and encourage that, but you have to be ready for it. You have to have a strong sense of self and initiative.
I also take into consideration the way a singer works with the pianist. Does the singer spend seemingly endless time advising the pianist about how he or she will sing the piece, or does the singer give a brief note and trust his fellow musician?
Many singers believe that once you’re in the chorus, you won’t ever be considered seriously for solo roles. Do you agree or disagree with this view?
I disagree. Christine Brewer was in the chorus in St. Louis, and she’s doing all right these days. Lots of other soloists start there. Your career path is what you make it. Some people choose to be in the chorus because they don’t want a transient lifestyle. Some simply love being in an ensemble. Many of our choristers do solo work off-season.
If you want to sing in a chorus for a while and then move on, you will, but this is a choice. Because of the time and use of the voice required in the chorus, it isn’t really possible to do roles at the same time. So, if you want to move on, you must stop and take the risk. It’s a risk to be in the chorus and a risk not to, which is how it should be.
Life is about risk. It’s a series of choices.
