Triumphant return from Chicago

Hello all,
After returning from Chicago, I can truthfully say it was a magnificent and triumphant trip. My wife and I loved the city of Chicago, the Chicagoans, and of course, the people at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

We flew into Chicago Friday morning and touched down at 7am Chicago time (this meant a 6am flight EST). We were exhausted after taking this early flight and made sure to get some rest for my pending audition. We were able to get some breakfast and head off to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was quite impressive. The collection of artwork rivals anything I have seen in any gallery around the world. After seeing the museum, we got some rest and then had some dinner...Deep dish Chicago style pizza is amazing. I can see why it is so popular; we definitely don't have anything like this on the East Coast. After dinner, we strolled around a part of the city of the North Side called, 'The Loop' and walked thru some gorgeous parks and saw Lakeshore Drive before turning in for the evening.

Saturday was a day of rest mostly until my audition at the Lyric. We had some breakfast, walked on Lakeshore Drive and while my wife went off to shop, I prepared for my audition. I can honestly say that this audition was a blast. The panel (Gianna Rolandi and Dan Novak) made me feel like they had been waiting all day to hear me and that we had been friends for many years. I really appreciated this because quite often (and understandably so) audition panels can appear disinterested because of the gross number of people they are hearing. At this audition, I really felt they were glued to my singing.

For the audition, I opened with, 'Ah! mes amis' and that went really well. I applied what I learned from the people in Paris: used the whole stage, tried to be as outwardly expressive as possible (even when it feels like it is too much), and above all, tried to entertain the panel. After this first aria, they proceeded to ask for, 'Ah! je vais l'aimer' from Beatrice and Benedict. I must admit I was completely shocked they would ask for 2 French pieces (and also happy they would ask for a 2nd aria). I had expected them to hear something different than French, but happy regardless since French is a language best suited to my voice. This aria went well as well and after finishing this aria, the pianist stopped me and made a few suggestions for next time.

His suggestions were quite informative. Often as singers, we try and find the most authoritative scores from which to work and make the most educated artistice decisions. I chose to use the Barenreiter edition for Beatrice and Benedict, however what I did not take into account was the difficulty in this edition. Although this edition is noted for being a critical edition, the piano reduction contains practically every note in the orchestra and makes it nearly impossible to play (something I had not considered). He suggested next time I use the Kalmus edition for this opera as it is paired down much more simply for the pianist. Suggestion noted and now I will certainly go through my audition notebook and try and weed out the editions that are too notey.

After my audition, we headed off to dinner at 'Dick's Last Resort' on the water. I certainly recommend this place as they had great food and drinks. I had some ribs that melted right off the bone. Finally, we walked to see the Sear's Tower and then finally turned in an early evening since yet again we had an early morning flight.

In all, I was really pleased with this trip and I know this is the direction I want to head in future auditions. Hopefully, I will be called back for the finals in September, but if nothing else, this trip was a blast.