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

Fun in Munich!

Can I just say how much I love Munich? If I could live in this city, I would be a very happy camper. Munich is truly the heart of Bavaria.......the sterotype of Germany with the Huge Steins of Bier, Potato Pancakes, and Schnitzel. It is a beautiful city with so much history! I arrived here yesterday with Natalie after riding the train from Wiesbaden to Nuremberg and then from Nuremberg to here. I am staying with the lovely talented fantastic coach Michal and his boyfriend Mattie from Ireland. Very International here.....I love it! Last night, we went to a lovely Italian Restaurant in the heart of Munich and had some fantastic cuisine...along with some equally fantstic Hefferweissen :) This morning, Natalie and I woke up at 7 because the only time to coach with Michal was from 8-9.....too early for singing! But, I must say for singing arias like Mein Herr Marquis and Quel gualro il cavalliere at 8 am , I was pretty happy! Michal had some wonderful things to say, so I feel great about going into my first audition tommorow :) We have to be there at 11:00 tommorow, so that should be a piece of cake compared to today. I am super excited....it will be a great experience. I will keep you updated after the first audition, and in the immortal words of Heldentenor John Keyes.......I LOVE AUDITIONS!!! Bis bald!

Ich bin in Deutschland!

So, after two days of extreme jet lag, I feel like I am now finally adjusted! I got in to Germany two days ago after flying the wonderful Air Canada......I must say, Canadians sure know how to do flights! I was uber impressed! Comfy seats, tv's on the backs of seats.....fantastic! As amazing as the plane ride was, I only ended up getting about an hour of sleep.....so when I finally got into Germany, I was a total zombie. The Rau family is absolutely AMAZING!!! They are so welcoming and awesome! I feel right at home here.....they have been helping me a ton with my German which has been great. I went to see that new Richard Gere and Diane Lane movie last night with their daughter, Lisa, auf Deutsch! I probably understood about 75 % of it, so I was happy......sad but good movie I must say. So anyways.....so far so good! I leave for Munich tommorow with a stop in Nuremberg first to see Natalie, and then we are both going to stay with our friend Michal and have him coach the crap out of us b4 our audition on Sunday.....afterwards I think we are going to have a little Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar reunion with Nadine and Benoit, which should be fun.....no night of champions but it will be fun none the less! I will keep u all updated after the audition......Bis bald!

Lisa

So, I gave in...

I am one of those people who never thought I would succumb to the internet phenomenon known as "blogging." I was the one making fun of these bloggers picturing crazy people sitting in dark rooms with their eyes glued to their computer screens, living in this virtual realm of reality. Ok, I know that seems a little overdramatic, but now I have come to see that many normal/non-computer geeks blog.....and more importantly, I will be using this to keep all my friends and family informed of my European adventures and audition experiences while in Germany and Austria. As much as I would love to personally email each and every one of you, we all know I am not the best at staying in touch with people.

To give a little background, I am leaving next Monday for approximately 2 months for an audition tour throughout Germany (and now Austria as well). So far, I have 10 agent auditions lined up, which I will eventually lead to house auditions. Thanks to my cousin Emily, I will be staying with the lovely Rau family in Frankfurt while I am there. Emily had a foreign exchange student, also named Lisa, who I met two years ago when she stayed with Emily and her family. Emily then went to visit Lisa's family 2 summer's ago and last summer. Since I was in dire need of a place to stay, Emily gave me Lisa's contact info. After explaining my story to her family, they were gracious enough to let me stay with them while I travel around auditioning and being a starving artist. I am super excited to stay with them, as well as practice my German. (Meine Deutsch braucht viel hilfen!)

So....I am spending my 4 remaining days with my family and friends, enjoying D.C, Starbucks and Mexican food while I still can, interspersed with practicing arias and learning as much German as is feasibly possible. I will update more once I get to Germany, as that is where the real fun will begin. Bis nächstes Mal!