Opera Coaching

Professional Techniques for the Répétiteur

Alan Montgomery

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367408848
• eBook ISBN: 9781000764697
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Opera Coaching: Professional Techniques for the Répétiteur, Second Edition, is an update to the first practical guide for opera coaches when working with opera singers to help them meet the physical and vocal demands of a score in order to shape a performance. Opera coaching remains a mystery to many musicians. While an opera coach (or répétiteur) is principally tasked with ensuring singers sing the right notes and words, the coach's purview extends well beyond pitches and pronunciation. The opera coach must have a full understanding of human physiognomy and the human voice, as well as a knowledge of the many languages used in Western vocal music and over four centuries of opera repertoire – all to recognize what must happen for success when a singer steps on stage.

NEW to this second edition:

• New and updated chapters throughout, featuring new discussions on large ensembles, twenty-first-century demands, and more.
• Deeper investigation of the styles of and problems posed by particular operas.
• Revised chapter structure that allows for an expanded and progressive emphasis on technical work.

Modern singers have bemoaned the scarcity of good vocal coaches and conductors – those who understand voices and repertoire alike. Opera Coaching: Professional Techniques for the Répétiteur, Second Edition, demystifies the role of the opera coach, outlining the obstacles facing both the opera singer and the coach who seeks to realize the performer's full potential.

Part I

Techniques

This section begins with the entry-level job of collaborative pianist for accompanying in auditions and possibly for recitals. Then it covers the basic techniques needed to coach soloists and ensembles. It also covers how to accompany rehearsals. Although there will be specific areas covered for certain composers, most of those stylistic differences will be covered in Part II. The chapters have been broken down into smaller units for this revised edition in the hope that locating references to solutions will be easier.

1

Auditions

Accompanying and Playing for Auditions – The Collaborative Pianist

An important introduction to playing for singers is accompanying voice lessons and playing for auditions, either live or recorded. The best accompanists help establish steady rhythmic sense, allowing the singer to have a strong sense of where the pulse of the music is. A good accompanist can also bring out colors in the piano that allow a singer to become acutely aware of orchestral colors that are part of the accompaniment, even if the score is not a reduction. Solo repertoire also has references to orchestral sounds. For example, the opening of Beethoven’s E♭ Major sonata, “Les Adieux,” is definitely a reference to “horn fifths” – those notes naturally available in the overtone series of a French horn.

During the activity of accompanying, a pianist becomes aware of dramatic and musical aspects that comment on what the singer sings. During rehearsals, a pianist and singer can discuss such things, giving reason to why singers choose to stretch certain phrases or have trouble pronouncing certain texts. A singer sometimes needs to tell the pianist why they want to underline a text for emphasis – which is accomplished by either slowing down or a change in dynamics. Accompanists need to feel at ease about offering ideas, both musical and dramatic, on a piece, ideas a singer might not otherwise consider. These moments become the entry into the realm of coaching.

An accompanist might, at such moments, impress on the singer reasons why they can’t slow down. This may involve aspects of style, form, or even dramatic utterance. There is some literature in which the singer’s ideas rule and other literature where the composer and structure take precedence. Accompanists learn to understand these problems well, because they must support the singer through those musical points. The more pianists accompany, the more they help singers find details of expression in performing the texts to the best effect. Coaching is all about the search for the ideal, where understanding a situation dramatically might collide with vocal perfection. Searching for personal expression allows the singer to put forth their musical and dramatic concept of an aria or scene – or even a song.

Bear in mind that being a singer is one of the most difficult jobs there is; instrumentalists don’t realize the inherent problems that a singer faces. A singer, even in song literature, must act and react in a language frequently not their own, simultaneously singing with perfection music that is sometimes difficult vocally and musically, and doing so from memory. Singers must sing in most of the European languages, and even other languages. Whether in opera or songs, other languages come into play. Unlike instrumentalists, the singer is also their own instrument. If they are under the weather, they must still perform. Only oratorio literature allows the singer to hold and read from their music.

Virgil Thompson, noted critic and composer, once gave a lecture at Indiana University, one I attended. He stated that “singers should never act, only react.” His point was a good one, albeit simplified. The singer should alertly react to the stimuli the music and drama gives rather than settling into a preconceived mindset of what the character should be, staying fixed in that framework no matter what.

Accompanying a recital means jumping through three or four styles in the space of an hour. The awareness of baroque style may give way to classical style, followed by late-Romantic style and even more modern style – say works from the first half of the twentieth century. Composers are still writing new music, and that means accompanists must stretch their abilities to ever broader horizons. And they must sight-read much of that literature.

Accompanying auditions speeds that process up. It isn’t unheard of to veer from Dowland to Britten, from Schumann to Debussy, from Mozart to Barber. And that covers only one hour – and possibly only one audition! The other difficulty comes in making each style individual, bringing out the nuance and beauty of the piece to aid the singer in the audition. Let us turn to that.

The Art of Auditioning – Helping the Singer Audition Well

Singers get jobs by auditioning. They will frequently come to coaches, teachers, and accompanists for advice about what to sing, how to present their music to the accompanist, and even how to make the auditioning process a happier event. This section has information for both the singer and for the accompanist. Coaches can benefit by passing this on to singers of all age groups and experience. A singer needs to take only a little time to think through the following information to realize that auditioning should not be ten minutes of terror.

Let us begin by saying that playing for a series of auditions, sight-reading every piece that comes in, can be a nerve-racking time for the pianist. The singer can become rattled, too, but that should be minimized by complete memorization of the music they are going to perform. It takes a cool disposition for the pianist to be both objective and subjective at the same time. Still, the good accompanist can sight-read, follow, and be musically supportive.

And some can’t! Auditions do occur where the accompanist should never have been hired without auditioning themselves. I once attended the state-wide theater auditions for the Indiana Theatre Association in Indianapolis. The assigned accompanist was rigid, played with no understanding of the repertoire (mostly Broadway genre), and could not follow or keep up with singers at the tempo they needed. One after another singer coped as well as they could. One young man was singing “Metaphor” from The Fantasticks. About halfway through his audition he waved his hand dismissively, saying effectively, “Forget it, I’m going to sing at my tempo and ignore the pianist.” I was told later that he was reflecting the general opinion of every producer there.

This section is hopefully for accomplished pianists who can play a variety of music. It also aims to allow singers and accompanists to understand how to deal with the variety of challenges that a singer (and accompanist) face in auditions.

A singer needs to know why they are auditioning. Do they want a particular role with a company or in their high school/college? Are they auditioning for a performing group? Are they trying to get into college? Are they singing for a competition? Every audition has different goals and parameters, and the singer needs to define those goals before deciding on the repertoire to be sung. This is true even at the highest level of opera auditions.

Once the reason for auditioning is defined, a singer must find the repertoire that matches the requirements set forth by the organization they are auditioning for. This may mean singing a number from a given opera, or, more likely, it will include a list of required variety: oratorio aria, song literature, opera aria – in a variety of styles and languages. A usual number of pieces for the repertoire list is five, but more are not out of the question.

Singers should realize that, no matter how hard pieces in the Broadway repertoire are to sing, some places ban that repertoire. It is generalizing, but many Broadway songs are more about putting the dramatic situation and personality of the character across than showing vocal splendor or precision. Broadway producers would rather hear an “old classic” from Rodgers and Hammerstein or Cole Porter than someone attempting to sing the most modern songs. Producers want to hear good voices and personality. The Broadway ban in other situations simplifies the audition process with no “except for” being necessary.

Accompanists are usually expected to have a wide range of literature in their repertoire, whether for colleges or for companies. The repertoire won’t remain the same from place to place, but it will remain consistent for single venues from audition to audition. Certain arias can be expected at any time, particularly in the lyric soprano repertoire, as can the famous Italian songs. Beyond those, there are certain standards in all vocal Fachs (the German word for vocal classification and categorizing of repertoire – see Appendix A). If a company is planning a particular opera, it makes sense to program something from that opera or, at the very least, from that composer. Hopefully one can assume that the coach knows the requisite excerpts.

In choosing their selections, singers need to keep a few rules in mind. These aren’t rules set by organizations, but they reflect common sense and reality on audition day. Coaches can advise on these rules for repertoire.

Rule one is to keep to the literature for one voice type. Mixing mezzo-soprano and soprano literature shows that the singer doesn’t know the difference, or else isn’t sure who she is. It might also indicate poor teaching. At a recent audition I attended, a singer paired the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor (high soprano) with the Habanera from Carmen (lower mezzo-soprano). It was an awkward mistake, funny in all the wrong ways.

Another singer, programming for the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, wanted to pair Anne Trulove’s aria from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Zerbinetta’s aria from Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. She said she could sing them both. The problem was that, while they are nearly the same vocal type, they are not the same vocal type. More importantly, she could not possibly sing them back to back. Those sorts of considerations must be made because, if a singer takes the chance that they will not have to sing both, they will inevitably be called on to do so.

Rule two involves practicality as well. Can an accompanist sight-read a piece accurately without advance notice? Zerbinetta’s aria from Ariadne auf Naxos is very long, and while the accompaniment isn’t hard to play, it is difficult to play well at sight. I was once presented with the task of a Rachmaninoff song, one I could not have played well after a week of practice, let alone at sight. I faltered, and the audition was marred. I didn’t feel apologetic, because it was a poor choice of repertoire for that reason. Another soprano sang “Do I Hear an Army?” by Barber. I got through it, but I won no medals. It does not take much ingenuity to email or phone an organization and ask for a way to alert an accompanist that a piece is being programmed. For song literature, it is advisable, while contacting the accompanist, to tell them in what key a piece will be sung.

Similarly, a coach should advise the singer to avoid singing any aria or song they aren’t ready to sing to their best ability. The second-act aria “Voi, che sapete,” for the character Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart, is a standard audition number for sopranos and high mezzos. Dramatically it is almost an audition aria in the opera, too. It is easier to sing than Cherubino’s first act aria “Non so più cosa son.” In addition to the fact that this aria can go at a variety of tempos, some of which leave the singer breathless, it also has frequent high Gs. This is not a difficult note for most sopranos, but mezzos can find it tiring to sing.

Two other rules are of similar nature. The first concerns transpositions. Arias from operas should be performed in the original key. There are exceptions to this, but only for those arias that are frequently sung in higher or lower keys. A singer can bring a song to an audition in whatever key is best for them. However, a singer should never ask an accompanist to transpose literature at sight. This invites mistakes that can throw the singer. I always glance through the score before accompanying to familiarize myself with the key chosen by the singer and how this affects any unusual features of the song – such as any places where “out of key” moments occur. Some composers, notably Fauré, usually have such moments!

In like circumstances, singers shouldn’t ask an accompanist to realize a figured bass at sight. Some accompanists may never have had to do so. In addition, the accompaniment singers will get will be different to anything they have rehearsed with, which can thr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Musical Examples
• Preface
• Part I Techniques
• Part II Considerations
• Appendix A: A List of Vocal Fachs and Their Roles
• Appendix B: Notable and Recommended Editions
• Appendix C: Favorite Catch Phrases
• Annotated Bibliography
• About the Author
• Index