ALT-2 Tips for a Successful Audition
Auditions are a hard fact for any performer. It's only when you get to the top of your particular career ladder that you may find yourself booked directly for work through your agent rather than having to go to standard casting calls with anything up to 50 other people who do what you do.
For the purposes of this answer, I'm going to give my tips and tricks on what I do. I'm a professional opera singer, and auditions tend to differ from those for actors, although there are some similarities to audition requirements for instrumentalists and musical theatre performers.
Types of auditions - audition requirements differ for soloists and choristers. If you are auditioning to join a professional opera chorus, you will more than likely be required to attend a "cattle call" audition, with up to a hundred other people of your voice type. You are unlikely to be referred to by name (it's most likely that you will be allocated a number), and it's also unlikely that you will have more than two minutes allocated to you, so choose something which shows your best vocal qualities in the first page. Additionally, choose something from the more "lyric" end of your repertoire. Choruses are looking for people who make a good sound. If you make it through the first cut, and get a chance to sing another area, that's the point to show what you can really do, as opera companies often cast small covers from the chorus, and will want to know how versatile you are.
A principal audition will be somewhat different. These tend to fall into two different categories - the "general" audition (where you are auditioning for a vacancy for your voice type, or "fach"), and a specific call for a specific role.
At a general audition, you should take five arias and be prepared to sing three. Make sure they are all appropriate for your voice type - a lot of opera singers have a foot in two, or even three fachs, and it's perfectly acceptable for, say, a dramatic soprano to use lyrico-spinto repertoire, or, if her voice is flexible, dramatic coloratura repertoire in an audition. A good benchmark is to do your research on who has recorded what - if a precedent has been set on CD by someone with your voicetype, you have ammunition for seizing this repertoire for yourself! Your arias should be a good mix of languages and styles, whilst showing who and what you are vocally.
Obviously, a call for a specific role will have slightly different requirements. It sounds obvious, but make sure you've looked at every note of that role. For example, if you're auditioning for Butterfly, you may be able to sing Un bel di beautifully, but can you sing the extremely demanding act two scena with Sharpless, and can you refine your voice down to the fresh innocence required for Butterfly's entrance? Have as MUCH COACHING AS YOU CAN AFFORD. It's worth it. You always, always need a fresh pair of ears, and a mini disc player, although useful, won't always do it.
So, tips and tricks. How do you do a successful audition? Well, I have about a one in three hit rate, so I don't have all the answers, but I reckon getting 33% of the work I go for isn't bad. I'm not any better than anyone else in my field, nor do I have all the answers, but this is my checklist:
Tip One - do your homework on the company. For example - do they have repertoire coming up that's suitable for you, and if not, is it worth your train or airfare to audition for them anyway.
Tip Two - prepare your music thoroughly (see my notes above). If you can, try it out in public first. If you're going for a general audition, try to use repertoire where you've performed the role. It really shows.
Tip Three - don't wear new clothes. You'll look like you are. Go in something well tried and tested, smart, clean, and comfortable. Make sure it's plain, as the director will want to be able to imagine you in costume. If you're plump, dress in one colour head to toe - not neccesarily black, as it's the block effect that's slimming, not the colour! - although beware of heels if you're tiny, unless you're REALLY used to wearing them. Be individual with your accessories, but don't wear anything that jangles, flaps, or is otherwise hideously distracting.
Tip Four - Be nice, smile at the panel, and be normal. It's nerve wracking sitting on a panel, believe it or not (I've done it), and it's a real relief to have someone come in for whom it's obviously just all in a day's work, who clearly wants to be there, and is relishing the opportunity to sing to you. This is what you do, and love. Show it!
Tip Five - be proactive afterwards. Email the company to thank them for their time, and if appropriate (you'll have to be the judge of this one, I'm afraid, as there's no benchmark), ask for feedback. I also don't agree with the technology we have now of even doing a blind copied "thanks, but no thanks" to unsuccessful applicants. If you know you sang well, and you haven't heard, then phone or email and ask (politely) if they can let you know an answer on the job. I did this recently, and ended up with a cover and a healthy fee attached - something they weren't planning to cast until much nearer the time!
But the most important tip of all has nothing to do with your talents, skills, and preparation. Much as I hate to end an article on a downer, there are few jobs where you are weighed in the balance and found wanting in such a way on a daily basis. I have had my physical attributes and shortcomings in relation to a role discussed in front of me as though I wasn't even there. And I'm far from unique in that. You will be rejected several times a month in some small way by your chosen profession. Make sure you have a solid support network - whether that's friends and family, or musical mentors who believe in you. You need it, or you'll suffer.
It's tough out there, but you're doing it because you have to. Good luck.
