A Hold

Well, in what is quite possible the fastest turn-around from an audition in the history of auditions, the Met has asked my manager to "put a hold" on my schedule for several months next season. Aaaayyy!

What does that mean, exactly? At this point, it means that they are thinking of hiring me in some capacity – most likely covers, but maybe a very small role – for two operas in the 2006-2007 season. I know which ones, but don’t want to post here until I have the details. (They will be having a production meeting sometime in the next week or so to put the finishing touches on casting, and then I’ll know for sure.) Regardless, I could be in NY for almost four months in 2007 – working at THE MET!! Holy cow.

I got the call from my manager yesterday between rehearsals. I was planning on spending the hour-long dinner break studying my Ainadamar score and making sure I knew my blocking; last night’s rehearsal was a costumed run-through on the set and I would be singing Nuria. I was pretty nervous, because there were a few things that I missed musically at the Sitzprobe (there is some really hard music in this opera!), and I didn’t want to mess up again. But when I got that call, any hope of studying went right out the window!! I spent the hour talking with Erik and other family members, doing a fair amount of crying and laughing and saying “Can you believe it?” I made it to the theatre in time to get into costume and do some last minute cramming, but my mind was completely scattered. Fortunately, it turned out to be a very relaxed rehearsal, with even a bit of practical joking, so the fact that I didn’t get everything exactly right wasn’t a big deal.

I learned last night that the role of a cover, when stepping into a staging rehearsal, is not to give your most dramatic or musically moving performance ever. Your role is to give as much consistency to the production as you can so that the other performers don’t have to think about you. They can go about their staging – and their dramatic and musical performances – and try to get the most out of the rehearsal. Your job is to make their job easy. Of course, if you can manage to give a killer performance at the same time? All the better. I don’t know if I did that, exactly, but I did have the conductor ask me to sing for him again sometime soon, some of “my” music. So I did something right.

What an exciting time. And to think that I almost didn’t take this gig, doing Ainadamar at Lincoln Center. It just goes to show that you never know what good will come out of situation that may seem to have nothing to offer you. You just never know.

NOTE: I originally posted this using the new Blogger for Word feature, and found two major flaws: it didn't recognize my html tags, and didn't enable the Comments! Thanks to those of you who went the extra mile to let me know and wish me well. =]