Die deutsche Fassung ist hier
‘Once your reputation is ruined, you live quite uninhibitedly,’ said cabaret artist Werner Kroll in 1945, and he was often and gladly quoted.
This flippant bon mot may be funny, but unfortunately, it cannot be applied to our job. Once our good reputation is tarnished, rebuilding it will take a very long time.
What is the basis for a singer’s good reputation?
Assuming professional technical quality, I think three components nourish an artist’s reputation in musical theatre/concert life:
Behaviour in the theatre
Good preparation
A good, exceptional performance
Let’s take a closer look:
Behaviour in the theatre
We are all human and want to be treated well. This applies to all levels of the theatre hierarchy. It should be a matter of course to treat our technical colleagues just as kindly as the singers or KBB staff, our assistants, the cloakroom attendants and their assistants, the make-up artists, the canteen staff or the cleaning and maintenance team. People who are only friendly to ‘important people’ are perceived for precisely what they are: only friendly to important people. And why should I rush to help someone in an emergency who doesn’t even say hello to me on ‘normal’ days? We are ALL responsible for the working atmosphere of the opera house or concert venue where we work! And we can all contribute to improving people’s everyday lives by saying hello, asking how things are going and leaving our frustrations where they belong: at home. As soon as we enter the theatre, we no longer act only as private individuals but are active in helping shape our working environment. This also includes being on time. Colleagues who are regularly late (the car wouldn’t start, the train didn’t run on time, the alarm didn’t go off…) leave home too late regularly.
We are always part of a whole, and when everyone is high-quality, it helps the whole production. Being supportive of colleagues and not gossiping about absent persons (!) is a fine virtue.
If someone is ‘difficult’, the word gets around quickly and doesn’t help foster engagement. That doesn’t mean we should accept everything and not engage in discussions with colleagues or the director/conductor or fight for better working conditions, but ‘it’s not what you say, but how you say it’. Politeness and the willingness to accept other points of view are part of it.
There are situations in which this is very difficult—we have all been there—and sometimes, the only possible survival strategy is to swallow hard and wait for an annoying colleague, an unpleasant director or an unhelpful conductor to pass.
But if someone attacks you personally, you should set boundaries and clearly state, ‘I don’t wish to be spoken to in this way!’ Knowing how to command respect is also part of the job – and part of maintaining a good reputation.
Good preparation
Most of us arrive at the first rehearsal prepared as stated in our contracts (the guest already undertakes at the beginning of the rehearsals to come with the musically rehearsed part or similar). But there are always colleagues who, for whatever reason, turn up to the first rehearsal without having studied the music well. In most cases, the already overworked colleagues in the repetition have to make up for this and sacrifice additional hours of their lives during rehearsals to make up for what the singing guild should have worked on at home. Poor preparation is disrespectful!
What can help, though, is a strict learning plan: as soon as you are offered a role, prepare the piano score and make an overview of the piece, noting down how long the individual parts are approximately. This way, you can estimate how many months (!) you need to spread out your preparation, gradually ‘ticking off’ the parts of the role and arriving at the first rehearsal feeling relaxed. Only you know how quickly or slowly you learn…
Using Contessa as an example, it could look like this:
- Act I
Free / Make-up - Act II
Porgi amor
Rec. Veni, cara Susanna (medium-length)
Bravo, che bella voce (short)
Quante buffonerie (medium-length)
Terzetto(high C!)
Conte/Contessa (short)
Duettino (short)
Finale (long!) - Act III
Wardrobe time
E Susanna non vien – Dove sono(passaggio!)
Duet ‘Sull’aria’ (danger of mixing up the voices!)+ Rez (short)
Rez. after ladies‘ choir (medium)
’Finale (two sentences) - Act IV
Wardrobe time until after Figaro ’Aprite’
Rez (2 sentences)
Recital (short)and Finale (long, with the duet between Susanna and Figaro in the middle)
If you have an overview of all your pieces and start learning early, you may still have room in your head for a possible guest performance or a last-minute replacement.
Also, note that you learn less quickly with increasing age – while you might have been able to memorize something from midday to evening in the past, it simply won’t work later – I had to learn this the hard way during Peter Eötvös’s ‘Der Goldene Drache’ in Frankfurt. I was sometimes embarrassed during rehearsals when something had to be repeated because Ms Fassbender had f…up. Before ‘Dialogues des Carmélites’ in Strasbourg, I had a stage accident during the pre-production at the same theatre, with three broken ribs, which prevented me from learning well. Consequently, I was not well prepared. Had I started studying earlier, this would not have happened. That’s life, but it indeed didn’t feel very good!
Some colleagues will remain in my memory because of their impressively good preparation. They not only showed up for the first rehearsal with perfectly learned notes but also with authentic interpretations and were also open to ideas later on:
Natalie Dessay as Olympia in Paris, Patricia Petibon as Soeur Constance in Strasbourg, Michael Nagy as Frank/Fritz in Frankfurt and Pavol Breslik as Quint in Zurich.
It is probably no coincidence that these four singers have had/have outstanding careers…
What sticks in the mind of colleagues (and on the “grapevine” in the KBB and ultimately with the direction) is the joy or frustration of working with someone. Frustration due to a lack of preparation is not helpful for the working atmosphere at the theatre, and you might not be hired again, even if the performances go ok afterwards.
The good performance
Now comes what we have been rehearsing for 6 weeks (or more): the performances.
- What is unique about you as an artist?
- How do you reach the audience?
- Do they see you as soon as you enter the stage?
- Do you have an artistic charisma?
- Is the colour of your voice stunning, particularly moving?
- Or do you have special ‘circus skills’ with high notes?
- Do you act particularly authentically?
- Can you evoke emotions in the audience?
- What is your special ‘touch’?
In short:
Is your overall artistic package exciting and unique?
Do you have recognition value as an artist?
All of this develops throughout a career. Take your time, but be sure to find your exceptional quality and your niche!
Well-sung and well-played performances underpin the reputation we had built up during the rehearsal period. But of course, they can’t make us forget when specific people disrupted the rehearsal atmosphere or when we had to wait around because someone hadn’t learned their part. If two singers are equally good and artistically similarly interesting, the one with the better reputation will be hired. Just as singers talk about houses, houses talk to each other and ask how it was to work with a particular singer.
WE ARE NOT AT THE MERCY OF OUR REPUTATION – LET’S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Thanks for reading, and see you soon,
Hedwig
