Update!

So I have been terrible about updating this blog! I have had so many things going on, and I promise to be better once I get back to Deutschland. I am sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for my flight to board. As I mentioned earlier, I am going back to Germany! I have a contract starting on Jan. 12th with a Junges Musikteather which caters to people who don't know a lot about opera. I am doing a four person version of The Magic Flute where I will be singing Pamina and one of the ladies as it is only a four person version. They are giving me a free place to stay as well as paying me....not much, but I am getting paid which is exciting! This will be a great first job for me, so that I may improve my German. I am heading back to stay with the Rau's for a few nights, and then go to Lueneburg first which is a city near Hamburg for an audition to sing Despina in Cosi fan Tutte with the Staatsoper in Lueneburg. I am super excited about this audition as I have already sung the role, and it would be great to sing again....even though it might be in German which would suck since I know it in Italian. After my audition, the director of my mini-Zauberflote is picking me up to take me to Hamburg and I go directly into rehearsals that same day. We have a solid month of rehearsals before the show goes up.....I think my German will get a lot better as I believe I am the first American they have hired. During the rehearsal period I will be making my way to Koeln and Bremen for operastudio auditions. So busy busy busy for me! I am so happy to be going back to Germany and seeing what will happen. I wish all of you wonderful success for the New Year, and keep in touch! Bis Bald!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy belated Turkey Day to all of my American friends and family! I am writing this entry from Prague where I am visiting my friend Jen from high school. I have not seen her for 5 years, so I am so excited to be here visiting this lovely city and spending time with her and her friends. Last night, we had a total international Thanksgiving.....3 Americans, 1 Brit, 1 guy from Denmark, a Hungarian and a Slovakian. So cool! Jen made the Turkey and her roomate made a sweet potato pie, which she informed us took hours to look for sweet potatoes....apparently they are hard to come by here. It was so cool meeting all of Jen's international friends....that is what I love about being over here in Europe....meeting all different kinds of people....so cool. I must admit, that this was actually my second Thanksgiving while being here. Wednesday night, I went over to one of Lisa Rau's friends house for a German Thanksgiving.....it was so cool! Germans really don't do Turkey Day but all of her friends thought it would be cool to do. It was definitley Thanksgiving with a German twist...... being that Rotkraut (sweet version of sour kraut) and Potato Knuedel were included. It was a delicious meal, and I got to spend the whole evening listening to German conversation.....I am starting to understand a lot more, so that was kind of cool.

So, on the audition end of things.....I went to Duessldorf last Monday for an audtion which was incredibly stupid. 15 singers were there auditioning and all got there at 3:30. There was no warm up space, the building wasnt heated, and I waited 2 1/2 hours to sing....so needless to say, was not the best audition of my life, but nonetheless, I was still pleased.

Other than that, nothing too new going on here. I am going out with Jen and her friends tonight to downtown Prague, so that should be good times. I hope you are all well and are not shopping too much today on Black Friday! Bis Bald!

Yeah, so its been forever!

Wow has it really been two weeks since I last updated?? I have been sooooo busy and it is such a pain in the butt to get internet around here....but nontheless.....let me update you all.

Soooo...so since my last update I actually received an offer! *insert happy dance here* It is for a small chamber opera company that also does small operas for children.....they offered me to sing the role of Pamina in a four person version of The Magic Flute.....it is a small company, but a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door and to practice my German, which has been the main critique thus far by the agents whom I have auditioned for. The first performance is in February with a month rehearsal period prior. I am still finding out all the information and attempting to get a work permit.....so I will know more information later. I was just happy to get my first offer....yay!

After recieving this lovely news, I traveled to Berlin to audition for another ZAV agent, the same state company my agent in Hamburg works for. The audition went great, but they told me because I am still very young, it will be hard to get a fest job....which is the job I am really going for.....so like my agent in Hamburg, they are suggesting for me to look into some operastudios and audition for some private agents.....after this audition they sent me some information over email about a summer program to audition for which has a small role in Carmen that I may be good for. While in Berlin, I stayed with my friends Chris and Alison from CCM....I had a blast with them....Berlin is such a cool town and it was cool to see lots of history that we read about in books actually in front of me.

After my Berlin audition, I had an audition in Würzberg, near Nürenberg. This was for a summer festival again, a good audition but the funny thing was that they wanted me to sing Queen of the Night for The Magic Flute, which is entirely too high for me....but was funny nonetheless. After this audition, I spent the night in Nuremburg with my friend Natalie and her host family, Caroline and Ralph....it was a great time and fun to hang out for a bit.

So....now I am back in Wiesbaden staying with the amazing Rau family....they have been a true blessing in my life, and I am so happy to have gotten to know them.....and continuously thank my cousing Emily for introducing me to them! Next Monday I have an audition in Dusseldorf for another agent and then Dec. 7th I am back to Berlin for the Opern studio Unter den Linden program.....which is run by famous conductor Daniel Barenboim.....I am really excited about this audition. I also recieved a call to jump into a role from the company I may be doing Pamina with last night, but it was for a role that was too low for my voice....but am glad that I am on their minds......so that is pretty much it for now....I am sad I will not be with my family for Thanksgiving....but am going to be in Prague with my friend Jen from high school....it will be so nice to celebrate Turkey Day with another American :) I hope you are all well and are enjoying pre Thanksgiving fun! Bis Bald!

Big Update

What a whirlwind adventure these past few weeks have been! I have not updated in a while because I have been super busy! But nonetheless.....I have lots of catching up to do....soooo here we go!
My time in Weimar ended last Monday.....it was SO FANTASTIC! I had some great lessons with John (aka MUJ) and also had them recorded and put onto my computer. Now, for me, there is nothing worse than watching myself on tape, but it was so informative! I learned so much from watching myself....it was fantastic. I also got to see Damon (the director of the program I was at this past summer) which was hillarious as always. So....after awesome lessons and 4 days of watching American TV and election coverage, Natalie and I left Weimar last Monday at 6 am to get a train to Bad Kreuznach where our next audition was. Bad Kreuznach is VERY small town near Wiesbaden where I am staying. When we arrived, we found the bus that would take us to our location and then were dropped off in a residential neighborhood....at this point, we had no idea where to go because we thought we had the directions to the audition, but it was the directions to the Youth Hostel...after some curse words, we decided to walk and see what we could find. God was looking out for us, because as we were walking with all of our crap (note to self: never pack more than two pairs of shoes and two outfits ever again.....I thought I was going to die carrying all of my crap) and a nice lady pulled over and asked if we needed a ride. I was in my heels and dress, so needless to say I said yes with no problem. The only directions we had were to the youth hostel, and a house number near the youth hostel. So she took us to this house....and after ringing the doorbell for 2 minutes, a woman told us that the auditions were going on...get this.....at the youth hostel! We just never thought that the auditions would actually take place at a youth hostel......so we finally get there, and see that there are about 6 people in front of us....so we sign up.....and then waited...and waited....FOR 4 HOURS! It was crazy! The reason this took so long was because unlike in America, the agents talk to you and give you feedback after you sing, which is great.....but this woman took FOREVER to get through people. So when it was finally my turn, I started with Mein Herr Marquis...which was kinda crap because I had been waiting for so long and there was no place to warm up. So I learned not to start with that aria.....but surprisingly she liked Mein Herr Marquis....said I am singing the perfect fach.....then she heard Quando men vo.....and that went fantastic....after that she told me I had the perfect timbre and look for the roles I was going for and will call me when she hears anything for my fach...I was very excited! So now, I just wait.....so not so bad.....2 out of 3 agents want to work with me....yay! Well I must go now....will update more exciting news later...Bis Bald!

Happy Birthday Grandpa :)

Wanted to post a special birthday wish to my Grandpa who's birthday is this weekend! Wish I was there to help celebrate! Love you Gramps!

Good Ol' Weimar

Not much action going on here recently. I have been in Weimar for the past two days recovering from a cold. I have been staying with my Helden Tenor friend John Keyes who is busy getting ready to sing Siegfried at the Weimar Staatsopernhouse. He is a fantastic Tenor, and I was able to watch some of his DVD performance from Siegfried while here, which has been fantastic. He also has a coolinvention here called Slingbox, which allows him to get all American TV via Satellite....so I have been catching up on Election stuff and Heroes. I have been a total couch potato, but am today finally feel like I am getting back to myself...Thank God! This evening, Natalie and I went over to the Lyric Opera Studio house to have lessons with John, which was FANTASTIC! I was so glad my voice worked today....even sick, I was still able to sing and get some great work with him. We were able to record ourselves too, so it will be good to watch our lessons on video. It truly has been a nice relaxing time.....Natalie and I leave here Monday morning at 6am for our next audition in Bad Kreuznach, which is a small town near Wiesbaden, where I am staying with the fantastic German family. Will update more once I audition on Monday......Bis Bald!

2 down....8 to go!

I am not sure if I can put into words the insanity of these past few days.....wow, what an experience! It has been tough keeping this thing updated as I have been on the road so much with not a whole lot of internet tme......so let me get you all up to date.

My first audition was three days ago in Munich.....I auditioned for Barbara Gulzlow, an agent based out of Munich. Natalie and I arrived at the audition with our friend Benoit right on time. I was amazed that to meet 2 other American singers there! It was really cool....they were all quite a bit older than me but really nice to talk to....that is the first thing I noticed.....everybody who was auditioning was A LOT older than me.....probably like mid 30's to late 40's....it was crazy. There were only 12 of us there....and everybody sounded really amazing! Totally different from the normal young artist program auditions I have been doing the past few years.....these people sounded really pollished.....it was all quite overwhelming. Needless to say though, I had a great audition and was able to get through speaking a bit of German as well which was exciting. I found out after that the agent enjoyed my audition, but unfortunantley has no more room for my voice type on her roster....oh well it was a great experience for me anyways :) The next day, I attempted to crash an agency audition but was unsuccesful.....I will be singing for them later on in the month in Leipzig. After the attempted crashing, Natalie and I headed to Hamburg where we were staying that night and then having an audition the next day. Now, let's talk about where our Hotel was......what Natalie and I liked to call "sex strasse" because it was a ton of strip clubs and hustler like stores.....it was actually pretty hillarious.....I guess they are not too modest over here when it comes to that stuff.....we took pictures though, because we couldn't believe that this was where our hotel was located.....nonetheless, the hotel was actually awesome! Very comfortable and clean. I was happy, even though the location was in the middle of the sex strip. In Hamburg, I auditioned for Florian Fellner, the agent who heard me when I was in Weimar. I was the first person to go, and he told me that there were some people from a local newspaper who wanted to watch my audition and then interview me afterwards.....so I will now be in a local paper in Hamburg.....how cool is that?? The audition went fantastic! I started with Quando m'en vo and then they asked for O waer ich schon, from Fidelio. After I sang they corrected a minor diction problem and told me I sang really well and am singing the perfect repetoire, which was great to hear. Florian was also glad that my German had gotten better since Weimar, because I know that was a big problem of his. They told me that postings for auditions for Fest contracts don't come out until Nov 12th and that they will email me when they hear about any auditions coming up, which is great news to hear! They did tell me that my voice type, which is very popular, does not have as many openings in houses as other voice types, which I knew. They also invited me to this audition of 60 singers in March who are able to sing for a ton of different houses all at once, whcih would be a great opportunity for me.....they said meanwhile, they know of an opera studio in Bremen which would be good for me to audition for.....it is a new program which lasts for 2 years (although you don't have to stay the whole time) and would help me greatly with my German along with having a place to work at. They said because I am still so young that it might be good to do a stuido program, just so that I could stay here legally for a year or two, which I am totally cool with....so we will see. Good news is they want to work with me, and will hopefully be sending some things my way in November :)

So.....I am now sitting here in Weimar at John Keyes's place enjoying some down time.....I am going to get to work with him over the next few days on my audition rep which will be great. Unfortunantley, I woke up this morning with a cold :( I have been busy taking some Wal-greens meds that John has from the states which I am hoping will aid me in a quick recovery. My next audition is on Monday, so I should be ready to go by then after having a few days of rest here in Weimar. It really takes a lot of energy to do all these auditions.....anyways, I guess that is it for now! Will keep you all informed :)

Bis Bald!!
Lisa