Many thanks for all the good wishes for my auditions. It’s been an interesting process and my double audition day last Monday was a strange one! It had all the regular audition day challenges (showing up at an unknown location in a new city, looking good and ready to sing) but also – as expected – it was a serious adventure in communication. Most of the confusion revolved around my audition for a certain major Berlin opera company.
Almost all of my communication with opera companies in Germany has been by e-mail. The single exception was a response by phone to an e-mail request I had sent for chorus auditions to Berlin’s three major opera companies: Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin and Staatsoper Berlin.
As anyone who has ever lived abroad knows, communicating with people face to face has a number of challenges, but talking on the phone is an altogether different skill level. So naturally, the first phone conversation that I ever have auf Deutsch is from the one of these major companies about a job I would really like to have: just after 9pm on a Wednesday night I get a call from a company whose title includes the words “Oper” and “Berlin” about coming in to sing. The chorus director introduces himself and after hearing my surprise, asks in English if I speak German. I am so eager to prove that I can work in Germany that I insist on continuing the conversation in German. After hacking my way through the brief conversation, I am so adrenalized that in the end I don’t know whether he has said he will call me next week about coming in to sing or if I am supposed to call him when I get back to Germany in the spring. I send a follow up e-mail the next day to the Deutsche Oper Berlin to thank them for their call and clarify some of the things I had attempted to communicate by phone.
A week and half later, the director calls again to ask me about coming in. This time I make sure that the call is not over until he has promised me an e-mail confirmation!
The night before my appointment, I reread the e-mail confirmation and realize that it the Staatsoper Berlin - not the Deutsche Oper - that had been calling me. Even though I had written down “Schiller Theater” in my notes from the phone conversation, it had just gotten stuck in my head as Deutsche Oper.
So last Monday, with one audition done, I went home to take a quick break and reset myself for the next round. Feeling refreshed and ready to go, I made my way across town to the theater. I found the stage door at the back and made my way to the chorus room. There was one other new mezzo hanging around by the door, and when the chorus director arrived, he instructed us to join the alto section in their rehearsal for an upcoming concert. It was an usual process, but I had been told that choristers are auditioned at rehearsals before the existing chorus, so I took it in stride and waited for whenever the designated audition time would be. Two hours of chorus rehearsal went by with no audition time. When it was over, I talked to the director (in German!) about the group and it turns out that I had been invited to join the Staatsoper Berlin Konzertchor, a volunteer group that performs a few concerts per year in the city. No audition necessary - no pay offered. And while there certainly are advantages to sitting in on any kind musical rehearsals in German, their first concert is not until two weeks after my flight back to the States. I explained that I would happily stay in Berlin longer if I found a job here, but since my visa is on the verge of expiration, I would otherwise have to leave at the end of November. He said there were unfortunately no positions currently available in the regular Staatsoper chorus, but I would be welcome get in touch with him in the spring.
Obviously my phone skills leave a lot to be desired since I missed out some pretty key elements of what that invitation was all about!
The following day, I was certainly disappointed that the audition I had the most hope for was not an audition at all. But after taking a few hours to mope around, I was surprised at how quickly I saw the comedy of the situation. I am also glad to have had the experience of stretching and extending my language usage in what was ultimately a low-risk situation: on the phone, in a music rehearsal and backstage at the opera house. Next time a major opera company calls me on the phone, I will be that much more prepared.
