I promise this will be my last post on the subject! The two conductors that I particularly admired in the competition, and who both got through to the second round, did not win prizes. One got through to the final and the other did not.
What does this mean? Well, the jury were looking for things in Opera conducting that I was not, and I am looking for things that they were not. I have no complaints about this, there are plenty of different styles and techniques around. I'm always open to suggestion and we should all always strive to learn and improve.
Lulu at Covent Garden tonight, I have never seen it before and don't know it well. Something else new to learn!
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Final Words on the Competition
I'm back in the UK, and have been for a couple of days. Before I travelled to Bulgaria I was telling the wife, family and friends that I was not expecting to progress to the second round of the competition, and this turned out to be the case.
Am I disappointed? Well, in fact I am. Some entrants to the competition were standing in front of an opera orchestra and singers for the first time, others were very experienced. I watched almost everyone conduct and I thought that I had a reasonable chance of getting through.
Some of the conductors were excellent, and I felt should progress to the final. I have noted their names but I don't think it would be sensible to publish them here. Two I admired very much, they had clear technique, cued the singers, led and responded well.
I will be interested to see the results, if the conductors I admired didn't get through it would suggest that the panel have different ideas on how to conduct opera from mine. I shall then have something interesting to think about!
Am I disappointed? Well, in fact I am. Some entrants to the competition were standing in front of an opera orchestra and singers for the first time, others were very experienced. I watched almost everyone conduct and I thought that I had a reasonable chance of getting through.
Some of the conductors were excellent, and I felt should progress to the final. I have noted their names but I don't think it would be sensible to publish them here. Two I admired very much, they had clear technique, cued the singers, led and responded well.
I will be interested to see the results, if the conductors I admired didn't get through it would suggest that the panel have different ideas on how to conduct opera from mine. I shall then have something interesting to think about!
Saturday, 6 June 2009
First Round Result
Sadly I have not been selected to go through to the second round.
Thanks to all for your support and encouragement, it has been much appreciated.
Thanks to all for your support and encouragement, it has been much appreciated.
Final thoughts on the first round.
Today is the last day of the first round, and the only day when all 10 of the conducting slots are taken. The competition was open to 60 conductors and for one reason or another only 52 have turned up. You will know if you have read the posts below that there could have been only 51.
I have been able to watch most of my fellow competitors doing their rehearsal of Cav, I intend to treck into Bourgas (the hotel is 18km from the theatre) to watch the last session today. I am not going to make comments on this blog about named individuals, but I will about the general standard. It has been very mixed, with some people who are very inexperienced simply not knowing what to do nor how to do it. The experience will be quite a shock to them and they will go away chastened and realising that they have a lot to learn about conducting opera. It's a very different game from the symphony orchestra. A handful of people have been very good, and one in particular exceptionally good. He had everything, clarity, musicianship, excellent technique for cueing the singers and shaping the phrases of the band, with good accompanying skills and control. He was a joy to watch.
How do I think I have faired in all this? I really do not know, and I am not thinking about it. As I have mentioned before we have no idea of what the judges are looking for and it is entirely possible that they are looking for something that I did not give them. I came out here for the experience and to give myself the chance of getting noticed. I have enjoyed the experience and the challenge, if I am not noticed then so be it.
I have been able to watch most of my fellow competitors doing their rehearsal of Cav, I intend to treck into Bourgas (the hotel is 18km from the theatre) to watch the last session today. I am not going to make comments on this blog about named individuals, but I will about the general standard. It has been very mixed, with some people who are very inexperienced simply not knowing what to do nor how to do it. The experience will be quite a shock to them and they will go away chastened and realising that they have a lot to learn about conducting opera. It's a very different game from the symphony orchestra. A handful of people have been very good, and one in particular exceptionally good. He had everything, clarity, musicianship, excellent technique for cueing the singers and shaping the phrases of the band, with good accompanying skills and control. He was a joy to watch.
How do I think I have faired in all this? I really do not know, and I am not thinking about it. As I have mentioned before we have no idea of what the judges are looking for and it is entirely possible that they are looking for something that I did not give them. I came out here for the experience and to give myself the chance of getting noticed. I have enjoyed the experience and the challenge, if I am not noticed then so be it.
Thursday, 4 June 2009
The Wife!
Followers of this blog will be pleased to hear that the wife and daughters Nos 1 & 2 are now safely home in England.
Reflections on Round One to date.
It is the morning of Thursday 4th of June as I write. The competition is half way through its first round. I conducted on Monday, since then I have gone into the theatre to watch the other conductors on the afternoons of Tuesday and Wednesday, I have not yet made up my mind whether I will go today because watching the competition is an exhausting business! The orchestra and singers have to cope with such a wide variety of conducting styles, techniques and tempi that I fear for their sanity. Every section of Cav seems to be capable of interpretation in an infinite variety of ways with an infinite variety of tempi. I have even started to feel sorry for the Jury, they are going to be mighty unpopular people with the majority of the competitors in a few days (I will accept my fate with stoic resolve), but sitting through 4 hours with 10 conductors each doing 20 minutes of Cav after a morning full of the same thing with Figaro is not my idea of heaven, I hope they are being well paid.
So, you may ask, why are YOU going in to watch the competition? It is tiring, I spend the morning sleeping and working on Carmen (which is the next round of the competition), and exhaust myself with watching Cav in the afternoon. I suppose it is because I am genuinely fascinated by the art and technique of conducting opera. It has so many elements, but ultimately has the goal of keeping the thing together. Stick technique (everybody so far has used a stick, including me) is so important in opera, be too wafty and flowery you might get a nice warm sound but precision will be sacrificed, too clicky and direct and warmth and expression tend to suffer. There are a million other factors to weigh in as well.
So... as we have absolutely no idea what the judges are looking for, I have absolutely no idea how I have done in respect to the other competitors. Some are having their first experience of conducting opera, others have more experience than I do. Everyone has come out of the pit unhappy with their Cav and made similar remarks to mine below. It is all in the hands of the Gods now, and I have never envied the Gods less!
So, you may ask, why are YOU going in to watch the competition? It is tiring, I spend the morning sleeping and working on Carmen (which is the next round of the competition), and exhaust myself with watching Cav in the afternoon. I suppose it is because I am genuinely fascinated by the art and technique of conducting opera. It has so many elements, but ultimately has the goal of keeping the thing together. Stick technique (everybody so far has used a stick, including me) is so important in opera, be too wafty and flowery you might get a nice warm sound but precision will be sacrificed, too clicky and direct and warmth and expression tend to suffer. There are a million other factors to weigh in as well.
So... as we have absolutely no idea what the judges are looking for, I have absolutely no idea how I have done in respect to the other competitors. Some are having their first experience of conducting opera, others have more experience than I do. Everyone has come out of the pit unhappy with their Cav and made similar remarks to mine below. It is all in the hands of the Gods now, and I have never envied the Gods less!
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Competition, First round.
Yesterday I conducted in the first round of the competition. I was first on for Figaro and last on for Cav.
I ran straight through the opening duet of Figaro. The Susanna was delightful, she watched carefully and responded well to what I was doing. The Figaro read the dots from his score, and tended to be a little late on his entries. He did sound as though he knew the part so I politely pointed out that he was late and asked him to “close his book” which he happily agreed to do. After this he was always in time!
The second duet went well so I moved onto Figaro’s Cavatina “Se vuol balare”. Half way through the horns started to rush and got out with both me and the singer, so I stopped to put that right which took a minute or two. I remember how tricky this is for the horns from playing the piece many years ago. I also had to fix some violin pizz notes to give Figaro a little more time in one or two places. Then on to Bartolo’s aria which has much more to work on. I rehearsed the orchestra for a few moments to get them to play a little more marcato, there is an angry man on stage and I like the orchestra to reflect this. This worked fairly well so I brought the singer back in. To my surprise he got lost on a simple entry so I started again and gave him a slightly more vigorous cue at the entry he had missed. He was fine this time and we carried on until the cue light came on and my 20 minutes was up. I left the pit happy and feeling I had made an impression. The orchestra reacted well to what I wanted. Generally they played down and had to be encouraged to play up but did this when asked, they made a nice sound and played together. The principals also did what I asked of them. Their style and technique is rather different to what we are used to in the UK but this didn’t get in the way and I felt it was a successful rehearsal.
After conducting one’s segment of the opera the conductors are allowed to go into the theatre to listen to the other candidates. I did hear most of the others but here is not yet the right place to comment on them!
Cav was a different matter, conducting a general rehearsal of this opera with no previous work was not going to be easy. The style is very different and it is a much bigger sing, the rubati need time to work through with the orchestra and it all needs thorough rehearsal. I knew that this was going to be a big ask for all of us and so it proved. I was doing the first part of the opera from the chorus entry (not the prelude and Siciliano). The section has massive rubati and lots of gear changes. It all started well enough although the first rubato section was a little untidy, later on one of the principal wind players couldn’t follow a straightforward and standard rallentando, she appeared to be sight reading the opera! The offstage chorus bits just about worked, but if you are standing on top of the orchestra it can be difficult to hear anything offstage, but we got through it. When women arrived on stage they were set well back and looked about as bored and apathetic as one could wish. Well, this competition is going to be hell for them so I can’t really blame them. As least they were watching me for cues. At one point I cued them a bar early and bless their little hearts they took the cue and sang in the wrong place. My fault entirely, and it’s what I would have wanted them to do. Fortunately I realised and held them for a bar and got them back in again without a problem. From there on we struggled through and got to the end of the opening chorus, after which there is the short scene with Mama Lucia and Santuza. Mama L was not singing out and Santuza was getting tired and starting to mark (sing off the voice and/or down an octave) and as a result it was difficult to hear what they were doing. Even so I was able to accompany them reasonably well and they were both watching me carefully.
The next scene is Alfio’s arrival, he sings with the chorus and then has the infamous back to front bit! The first section went well, he was watching and has a fine voice. At the back to front bit the orchestra played from muscle memory and got out with me, Alfio took my cue rather than followed the orchestra and came in exactly where I wanted him to, he held on manfully but after a few bars the inevitable happened and he got slightly out, this threw the chorus and the rest of the section was a shambles. Everybody was within half a bar of me, and the orchestra had now figured out what I was doing (beating 4 in a bar!) so at the end of the section (I was not lost) I gave a thumping big cue to Alfio and it all came back together. We finished the section, did the short recit at the end and that was the end of my 20 minutes.
I left the pit totally deflated, completely the opposite of Figaro. Too many things had gone wrong, it wasn’t a general rehearsal, it was a nightmare. All my fellow conductors felt the same way.
Between the end of the rehearsal and my writing this (the following morning) I have been rationalising and pondering. I often say that when auditioning singers I know within a few seconds whether I am interested in the voice. The rest of the audition is to separate the good ones from each other. The jury panel are all opera conductors and should know what they are looking at. If the conductor is being clear and has good technique but the orchestra and singers don’t have the technique to follow him what are they to think? Was he being clear and reasonable? Did he get flustered and was he able to put things right?
Results are posted late Saturday night, so I have plenty of time to reflect!
I ran straight through the opening duet of Figaro. The Susanna was delightful, she watched carefully and responded well to what I was doing. The Figaro read the dots from his score, and tended to be a little late on his entries. He did sound as though he knew the part so I politely pointed out that he was late and asked him to “close his book” which he happily agreed to do. After this he was always in time!
The second duet went well so I moved onto Figaro’s Cavatina “Se vuol balare”. Half way through the horns started to rush and got out with both me and the singer, so I stopped to put that right which took a minute or two. I remember how tricky this is for the horns from playing the piece many years ago. I also had to fix some violin pizz notes to give Figaro a little more time in one or two places. Then on to Bartolo’s aria which has much more to work on. I rehearsed the orchestra for a few moments to get them to play a little more marcato, there is an angry man on stage and I like the orchestra to reflect this. This worked fairly well so I brought the singer back in. To my surprise he got lost on a simple entry so I started again and gave him a slightly more vigorous cue at the entry he had missed. He was fine this time and we carried on until the cue light came on and my 20 minutes was up. I left the pit happy and feeling I had made an impression. The orchestra reacted well to what I wanted. Generally they played down and had to be encouraged to play up but did this when asked, they made a nice sound and played together. The principals also did what I asked of them. Their style and technique is rather different to what we are used to in the UK but this didn’t get in the way and I felt it was a successful rehearsal.
After conducting one’s segment of the opera the conductors are allowed to go into the theatre to listen to the other candidates. I did hear most of the others but here is not yet the right place to comment on them!
Cav was a different matter, conducting a general rehearsal of this opera with no previous work was not going to be easy. The style is very different and it is a much bigger sing, the rubati need time to work through with the orchestra and it all needs thorough rehearsal. I knew that this was going to be a big ask for all of us and so it proved. I was doing the first part of the opera from the chorus entry (not the prelude and Siciliano). The section has massive rubati and lots of gear changes. It all started well enough although the first rubato section was a little untidy, later on one of the principal wind players couldn’t follow a straightforward and standard rallentando, she appeared to be sight reading the opera! The offstage chorus bits just about worked, but if you are standing on top of the orchestra it can be difficult to hear anything offstage, but we got through it. When women arrived on stage they were set well back and looked about as bored and apathetic as one could wish. Well, this competition is going to be hell for them so I can’t really blame them. As least they were watching me for cues. At one point I cued them a bar early and bless their little hearts they took the cue and sang in the wrong place. My fault entirely, and it’s what I would have wanted them to do. Fortunately I realised and held them for a bar and got them back in again without a problem. From there on we struggled through and got to the end of the opening chorus, after which there is the short scene with Mama Lucia and Santuza. Mama L was not singing out and Santuza was getting tired and starting to mark (sing off the voice and/or down an octave) and as a result it was difficult to hear what they were doing. Even so I was able to accompany them reasonably well and they were both watching me carefully.
The next scene is Alfio’s arrival, he sings with the chorus and then has the infamous back to front bit! The first section went well, he was watching and has a fine voice. At the back to front bit the orchestra played from muscle memory and got out with me, Alfio took my cue rather than followed the orchestra and came in exactly where I wanted him to, he held on manfully but after a few bars the inevitable happened and he got slightly out, this threw the chorus and the rest of the section was a shambles. Everybody was within half a bar of me, and the orchestra had now figured out what I was doing (beating 4 in a bar!) so at the end of the section (I was not lost) I gave a thumping big cue to Alfio and it all came back together. We finished the section, did the short recit at the end and that was the end of my 20 minutes.
I left the pit totally deflated, completely the opposite of Figaro. Too many things had gone wrong, it wasn’t a general rehearsal, it was a nightmare. All my fellow conductors felt the same way.
Between the end of the rehearsal and my writing this (the following morning) I have been rationalising and pondering. I often say that when auditioning singers I know within a few seconds whether I am interested in the voice. The rest of the audition is to separate the good ones from each other. The jury panel are all opera conductors and should know what they are looking at. If the conductor is being clear and has good technique but the orchestra and singers don’t have the technique to follow him what are they to think? Was he being clear and reasonable? Did he get flustered and was he able to put things right?
Results are posted late Saturday night, so I have plenty of time to reflect!
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