singing tours

[steinwaybaby]

anyone know if in england, they bring opera singers over here from the usa and have them sing in their opera houses for the summer?

steinwaybaby

[elspeth]

Not as such. Most 'serious' theatres shut for two or three months over the summer - unless you can book a real headliner, a star with serious audience-pulling power, there's no real trade over the summer. The audience is off on holiday or doing other things with the long light evenings... The theatres that do stay open are either the seaside ones who generally have pretty tacky variety shows, or the few remaining who've managed to find a fairly sellable show cheap enough. The theatre I work for does a season of murder mystery plays, mostly Agatha Christies - it's a company that do it every year with battered old sets, but they're very cheap and have a small following among people who like theatre but don't like the city centre on dark winter nights. The productions are so cheap to put on that even playing to half-houses we just about break even.

Unless you're touring as a singer (putting your own professional-quality show on) in your own right, in which case your promoter has as much chance as anyone else of booking you a tour, the answer's no for all practical purposes. Even if most theatres were open, the serious opera companies don't put shows on over the summer, either, they go on their holidays so they can work solidly through the winter season. Of course, you'd have to audition with everyone else for their shows anyway. And unfortunately, in this day and age, people will only turn out in numbers to see an operatic soloist if it's one of the real stars.

The only thing that springs to mind is the busking spots in Covent Garden, which do continue to work through the summer. If you get a pitch you get half an hour a couple of times a day (I think - never actually done it) in a prime location in London, bring your own CD player and backing tracks. If the crowd are feeling generous and you're good enough, you can make most of your expenses back.

Sorry not to sound optimistic, but theatres are interested in making money and opera's expensive. Unless you want to see if you can get a spot in a seaside variety show, although they'll probably already have booked all their acts, or to try your hand at busking, odds are nobody'll have you because they won't make money from you. Such is life, unfortunately.

[steinwaybaby]

ok i didn't know.....thanks for the info

do you know of any opera house that take over seas singers during their season?

[elspeth]

Depends what you want to do, really. For the vast majority of paid work you audition with everyone else - the ads in The Stage (https://www.thestage.co.uk) are a good place to start. As long as you're legal to work over here you've as good a chance as anyone. You'll have to come over here and take the risk though - obviously nobody is going to offer you parts until they've heard you sing. And unless you're phenomenally lucky, most professional opera companies only really advertise for their choruses. You'll see very few ads for the proper roles with the good companies (the major ones are usually filled by invitation).

Besides The Stage, all you can really do is mailshot the opera companies. That'll very rarely be the theatre itself, if you put 'English opera companies' into google or something similar you should find there are a lot of opera companies about. The main ones are the Royal Opera, English/Scottish/Welsh Nationals, Glyndebourne, and Opera North. There are also companies that specialise in particular repertoire, for instance D'Oyly Carte who do Gilbert and Sullivan or Carl Rosa, who are also an operetta-based company. Send your CV to as many companies as you can and you may just get lucky. But they'll still want to hear you sing first - possibly a CD'd be a good idea if you're going to follow the mailshot route. Also a good, recent photo. It'll add to the expense but if you don't include them, the best you'll get will be a 'thanks but we need to see and hear you before we'll offer you anything'.

[pianistimo]

elsbeth knows her stuff. 

do singers get drafted into opera sometimes, too?  say at the uni - do they visit recitals and pick draftees to come and sing parts?  or, do teachers often recommend students.  or are main parts always given to long-time opera divas?  how does one 'get in' usually? a friend of a friend?

[elspeth]

A lot of people get auditions and in some cases roles via their teacher. If your teacher teaches the leading light of an opera company, they'll talk about the forthcoming productions and your teacher may just suggest you, or you may meet them if they have the lesson before or after you... like most branches of the arts, there's a lot of nepotism in opera. Friends, relatives and teachers count for a lot, which is unfortunate for the rest of the population!

There's also a certain amount of leeway depending which voice you sing. Men are always in higher demand because there tend to be less men studying to a high enough level, and especially basses as they're rare anyway.

In the UK, if you can get into it, the brightest future is by studying for a first degree in music and then applying to the Opera Studio in London for postgrad. There is a general perception that the cream of the new talent gets found at the Studio - they put on a concert last season at a music college near where I live and the students were phenomenal. They'll all be on a firm footing to go for proper roles rather than chorus after they graduate from the Studio, partly because it's a great training but mostly because all the great and the good in the opera world go to their showcases. Most other students aren't that lucky. There is a certain amount of headhunting from other student productions but not enough to make anything a certainty - a lot depends on which college you go to, as the operatic top brass only go to the colleges with top-flight reputations. It helps to pick a college where somebody high up in an opera company you aspire to is a govenor, there's a good chance they'll come to your graduation show if nothing else.

For one of the big opera companies, you want at least one star if you possibly can - for Covent Garden that includes people like Placido Domingo, Renee Flemming, Bryn Terfel et al. Most opera companies also have a group of regular soloists who will get first refusal on the best roles - people they've worked with before, so the company knows that singer is good, professional and reliable. There are also singers who specialise in particular repertoire - Wagner or Verdi particularly, and those few singers get the first phone call when someone stages a major new production from that repertoire.

[pianistimo]

thanks!  just curious.